Fitness in the New Normal

Since the pandemic, we have experienced drastic changes in our lives - carrying on all our chores from home, be it eating, working, or exercising. In this “New Normal'', we all have figured out ways to stay active, fit, and healthy while still being sane with the changes!

You can continue to work on your fitness goals at home by gathering any fitness equipment you have (weights, resistance bands, yoga mat, or more). Find an area at your home where you can get started with at-home exercises. If you lack this equipment for working out, these substitutes can work well for you: A small blanket or a towel — as a mat and canned veggies or some frozen water bottles — as weights.

There are many ways people have opted to work out at home during the pandemic and continue to do that. A few of them are:

Purchase gears online

To set up a home gym, you need to buy specific equipment, for example, a yoga mat, dumbbells, resistance band, or more, as per your requirement.

Incorporate different moves

Including moves like sit-ups, push-ups, wall sits, and squats will help you work on your arms and legs. Doing crunches and planks will add to your core and shoulder strength, while you can also jog at the place to burn some calories.

Use objects from home

There are many objects that we can use to work out at home. For triceps, dips, or calf raises; you can make use of a chair at home, while stairs in your house can be used for sprints or stretching.

Top 2021 Fitness Trends

1. Home Gyms

With gyms closed for months in 2020, many fitness enthusiasts invested their time and money into creating workout spaces at home. These spaces have allowed fitness enthusiasts to create a tailored home that serves all their workout needs. Additionally, working out at home has helped avoid the wastage of time and money to go to the gym or any potential health risks (contaminations, infections, etc.)

2. Holistic Fitness

Due to the pandemic, people have begun focusing more on their health. In this process, holistic programs have helped people a lot, as they focus on long-term and short-term fitness goals, including weight loss, immunity boost, heart health, and more. Holistic programs have helped strengthen their immune system, as it works on mental and physical wellbeing.

3. Wearable devices

Wearable devices have ascended in popularity over the past decade, and people rely on these devices to get detailed information about their health, sleep habits, workouts, and recovery. These devices have helped people work on their performance and improvements with time. Thus, users can keep track of their daily activities- be it indoors or outdoors.

4. Virtual Fitness

Although social distancing will still be followed throughout 2021 in many locations, fitness enthusiasts find different ways to train themselves and stay fit. There are numerous options, from digital at-home cycling programs to online workout communities, which have pre-recorded or live workout sessions conducted by expert fitness trainers.

Also Read: How to Stay Fit and Active During & After the Coronavirus Pandemic? 4 Tips to Workout at Home or Outside (A Simple Guide)

Nutrition Trends in 2021

1. Home Cooking

For most of 2020, people could not enjoy their favourite restaurants due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As a consequence of it, more people are cooking at home. Cooking at home allows people to customize their food according to their taste and preferences, and is also a lot healthier, saves travel time and money. Home cooking gives people options to choose more nutritious ingredients for healthy eating, for example, unsaturated fats, sugar, calories, and more.

2. Attention to Food Quality

For the past few years, people have been eager to know all the details behind the food items they buy. Keeping an eye on the specificity of what types of food and consumable products you are eating will provide you with healthy and nutritious options. Alongside, we have discovered alternatives to the foods we used to eat before the pandemic, which has proved to be even better than most of our previous food choices.

3. Focus on foods that support the Immune System

The importance of nutrition is known to all, and we know that consuming a healthy diet will eventually benefit our immune system. Protein-rich foods like lean meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, beans, peas, and nuts support the immune system. Likewise, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin B, and Zinc are additional nutrients that play a significant role in empowering the immune system. So, choosing a diet that consists of all these nutrients in the right quantity can help protect us from illness.

As the world gains normalcy in the current situation, let's work on our lifestyle to keep ourselves fit and healthy in the “New Normal”.