Staying physically active can stave off anxiety, stress, and depression. That makes exercise an important part of personal health defense in these days when people are anxious and isolated at home, says Daniel Rosney, assistant professor of instruction in kinesiology at Temple's College of Public Health. Rosney, an Army veteran and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, has observed the broad health benefits of exercise through academic studies as well as professional and personal training situations.
His most recent published study showed that sedentary adults benefited from reduced psychological stress and cortisol production (a stress hormone) when exercising using home videogame systems.
"There's a large body of evidence showing that regular physical activity helps prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and just generally improve quality of life," he says. "It also inhibits chronic depression and anxiety and lowers stress, and it can lead to more effective immune systems."
On top the health and other worries people may have in these uncertain times, isolation itself is a potential stressor—solitary confinement is a form of psychological punishment, Rosney points out.
So how can physical fitness help in these when the office and the gym are off limits? Here are some of Rosney's tips:
Keep a Regular Routine
"The schedules that we maintain at home, even though we're not going to the office anymore, are very important," Rosney says. "If you previously ate lunch on campus every day at noon, and now at home you don't eat until two, for those two hours your stress levels go up, because your body has set this schedule already. When it doesn't get food at noon, the body recognizes that, in possible preparation for going into starvation mode, and stress levels begin to elevate. If you normally went to bed at 10 pm and woke up at six, try keep that same schedule. I still get up at the same time. My wife still gets up at her same time. I hold my classes and my office hours at the same time."
Commute Time Can Become Exercise Time
Staying home means no commute for office workers, and that can become workout time. "Between dropping my wife off and then continuing on into Philadelphia, I would spend at least an hour a day each way, so two hours round trip in the car," Rosney says. "If I use some of that time for my workouts instead, I really haven't lost any time."
Dust off that Old Gear
Many of us have dumbbells and punching bags at home that have gone unlifted and underpunched, stationary bikes that have remained motionless, treadmills that have gone untrod. "You bought it with good intentions, but now you're hanging clothes off it," Rosney says. "Take the laundry off it and start using it again."
Turn to Tech
There never have been more digital tools for fitness instruction and coaching. Options range from high-end equipment like the Peloton stationary cycle, the Hydrow home rowing machine, and Mirror interactive trainer to apps that deliver self guided or coached workouts and wellness advice. Videogame systems that can recognize body movements can make a workout fun by putting participants in virtual sports. And YouTube is stocked with free videos where trainers demonstrate all types of home workouts.
Easy Does It
Home exercise doesn't need to be high-intensity, Rosney says. It can be a walk around the block. "Tai chi, yoga, meditation, all of these things have been shown throughout the body of literature to help reduce stress, anxiety and chronic depression."
Eat Right
Stuck at home, bored and anxious, "we may want to turn psychologically to comfort foods that trigger the endorphins and serotonin in the pleasure centers of the brain," Rosney says. Usually, these comfort foods are not fruits and vegetables but junk food, chips, sugary foods that will stimulate those pleasure centers of the brain. So it's very important that we continue to eat on a normal schedule and try to get the proper amount of nutrients, especially now when we're talking about keeping our immune systems as effective as we can possibly keep them."