By Han Pham, staff writer
During this time of social distance due to Covid-19, I found that there are many things that each of us has never experienced before. For me, however, trying to stay in shape at this pandemic is very limited and tedious.
As you know, health and body are important things to all of us. Unfortunately, it became a problem for me when the shelter in place order was issued. Before Covid, I exercised regularly, running for about an hour in the morning for 4-5 days per week.
At first I still tried to run, doing so with a mask on, but it was really annoying. It felt like my breathing was blocked and I was unable to run for the amount of time I was used to.
By the third month of the pandemic after about 2 months of running outside, I decided to switch to home workout since I saw it would be more comfortable without a mask. Yet, the big downside of practicing yoga at home is that my room is quite small, many times I would collide into furniture while stretching; my body has a lot of bruises from it.
In general, it’s been hard to continue during this time as all options have their own limitations. Although the effects from the two ways of exercise are the same for me, if given the choice, I still prefer to work out in the park because the air is cleaner and more spacious. As the pandemic has continued; I’ve still tried to maintain positive habits despite many obstacles to get a toned shape.
Another experience I have had to go through while trying to improve my physique is maintaining some active time during the day. I never thought that I would end up spending more than 8 hours a day with my eyes glued to the laptop screen. Studying and working remotely makes me stay in the same place for most of the day. That means that I have to increase my cardio workout more every day to be able to keep in shape as I want. I managed to spend about 1 hour each afternoon after completing classes to exercise following the videos I found on Youtube.
Besides practicing, I have a habit of setting myself a standard weight and height to be able to control my body scientifically, so a healthy diet is also an integral part of my daily workout plan. In my eating routine, I usually combine a week of eating a clean regime and a week of eating regular foods with white rice. For me, it is the most effective way to stay in shape while eating my favorite foods rich in fat.
To be honest, having to do things indoors sometimes makes me less motivated. The scenery around the bedroom creates a feeling of drowsiness and lack of vitality.
The pandemic has given everyone different challenges. Perhaps, this is a difficult period to adapt to for many people but ignoring the limitations, I have gradually gotten used to it. While pandemic is not an ideal condition for us to self-training, it is an experience where I could discover many different aspects of life – things I never thought would happen.
