Keeping active for the sake of boosting our immune system and mood has never been more important. Many of us are spending much more time being sedentary which can have negative impacts on our health, but there are some things you can do to help your body and mind during this time. You can read our previous blog post to discover more advice for mental wellness or read on to find out about increasing your immunity and preventing injury.
Staying home
When we aren’t venturing out of our homes regularly for work or social events, we naturally see less daylight and become less active. As a result, our mood can be negatively affected. We experience greater changes in heat due to the heating being on, outside being cold or our bodies not moving and our choices in food may change. We might forgo cooking or fresh food for comfort foods to make ourselves feel better and provide warmth. The cascade of this is more pressure on our immune systems.
Make sure you take the time to get out in the sun for at least a few minutes every morning to help wake your body up and lift your mood. This will also ensure you’re getting enough vitamin D and with the weather warming up this can be really enjoyable! If you don’t have access to the outdoors or can’t get out first thing, make sure you keep your windows open to allow fresh air to circulate.
Immunity in your gut
Did you know that 80% of your immune system is in your gut? Therefore, making poor food choices along with less sunlight exposure and less movement will only lead to one thing!
Eating foods that contain healthy bacteria (probiotics), decrease inflammation (such as fish), boost and aid circulation (such as antioxidants) along with exercise, will give you the greatest chance of staying fit and healthy.
Some of the best immune-boosting foods are fish, turmeric, ginger, yoghurt and spinach or other greens. Throw in a few other spices and we think that sounds like a pretty good curry!
Warming up
When we are less active our core body temperature is lower and our extremities (fingers and toes) need to be stimulated more during a warm-up before your workout. It’s very important to remember to fully warm-up before your session as this will decrease your chance of injury, tearing body tissues and improve your recovery time if you also spend time cooling down after your workout.
The warm up should be specific to your activity. Eg. Progressively increasing your running speed or adding more mobility exercises at the beginning of a jog. Try adding some dynamic movements before a home bodyweight workout.
To effectively cool down you can stretch or repeat some of the movements you used in your workout at a slower pace to decrease your heart rate.
Regular, moderately intense exercise can help boost your immunity so be diligent about this so you can continue to get active and move. You don’t want to get injured and be out of action.
Workout ideas
So, we understand the importance of keeping active and eating right, but what exercise should you actually try? If you’re new to home workouts or would like to keep up some digital social interaction, you can check out our live class timetable below! We’ll also be sharing home workout sessions and tips on our Facebook and Instagram pages so give us a follow.
