It’s okay if you don’t want to do at home workouts right now

[irishbilly]

@gumcareblog Rest is super crucial as well. I've been shut in since last wed, immediately went into my daily workout routine with yoga and heavy yardwork. I was so exhausted I couldn't sleep. Same routine except sunday I tried to rest, but today I had no choice. The soreness caught up with me. I genuinely had to say to myself it's okay to rest. It's part of surviving this thing too, making sure your immune system can keep up. I took a bath and noticed despite downtime, I'm extra sore in places I was sure were finally resting. Be good to yourself but while rest is important, be careful not to mistake exhaustion for depression either. Depression is accompanied by a lack of interest, self doubt, anxiety, unusual sadness- please seek out professional help if this is your case or call a trusted friend. All I can say that works for me to break it is asking myself if I'm tired or sad, then a gameplan follows if I can muster one or I give myself an attempt to sleep but not force it; to me if I feel its forced, that means I'm depressed. I'll get some fresh air, call a friend, do some yoga etc Whatever works for you; we get this weird exceptional chance to pay extra attention to our bodies. If it says rest, rest. Work out, then work out. please take care friends, wash yo hands and stay healthy inside!

 

[dawn16]

@gumcareblog

It brings me back to my orthorexic ways of being in high school doing core workouts in my bedroom

(CW: ED) this was really a lightbulb moment for me - thanks for bringing it up. I couldn’t work out why home workouts were giving me such visceral anxiety - sure, they are painful and wobbly in all the wrong ways, but not being ‘satisfying’ like lifting or running shouldn’t be so anxiety-inducing. You’re so right that it brings back the days of obsessively over-exercising and doing a billion painful reps. I’m still doing a home workout program to ease me back into powerlifting, but it even helps to read this so I have somewhere to ground my feelings about it. Thanks for posting.

 

[zero1]

@gumcareblog Yes! Does anyone else find it a lot more stressful to try and maintain/adapt rather than just pause/start over in a few months? I was used to strength training 5-6 days a week at the gym. I hate cardio. I get depressed and stressed looking at home workout becauses they seem so fruitless to compare to weighted stuff, and like, a million reps to get close to feeling tge same work.
Plus half the fun at the gym is the social camaraderie and variety of equipment if you want to adapt things. I too just get reminded of being eating disordered and doing stupid workouts in my uni halls bedroom or even hospital rooms when I was in patient for my Ed.

All weights are sold out everywhere and anyway, I'm a second floor apartment in a old building where noise travels, and it would be really unfair to those beneath us to have weights banging around.
I'm sad at the prospect of a pancake butt, but iv just been donated a road bike so I know I can get some exercise in now.

 

[kingshellie]

@gumcareblog Also for anyone struggling with eating right now- give yourself time to work through it!

This hit me with extremely bad timing as I had just returned from a month long diet break + an extra week of just eating above maintenance because I had been stuck home. For me days at home = snacking non stop.

I’m now on day 12 of confinement and I have been eating non stop, bloated beyond belief, the scale says I only put on a few pounds but I feel as if I gained 10 over night. I was beating myself down for loosing 2 years of progress, as I kept reaching the cabinet for more chips, bread, nuts...until I realized I wasn’t really craving them anymore. So turns out all those posts about IE that always say “allow yourself to have all the foods” were right! When you know you can have something whenever you want, you realize how silly it is to eat an entire pack of it in one go.

TL;DR: this is the perfect time to let go of restriction and allow yourself to develop a good relationship with food. We’re all going to put on a bit of fat after this anyways, so no one will care, and you can use all the extra mental + physical energy to make a killer comeback at the gym!

 

[seeker47]

@gumcareblog I hate working out at home but I feel like it's one of the things keeping me sane right now. Locked in with my parents while my SO is stuck a few hours away.

