5 ‘COVID-proof’ lifestyle tips you might not have thought of

With much of the UK once again under tight COVID-19 restrictions – even if there has been a hesitancy to use the term “lockdown” – fitness enthusiasts across the country have again been forced to apply some imagination to their efforts to preserve and enhance their physiques. 

Or, of course, you might be launching a serious fitness routine for the first time in a while, in the wake of Christmas overindulgence. 

Whatever your own situation may be, the following tips from the Hybryd team should hopefully help to inject what may be some much-needed inspiration into your exercise routine. 

Make your smart speaker your personal trainer 

Smart speakers with support for virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are all the rage in the home these days, and can be indispensable allies in your quest to get – or keep – fit while stuck indoors. 

Just some of the things you could do with your smart speaker to make home-based exercise easier include setting voice reminders to get up from your desk and have a stretch, using it as a timer for reps, and using fitness and wellness-oriented apps such as Headspace and Google Fit. 

Focus on both physical and mental exercise 

Headspace may be an especially apposite app to mention right now, given that you can easily use it to tell your smart speaker to start a guided meditation course. 

Indeed, meditation can be a great practice in general to support your mental health during the continuing pandemic. Practising daily meditation and mindfulness is no less important than physical exercise for managing depression and other mental health challenges, which might make it an especially crucial part of your routine when recovering from injury or illness. 

Ensure you get enough sleep 

If you’ve been working from home amid the continuing restrictions, you may have been tempted to spend some of the time you haven’t spent commuting, working harder and longer. This, in turn, may be having less-than-healthy consequences for your sleeping patterns. 

With past research indicating that sleep affects both the innate and adaptive arms of the body’s immune system, it really is crucial to avoid ‘burning the midnight oil’ too much. The Sleep Council’s advice on how to achieve a better night’s sleep may therefore be useful for you. 

Be inventive about what you use for weight exercises 

Often, it’s the simple things – such as lacking gym-quality weights – that may deter us from even getting started with a basic exercise regime designed to build strength in our arms. 

If this sounds like your situation, look around you in the home for items that could enable you to start working your biceps and triceps straight away. Maybe there are some heavy books, wine bottles or bags of rice you could use to introduce that good habit to your life before you get round to shopping online for dedicated weights? 

Support independent fitness brands  

By this stage of the pandemic, you probably won’t need us to emphasise the likely safety benefits of doing your shopping online – especially when, in any case, the only brick-and-mortar retailers allowed to open near you may be ‘essential’ ones. 

But why not switch up your habits further by also taking the opportunity to purchase your workout clothing online from a smaller, independent store? Here at Hybryd, for instance, we can bring you the best in tees, vests, crews, joggers, shorts and many more fitness training essentials, for use in the home, outdoors and in the gym – once such facilities do reopen. 

As always, all orders from the Hybryd store continue to be subject to free postage and packaging to the UK, with items being sent via Royal Mail’s 48-hour delivery service. That’s just one more reason to make us your first stop when shopping for fitness accessories and workout clothing online this New Year.