Home exercise lessons and online workouts surge amid coronavirus self-isolation and social distancing

Instructors Luke Worthington and Barbara Currie explain how people of all ages can stay fit while staying indoors

Online workouts are enjoying a surge in popularity as the numbers of people self-isolating and social distancing increases, with gymgoers avoiding group workouts and shared equipment in favour of home fitness.

The website Moviing, which offers on-demand fitness sessions, has reported a 30 per cent increase in subscriptions since the coronavirus outbreak, while the 1980s fitness guru Diana Moran, also known as the Green Goddess, is making a comeback to BBC Breakfast in a bid to help the over-70s stay active while they’re self-isolating.

There are many good reasons for keeping up regular exercise – from reducing stress to increasing immunity – so how can you make sure you’re getting enough of it at home?

Most personal trainers agree that the key to success is finding a way to work exercise into your daily routine.

Make it part of your everyday life

“It’s important for people to still set themselves a routine, still get up and get out of bed at the same time,” says London-based personal trainer Luke Worthington. His clients include the model Sabrina Elba, who is self-isolating with her husband Idris Elba after he tested positive for coronavirus.

“I’m advising all of my clients to create a week plan,” says Worthington. He suggests that if they would normally walk as part of their commute, then be at their desk all morning before taking a yoga or spin class, they should stick to those exercise times as much as possible in their home routine – going for a walk if they can, or working out at home during those times.

“I think that’s really important for your mental wellbeing, and also to make sure it gets done.”

Exercise for all ages

Yoga instructor Barbara Currie, 78, recommends starting small, with 10 minutes a day. “One of the biggest problems with exercise is people decide: ‘I’m going to do an hour a day exercise.’ It might work for the first two days, but then after that it dwindles,” she says.

“If you start with 10 minutes a day, then do 10 minutes a day for 21 days that normally establishes a very good habit.” Then, once you feel like the habit has stuck, you can build up to 20 minutes, she says.

Yoga instructor Barbara Currie shows at 78 how older people can stay fit while staying indoors (Photo: EDPR)
Yoga instructor Barbara Currie shows at 78 how older people can stay fit while staying indoors during the coronavirus pandemic (Photo: EDPR)

Currie, who is known for her yoga books and DVDs, also has a YouTube channel and teaches 13 sessions a week at her school of yoga in Esher. With classes on hiatus during the outbreak, she will be creating a new schedule to do herself at home every morning.

“I’m going to sit down and make myself a plan, doing all my normal stretches and including two or three movements that I find quite difficult.”

Read more:

Step-by-step yoga stretches for exercises by Barbara Currie

Don’t worry about small spaces

If confined to his apartment, Worthington says he will be getting creative with what’s there – which in the absence of home gym equipment means the sofa and the coffee table.

“There are some basic movements that everybody can do, and all complicated movements are built from those: the ability to squat, so sit down and stand up; the ability to lift something off the floor, so the ability to hinge; to do something on legs, so some kind of lunge pattern; and pushing and pulling.

“Everything else is a combination of those. So if you’re trying to create a home exercise programme, just make sure that you cover all of those,” he says.

For the elderly, instead of a squat, Worthington recommends standing up and sitting down without using your hands to help. Lifting can be picking something up from the floor – whether that’s a box of washing powder, a small child or your dog. Beginners can do lunges gently without jumping.

Help and encouragement

For those who can’t muster the motivation to exercise alone, there are many studios and gyms around the country taking their regular classes online, while HelloYoga has just launched, offering virtual one-to-one sessions for all abilities with personal yoga instructors.

10 Today offers online videos and radio broadcasts with regular exercises for the over 55s, which can be tailored to standing up or sitting down and can be adapted for all fitness levels.

Sport England also has a curated list of online videos and links – from low-intensity exercises from the NHS for the over 65s to Disney videos for kids – which is available on its website.

The important thing, says Worthington, is to find a way to keep going. “You might not be able to do your first choice, but you can do it,” he says.

“Taking ownership of something – even if it’s as simple as I make sure at half past 10 every morning I go for a 20 minute walk – do it, because the benefits are enormous in terms of you feeling like you’ve got you’re in charge of something so you’ve taken charge of your own body, that is really important.”

Inspiration from astronauts and prisoners

While trying to exercise in a confined space might be new territory for many of us, it’s a daily reality for some.

Take astronauts, for example. Exercise is key in space because the effects on the body of being on the other side of the stratosphere are similar to staying in bed for a prolonged period. So to stay in peak condition and avoid bone and muscle loss, as well as weakening of the heart, Nasa astronauts work out for around two hours a day.

The International Space Station is kitted out with treadmills and cycling machines, plus resistance devices for weight training. This advanced equipment is fitted with vacuum cylinders and flywheels to help provide resistance, which mimics weight training, for example, and harnesses to tether astronauts to the treadmills.

But while astronauts have state-of-the-art tech and engineering to help them on their way, prison inmates have to be a little more creative.

With up to 23 hours a day spent in a cell no bigger than 12 x 8ft – and gym access not always a given – prison inmates around the world exercise using their own body weight, doing tricep dips from a bed, or floor-based push-ups.

Conbody, a social enterprise that specialises in prison-style fitness with rehabilitated ex-convicts, runs high-intensity training sessions using no equipment – in studios in London and New York, and online.

The brainchild of Coss Marte, a former US inmate who lost five stone in six months by working out in his own prison cell, the sessions typically include push-ups, star-jumps, mountain-climbers (essentially running against the floor while in a plank position), high-knee running on the spot and squats that all rely on body weight to keep people in shape.

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