Hello to you! Its simply Samantha here, sharing my “petmalung” Fitness plan that I have been doing for the past few years. This fitness plan will be a great addition to your routine and can be done with your “beshies” and family members, because as they say, the more the merrier. So what are you waiting for? “Arat na” and plunge ourselves into the world of health, wellness and fitness.
Staying Co-Fit During the COVID Pandemic
Our body and health should not be taken for granted nor neglected, therefore, taking care of your body is important for living a happy and healthy life amidst the lockdown. Due to the ongoing pandemic everyone is advised to stay at home to avoid getting infected. Being cooped up at home for many months now can easily turn you into living a sedentary lifestyle, which is not healthy. Hence continuously doing nothing and just lying around is bad.
No one should be bullied for their weight or food choices, but ‘fat pride’ promotes dangerous weight levels. Others will tell you that staying as you are is fine, that being “chubby” is ok and nothing to be ashamed of. However, while it is true that no matter what type of body or physical appearance you have, you shouldn’t be humiliated, we cannot avoid the reality that It is not healthy to be “chubby”, but it is healthy to maintain a good physical shape, even if you are not within the normal weight range. Therefore, if you are obese, even if you can not lose weight, you should at least exercise. You can begin your journey to a healthy lifestyle by starting a fitness plan that is suitable for you, because what works for me might not be appropriate for you. For instance, I have scoliosis, therefore I excluded any exercise that will put a strain on my spine or back. I also avoid any weight lifting because it has the potential to be quite a damaging pastime for people with scoliosis. In my fitness routine I included my karate workout too, since I attended lessons before. Exercising has a bad side to it because it can turn very addicting. Consistent exercise stimulates the production of endorphins, which are hormones secreted by your pituitary gland to block pain, reduce anxiety, and create feelings of euphoric happiness. This makes a person feel depressed and stressed once they miss a day or two of exercising. It is true that too much is bad for your health, therefore in you fitness plan you have to include days in which you do not exercise. For instance, I do not exercise every Monday and Friday, I also give myself days of reprieve when an important event is happening or when me and my family are on a trip. Lastly you can also find hobbies like reading books, painting or even doing household chores like cleaning, folding clothes and cooking or baking to engage yourself with.
My fitness plan has me waking up at 3 am and starting at around 30 minutes later after eating a small portion of oatmeal and drinking water, because after waking up I’m always “tomguts” so I have to eat light food before exercising, since breakfast won’t be served until at around 7 am. I start off my exercise with stretching to prepare myself for the following exercises I’ll be doing. I have two workout plans that I do, each after the other namely my full body workout and my karate workout. Both workouts helps me burn calories, improve my blood circulation and digestive system. It also keeps me sharp all day long. During my workout I make sure to stay hydrated and never overdo any reps if I’m feeling off with the movement. It is important to stay safe within the boundaries of what you can do and not bite more than you can chew. My workout ends at about 6 am giving me enough time to rest, take a bath and prepare myself for the day. Exercising is very important in my lifestyle since I am prone to “binge” eating and exercising helps a lot in dealing with it.
As a conclusion, exercise is very important in staying healthy and fit resulting in a happy, productive and positive lifestyle. I highly implore you to start working out and making your own tailored fitness plan and exercise since it can be a wonderful part of your routine, more so nowadays when majority of us are staying indoors.
Norms and Behaviors: Weird
Despite the fact that exercising should be a normal activity that everyone has incorporated in their daily routine, only a handful of people actually do it. Among my family members most of them do not exercise. They will see me sometimes exercise, watch me do my workout, praise me a little which makes me a little self-conscious about being the only one doing it in the house. Sometimes when everyone gathers at the main house for weeks, it is hard for me to be comfortable enough to do it, since it gets embarrassing if your doing it alone and everyone is lazing around. There I clearly see that exercising is not normalized in our society, which is a little sad for me. I get somewhat nervous whenever they come upon me exercising, there’s just something about the weirdness of the situation of being the only one doing the activity while others just rest around. But still in the end the exercise gets my mind off of it and distracts me from thinking about everything and anything in particular, sure enough, I achieve inner peace with what I’m doing and I relax. You can also consider it as me “zoning out.”
Geofitness Location
My branch of family lives in a rented house here in Ugong and there’s not much choice in the space I exercise at since outdoors is a no go. I normally exercise in the living room where I push aside the little coffee table, chairs and anything that is in the way, so I could have a clear center in the living room with enough space to move around and execute my workout plans. There are times where I stay at the main house occupied by my grandparents and some of my aunts and uncles. There I used an unoccupied room that is mostly clear of things that could get in the way and has enough space for me to do my workout routine. I mostly picked places where I’ll have enough space to move around unhindered and where I wouldn’t be in danger of breaking anything.
My Workout Plans
As stated before, I have two workout routines called Full body workout and Karate workout. Both are tailored to fit my needs and is something I can handle. The whole workout takes 1 hours and 30 minutes, the time it takes to finish is that long since I like pacing myself. One thing you should remember is that working harder isn’t always better, it’s more appropriate to do something effectively to avoid injuries and mistakes. Below are my workout plans and if you have any questions about it, just “hit me up.”
The workout routine that I made puts emphasis on correcting my posture since I have scoliosis, “share ko lang,” which also means that I need to avoid exercises that put strain on my back, so no abdominal workouts for me. I made sure to incorporate the SMART acronym when making this before. For instance, I made sure that the reps and the type of exercise are specific to what I want to do, so that it’ll be measurable and achievable within expectations. I also ensured that it is realistic and something I can finish, within the boundaries of time I set. This way I can finish my workout with “no sweat.”
For the full body workout the following are the types of exercise that I incorporated in my fitness plan. Jumping jacks provides me a full body workout and works all my large muscle groups. It balances my heart rate, increases blood circulation throughout the body, and helps to eliminate bad cholesterol levels in the body. In addition jumping jacks also releases endorphins, which are hormones that keep stress and depression at bay. Side lunges, Backward lunges with front kick and squats increase flexibility and strengthen thigh muscles. It also helps with alignment and symmetry of the body. These exercises release digestive enzymes that help burn fats and calories. Mountain climber, Bird dog and Triceps dips is an exercise that strengthens multiple muscle groups including the shoulders, hamstrings, core, triceps, quads and core. Push-up and rotation is a great exercise for the chest, shoulders, arms and core. Planking strengthens the abdomen, back and shoulders. The exercise, wall sit strengthens the endurance in your glutes, calves and quadriceps muscles. On the other hand, for the Karate workout, I focused on the basics, like the types of kicks and punches. The kicks training will improve speed, reflexes, flexibility, and strength. The safe but repetitive motion on the arms while I punch helps my arms and legs gain strength and power. It also develops my balance and coordination that enables my body to be stable and maintain a good form. Lastly, the exercise called bridges builds up the abdominal muscle, the lower back and the glutes. It is also highly recommended for people with scoliosis like me.
All the exercises mentioned contributes to the release of enzymes, most commonly known as the dopamine and endorphins. Exercise allows your body to release these enzymes, it interacts with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain and what makes you feel stressed. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine.