Finding Creative Ways to Exercise During the Pandemic

The pandemic has forced us all to adapt in various, often creative, ways. 

It has taught us many things about who we are, the choices we’re willing to make to protect our loved ones and other members of our communities, and how certain ways we have structured our society create more danger for certain people and communities in the context of a global pandemic.

Another thing many of us have learned is how quickly a drastic reduction in the amount of physical movement and daily exercise we get can impact our health, weight and wellness.  Personally, the pandemic has drastically reduced my physical activity. My daily commute in now down the stairs from my bedroom to my office on the main floor.  Prior to the pandemic, I went to the gym 6 mornings a week and spent a lot of time walking to meetings, commuting and on breaks at work. 

In our area, during the pandemic all extracurricular activities were cancelled and this drastically impacted the amount of organized exercise our children participated in.  As I have mentioned in other articles, some of the most important lessons we learn from our children.  And so, both my kids have demonstrated over the course of the pandemic creative ways to get and keep moving even within the confines of our house.   

This includes creative games, obstacle courses, and one of the most hilarious activities for Robby and I, which is learning and trying to perform dance routines choreographed by our daughter.  Now I want to start by saying that our daughter is a competitive dancer and Robby and I are not.  So we have spent many evenings doing our best to learn and perform these moves and often it ends in laughing until we are crying. 

This dance routine activity was extended to others during our 12 Days of Glom over the December break where we met as an extended family on zoom for 12 days in a row and different families were in charge of creating activities on different days.  My daughter led the dance routine activity and taught all 20 of us a dance routine.  We all practiced for a bit and then the grand finale was a group performance on zoom. 

Over the course of the pandemic, I have heard many people share their creative ways to keep active and adapt their routines to create more movement.  So as many of us continue to work from home and attempt to find ways to keep exercising, I thought I would share them here in case these creative ideas can help you fit more exercise into your life: 

• Go for a walk while on a work call 
• Get a stationary bike for under your desk so you can pedal while working
• Create a routine time for a family or individual walk and bring your mask along just in case you need it
• Do sit-ups on the kitchen floor anti-fatigue mat while your boiling the kettle or warming up food (I know – this is very specific, right? This one is something I do.) 
• Find YouTube yoga or other exercise videos to do at home 
• Go for a run 
• Find new activities that permit social interaction while keeping your distance from others like disc golf or archery 
• Walk inside your house while listening to a podcast or watching a movie (this is something I have started doing and is a really easy and enjoyable way to stay active) 
• Go swimming in a public pool, lake or beach 
• LAST BUT NOT LEAST… Learn and perform a new dance routine (I couldn’t resist!) 

As we all continue to navigate the unpredictability of the pandemic, which hopefully won’t include further lockdowns, finding ways to keep active is both a struggle and an important priority.  It is an exercise in adaptability (and yes, I made that pun on purpose). So let’s muddle along together to find ways to take care of ourselves physically and keep moving – it’s good for both our physical and mental health. 

If you have any creative ways to keep moving, we would love to hear them in the comments section below this article. 

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash 

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