How to Maintain Muscle Mass During Quarantine?

It's easy to become lazy these days and forget that our bodies need to move. Here are some tips to maintain muscle tone during quarantine.

Being locked up at home can have various negative effects. Our physical condition is at high risk since we can’t leave the house to exercise. Therefore, we must find ways to keep our muscles in shape while we’re forced to stay at home. Let’s look at some of the easiest and most effective ways to maintain muscle mass during the quarantine.

Beware of the couch

The fastest way to lose muscle tone is to sit on the couch all day. Therefore, the first thing you have to do if you want to maintain muscle mass during quarantine is to limit the amount of time that you spend sitting. Get up and walk around every hour if possible, or watch TV while standing.

Other aspects that you must be careful about, in regard to the couch, are incorrect postures. You must learn to sit properly and try to maintain the correct postural form. Otherwise, you’ll increase the risk of getting an injury that interferes with your ability to maintain an adequate muscle tone when this is all over.

Find ways to exercise that help to maintain muscle mass

We’re lucky to live in an era in which there are many ways to exercise without leaving home. Having access to the internet allows us to carry out almost any imaginable exercise routine.

It’s very easy to put on a video and simply follow the person teaching the class; there are even different video lengths and types of exercises to choose from. You can choose from good aerobic routines that help with circulation and physical maintenance, to heavier circuits that help to strengthen your muscles. We now have access to thousands of videos that allow us to adapt the exercise to each level, physical condition, and training experience.

Another alternative is to create your own circuit. The first step is to choose ten exercises for the muscles that you’re interested in working. Then, you have to perform each exercise for a full minute.

Afterward, rest for another minute and repeat the ten exercises again. Finally, perform this sequence a third time and voilà! It’s a good way to spend 30 minutes, as it’ll keep your muscles active.

If you don’t feel like doing any of those two options, you can always go for isolated exercises. For example, you can extend and flex your quads while sitting.

There’s also the option of lifting dumbbells and working your biceps, triceps, and shoulders. You can even lie on your bed and make a pedaling motion with your legs.

If you go to the kitchen or bathroom, try to walk over there while doing lunges; you can also walk on your tiptoes, or even go jumping to work your hamstrings. One last idea would be to lift up your knees as if you were marching.

Vary your workouts to maintain muscle mass

If you feel inspired and want to start exercising in any of the ways we described above, it’s very important to switch up the exercises. This means that you shouldn’t do the same thing every single day. Otherwise, you’ll only work a small number of muscles and the rest will continue with their gradual decline.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to follow an online video one day, do a different routine while listening to music on another day, and simply do loose exercises while standing on the third day. You can also follow online videos from different disciplines, or create different half-hour routines. Any method that works multiple muscle groups will do.

Make the outings count

If you’re going to leave the house to buy something or walk the dog, take the most advantage out of it. In those cases, try to always use the stairs instead of the elevator, both on the way out and on the way back.

The simple act of coming home with two bags of food and climbing the stairs, instead of taking the easy option, will already require serious work from your stabilizing muscles as well as the lower and upper limbs.

It’s easy to keep muscles active and maintain muscle mass

With all of the information above in mind, we can see that not losing muscle mass during quarantine requires serious investment and determination. We have many options to work out; the main enemy is always ourselves. The hardest part is not letting laziness, or an addiction to the newest TV series, overcome us.

If you don’t do a complete routine, there are enough exercises that you can do while standing or sitting, with or without dumbbells. There are also enough alternatives to work on your strength, flexibility, resistance, or any other physical attribute. Doing any kind of physical work will always be good to help your cardiovascular system, which is the system that suffers the most in these situations.