If you haven’t been listening to Nike’s new podcast series about working out, you’ve been missing out on some incredible interviews, tips and tricks.
Nike Training Club’s new podcast, Trained, has incredible tips and tricks on fitness from a wide variety of experts. Professional athletes, nutritionists, coaches and scientists have all been featured on the show this year to provide their expertise on everything from staying safe in the gym to having a winning mindset on the court. Their most recent installment, “Staying Fit While Staying Home,” narrated by personal trainer and HIIT expert Kelsey Heenan, covers a lot of great tips and tricks for keeping up with your fitness while in quarantine. You can listen to the podcast in full here.
“The goal of this season is not to be perfect,” says Kelsey Heenan. “The goal of this season is to get a little better and stay healthy.”
That attitude reflects the beliefs of a lot of health professionals who have weighed in on the issue of working out during quarantine. If your body is accustomed to the professional equipment available at a gym, you’re unlikely to make the huge gains you were making before. Your mental health while being stuck at home during this time can also be very poor, so try not to make the situation harder on yourself by getting frustrated with your workout routines.
“Get a little better and stay healthy” is a great mantra for someone who’s looking to stay positive about the fitness situation under a stay-at-home order. Adjust your expectations to match your reality – you might not be able to lift huge weights, but there are still plenty of ways you can work out with household objects. Consider this a time of stasis in which you can preserve your fitness so that you’re ready to push yourself when you’re back in the gym instead of pushing yourself to make those gains now. It’s unlikely, especially with all the other stressors involved, that you’ll be able to give your full strength and attention to working out right now. And that’s okay.
Your attitude plays a huge role in your physical health. If you work against yourself during quarantine, you will cause carry a lot of extra stress that will have a very negative effect on your ability to work out. So, if you really want to focus on keeping your workout routine up, start by focusing on your own mental and emotional well-being. Those things are the foundation of any skilled athlete; feeling secure and comfortable with what you can achieve is the foundation of any successful person anywhere. Taking good care of yourself throughout quarantine will make it so that, when this is all actually over, you are in the best position possible to take advantage of going to the gym.
So, don’t beat yourself up about an already bad situation. Try to remain positive and do some light exercise where you can. And if you can’t, that’s just fine.
