Regular exercise and healthy eating provide a range of health benefits. While men love exercising outdoors, they cannot do so these days because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although the world is slowly transitioning to normal thanks to the ongoing vaccination programs, some still prefer to quarantine at home and wait for the cases to go down before venturing outside again. Staying at home does not mean you should stop exercising and leading a healthy lifestyle. There are a lot of things you can do at home. Yes, even if you live in a studio-type apartment with a small balcony as the only outdoor space accessible to you.
Prepare the Area for Exercise
What kind of space can you use for your little home gym? If you have a small patio, that is the perfect area to soak up the rays of the sun in the morning while you meditate and do some yoga. Yes, men can and should do yoga, too. You might not be aware of this, but yoga helps improve your strength. Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic is known for his flexibility, which allows him to win grand slams after grand slams. He credits his healthy lifestyle (he’s a vegan), meditation, and yoga for his flexibility and endurance on the court.
You need a dedicated space in your home. Even a tiny area in the corner of your living room will do. If you happen to have a basement or a garage, you can convert that into your exercise area.
Learn How to Cook Healthy Meals
Stop depending on takeout food. Men are not known for their skills in the kitchen, especially when they are living alone. However, if you want to eat healthily and live a better lifestyle, the best way to do that is to cook your own meals. This way, you have complete control over the ingredients. You can choose fresh produce and organic herbs. You can also measure the amount of sugar that goes into your food. It is harder to watch what you eat when you don’t know what chefs put into it. It is harder still to watch your calorie, sugar, and sodium intake if you binge on fast food every day.
Do Exercises at Home
Some of the best exercises do not require any gym equipment. Gyms are modern-day facilities. Before people started establishing gyms, men had to make do with what they had at home. Whole-body exercises, such as jumping jacks, planking, cross crunches, side plank, squats, lunges, and Russian twists, are effective fitness routines you can do in under 30 minutes. They don’t need special equipment. You only need to know how to do the right form so that you do not injure yourself.
Prep a Home Gym
You can have a mini home gym without spending so much as a hundred dollars. You can fill an empty container of water with sand and use those as weights. If it is durable enough, you can use a clothes rack as a pull-up bar. Some reinforcement will allow it to carry your weight. There are also cheap handlebars that you can use for this. If you have an old bike, you can mount it and turn it into a stationary bike. This provides a good whole-body workout, similar to what you would usually do at the gym.
Meditate
Meditation is as good for your physical health as it is for your mental health. Plenty of athletes do meditation because it puts them in the right frame of mind. Have you ever wondered how they become so focused when they play? Freeing your mind from unnecessary things will allow you to concentrate on those that matter at the moment. Mental health is an often-overlooked component of one’s health.
Nurture Your Emotional Health
Being stuck at home for a year will definitely have an impact on your mental and emotional health. Men tend to hide their feelings. They will deny that they, too, are suffering from anxiety and depression. That’s not the coolest thing to admit, but it’s a step toward taking care of your health.
The past year hasn’t been easy for anyone, men and women, young and old alike. That’s why you must begin to focus on yourself—what you need, how you feel, what you want, and how you can achieve your goals. Slow down. Give yourself time to recuperate. Your home should be a haven. It should be the one place where you will feel safe and take better care of yourself. If you’ve been living a healthy lifestyle before the pandemic, adjust necessarily and continue doing what you are doing because your health, above all, matters.
