Do you need some help coping with the COVID-19 crisis?

Yeah, me too! I want you to start by doing two things: 1) know that you are not alone! 2) Let’s take a big deep breath together, hold the air in, and blow out the air with a long exhale. I wanted to share a few ways we can all use exercise as medicine (please note I am not a doctor and this doesn’t replace any medical advice) to help during this time. Think of exercise as an incredible tool, especially if you are feeling like your schedule, sleep, or stress is out of hand! Check and see if one of these ways of looking at exercise helps you, and I invite you to disregard anything that doesn’t apply to you, and your current situation. Don’t forget to apply these tips in a safe way given our current health and pandemic recommendations :)

Anchor your day in a healthy behavior.
When your schedule and lifestyle gets disrupted, it often helps to pick healthy behavior (like a workout) that will help you feel grounded. The best way to get this to stick, is to have it associated with a time of day or signal. Then you can create momentum with repetitions. An anchor for me is: “Most days of the week, I wake up and workout!” Now you try--

Feel good hormones to improve your mood.
Who doesn’t appreciate some endorphins generated by a good sweat sesh? Or have you ever been playing in a competitive game and got hurt, but didn’t notice it until after the game was over? Both feelings of that improved mood, and your reduced pain, can be explained by your body’s production of some feel good hormones during exercise. For today, or maybe this week or month, try exercising to feel better rather than look better. Less about the waistline and more about improving your spirits!

Be active in your feelings. Think of the last time you were really nervous or
anxious about something. I bet you would find your leg bouncing, mind-racing, and body fidgeting. This is a totally normal response to anxiety and stress as your body is ready to fight (or run ;)). What we are stressing out most about, in our current reality, looks less like a saber tooth tiger and more like chronic COVID or otherwise. I want to encourage you to play with the practice of exercising, and giving your body some physical stress to deal with the mental and emotional stress. I bet with some practice you will find your muscles and body are more relaxed and you just equipped yourself with a healthy coping mechanism too!