How to Create Healthy Habits Exercising at Home
During this time in which governments around the world have established mandatory quarantine, an enormous number of people are facing the need to stay at home. However, this is an opportunity to focus and create healthy habits .
COVID-19 came into the world and altered our everyday lives. This abrupt change has affected both the psychological and physical development of human beings. Despite this, our task is to make the best of this situation in order to counteract the negative effects.
Taking advantage of this situation can turn into a great opportunity. First, you need to start thinking of your home as a useful, safe, and friendly space. That way, you’ll change your perception of the confinement that goes along with quarantine.
So, in order to create healthy habits, you need to start with your mind. From then on, useful and productive activities can begin.
What are healthy habits?
The definition of healthy habits varies and depends on each individual and consists of a practice that improves the quality of life. This refers to a variety of areas–physical, social, psychological, etc. The World Health Organization–the WHO–approaches it as an issue of healthy living and well-being. Although it also mentions that which we’ve discussed above.
Therefore, creating healthy habits has to do with more than just physical exercise. There are many different practices that meet our criteria and that you can put into practice during this period of mandatory quarantine.
How to create healthy habits
Starting a new habit may seem easy–it simply involves doing it for a few days in a row. But the problem is that establishing healthy habits takes much more than that. The complexity lies in being consistent… and that’s often where the marvelous idea of having a healthier lifestyle goes down the drain.
Many skeptics see the mind as something used for self-help. But despite what they say, psychology is the starting point for changing your habits and lifestyle. In this case, it’s important to change the way you perceive your home and the time you have to stay there. You need to start looking at it as a place where you can implement all types of activities that are good for your overall health. And physical exercise is just one of them.
Creating healthy habits: exercising at home
Making physical exercise a habit is no easy task. Getting started may be easy, but being consistent and maintaining the habit over time is the biggest obstacle.
What’s more, just thinking about the potential muscle pain caused by certain activities can be very discouraging. Just the same, you need to weigh the pros and cons that establishing a good home routine carries with it.
The benefits of physical exercise for your health
The World Health Organization recommends doing at least 30 minutes per day of physical activity–in this case, exercise. And this consists of a habit that’s healthy for your body, as it offers the following benefits:
- Exercise improves physical condition.
- Strengthens the mind.
- Contributes to the well-being of the cardiorespiratory system.
- Increase the speed of digestion.
- Reduces muscle and joint pain.
- Provides oxygen to different organs, including the brain.
Recommendations for creating healthy habits
Creating healthy habits based on doing exercises at home is an individual process. In this article, the benefits that we’ve already mentioned contribute greatly to making the right decision. In addition, some of the tips below may help you get started and continue being consistent in this practice.
Get out of bed early
Even though you’re at home, it’s a good idea to stick with a routine that’s a close as possible to your pre-quarantine routine. Therefore, getting up early helps fend off negative thoughts and laziness that assails you, both physically and psychologically.
Plan your day
While it may seem illogical, your body can come to function as a clock. That’s what we mean when we talk about the “biological clock”. It’s the ability that living beings possess to place themselves in time and space.
With this mind, along with the help of an alarm clock, you can plan time in your day for exercising or implementing any other kind of healthy habit.
Avoid overexerting yourself
The desire to see fast results can sometimes be counterproductive. In this sense, muscle pain and injury become a problem, and as a result, frustration sets in. The idea of creating healthy habits is starting gradually. Your body isn’t accustomed yet, therefore, you need to allow for an adaptation process.
Don’t let yourself go during confinement!
Mandatory quarantine shouldn’t be an excuse to avoid creating healthy habits… or abandoning the healthy habits you already had in place. Recognizing all the benefits that they offer should act as an incentive and give you the push you need to get started.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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- Ritmo circadiano: el reloj maestro. Alteraciones que comprometen el estado de sueño y vigilia en el área de la salud. (2014). Morfolia.
- Velazquez, S. (2014). Hábitos y estilos de vida saludable. Programa Institucional Actividades De Educacion Para Una Vida Saludables.