This quarantine period is a stressful time for many of us. However, even during this time of isolation, it’s important to keep our bodies moving.
Any form of physical activity can help uplift your mood, manage stress, and maintain a healthy body weight.
We tapped New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery’s exercise physiologist, Morgan Thomas, to share some of her exercise tips while on quarantine or working out at home.
Set aside at least 30 minutes of your day for any physical activity.
If you’re new to exercise, Morgan recommends focusing on your consistency. That is, having a dedicated time to do something, whether it’s walking or something else.
Walking is actually a great option especially as it’s getting nicer outdoors. And, with some parks starting to open up, you can take advantage of that by doing little hikes.
Work with whatever you have.
You can still get a good workout even if you don’t have access to your gym right now.
As a start, you can do bodyweight exercises comprising of 6 to 8 different movements.
You can do tricep dips, climbing stairs, crunches, sit-ups, and squats.
And if you want to challenge yourself, Morgan says you can lift anything like laundry detergent, water jugs, paint, and even backpacks with books to add some resistance for increased difficulty.
For Morgan, the most important thing is movement, just doing anything to keep your body moving and heart rate elevated.
For busy parents who are juggling a lot of things including childcare, try looking for activities that involve your kids.
When asked what tips she can give to busy parents, here’s what Morgan has to say:
“Use your kids as your weight. Dancing and walking with your kids are also a great option. While it would be really good to have a structure, the more important thing is doing something and just doing the best you can.”
If you’re fresh from bariatric surgery, focus on cardio exercises.
If you just underwent bariatric surgery and cleared to do exercises, Morgan recommends doing cardio for 3-4 days a week at 30 minutes per session. If that’s not doable, then breaking it apart, say 10 minutes at a time, will still be good.
Once you get your schedule and consistency going, Thomas recommends adding strength training for 2-3 days, “you may start with simple bodyweight exercises like push-ups against the wall, sit and stand, and standing leg lifts using a countertop or wall for support”
Overtime, you can add more intensity to it. For push-ups you can go lower and then for sit and stand, you can eventually transition to regular squats.
“At New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery, I focus on function and improving the quality of lives of our clients. Hence, I focus on overall body workouts rather than isolated strength training at the start. Our focus is an improvement in the quality of life which includes endurance, stamina, balance, and basic strength,” Morgan adds.
With the COVID19 pandemic, in-person Bariatric support groups have been on a pause. However, New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery has a private Facebook support group. The staff updates it regularly with working out tips, diet, etc.
“We try to keep the conversations there open, making it really a support group for our bariatric patients,” explains Morgan.
If you’re interested in starting your weight loss surgery journey, check out our online info seminar at https://newlifeseminar.premiersurgical.com/! It’s FREE and it’s the very FIRST step in our program.
New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery is part of Premier Surgical Bariatrics in Knoxville, Tennessee. New LIfe is affiliated with the Parkwest Center for Bariatric Surgery, part of Covenant Health Bariatric Services.