It's tough

 

[mr_thompson]

@gumcareblog There is an amazing story in the NYT from a day or so ago about this being a time where you're allowed to do nothing. You don't have to learn a new skill and try to live a normal life, this is not a normal time. This is extremely stressful on our psyche even if you don't realise it yet. So yes it's okay to do nothing, to read and to sleep and to cook and to just laze around. Take it a day at a time and if ok one or 20 of those days you feel like staying on the couch, that's okay.

 

[monbelubi]

@mr_thompson This is so true, but it is so frustrating that we are still expected to do things. I'm a student, so I get that they can't just call the whole semester a wash, but oh my god it is so hard to be as productive as I was before all this. I don't know if it's being stuck inside or existential dread or what but it feels impossible to do anything but I still need to be doing things!

 

[dawn16]

@gumcareblog Thank you!!!

 

[haruchi]

@gumcareblog Oddly enough, I tell this myself often about various aspects of this lifestyle and it helps me feel less pressured and then actually do it. Sometimes it's the evening workout, eating over your calorie limit, having a cheat day. When I don't feel pressured that I HAVE to do it, I'm more likely to actually do it. Like "ok I don't feel like workout right now. Let's just chill and be ok with it". Then later I think about it "okay I feel better and relaxed now. Might as well jump into a session". Of course, it doesn't ALWAYS work and you have to distinguish allowing yourself to show down from making excuses. But right now, I feel like I'm making contributions all the way and when I stray a bit from the way, I will find my way back sooner or later.

 

[despondentisaiah3015]

@gumcareblog I will soon work at a grocery store and i was so worried about not being healthy enough so i workout to be in good condition. I workout for about an 30mins-1 hr a day. And i thought about being not im good shape while everythings happening.

This eased me somehow. thanks!

 

[rose123]

@gumcareblog I needed this. Thank you so much.

 

[dawn16]

@gumcareblog On the other side I only workout at home so this quarantine thing hasn't affected my fitness. I don't like gyms and have my own setup for my workouts at home with proper space and equipment and when I move then I will have a room especially for fitness which takes away the "teenager in bedroom" mentality.

 

[newnormal]

@dawn16 Same. I love working out at home and do appropriate workouts I don’t find it limiting or not good enough because it’s not in a gym. I am asked often what I do to workout because I look fit and toned and that’s all achieved from home. I also run, my workouts are hiit, weights, body weight, cardio etc. I get what I need.

 

[phanton98]

@gumcareblog Thank you!! I've been feeling bad about being unmotivated lately and I really needed to hear this

 

[aisaka11]

@gumcareblog thank you

 

[gcist]

@gumcareblog Thank you for posting this!! Exactly what I needed to hear. I’m missing the group classes at my gym something hard, but I think just walks around the neighborhood will be better than nothing if I don’t have to motivation to work out in my living room. I asked my husband if he wanted to be my workout buddy and he declined, unfortunately.

 

[grace90]

@gumcareblog thanks, I really needed this. I can't seem to find the same excitement about working out at home besides doing some light yoga and feel so guilty about it.

 

[dkimxd]

@gumcareblog Thank you, I really needed to see this.

I actually told the rest of my work-from-homies in a video meeting today, "It's okay if you're not getting as much done right now as usual. We're all adjusting." AND YET I STILL NEED TO HEAR THIS.

 

[rootedingrace17]

@gumcareblog I needed this. I have no equipment at home and have been stressed thinking about how weak I’m going to be when I get back in the gym. I absolutely dread working out at home

 

[clolou]

@gumcareblog I hear what you're saying; embrace a little bit of a break and don't worry about this as theres enough to worry about.

I'm coming from the viewpoint of this might be a lengthy situation, I'm from Canada and I doubt the gyms will be opening again tor at least a month. I worked way too hard to adopt and maintain good habits, and I'd be a fool to think that falling to old habits wont be quick and easy.

What I'm saying is, keep the habit of moving.. replace your gym routine with something; stretching, pilates, jump rope in your garage, learning a new physical skill (pistol squats, handstands, the splits...) . The movement will keep your body, mind, and habits healthy, which is what you need most rn.