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Two At-Home Workouts to Stay Fit
How to maintain a healthy body and mind without leaving the house
Earlier this year, several health experts told me exercise should actually be prescribed to make Americans healthier, both physically and mentally. One of them, Scott Lear, PhD, a professor in health sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada, said, “If it was a pill, exercise would be a trillion-dollar moneymaker prescribed to everyone.”
Who couldn’t use such a prescription right now?
If we’re cooped up at home or don’t like working out in public, you still need physical activity to maintain physical and mental well-being. Fortunately, there are plenty of simple and practical ways to do this while staying out of the gym.
Exercise is, in fact, a way to double down on your well-being. Harvard researchers say the human immune system functions better when we eat well, sleep well, and exercise — three highly interrelated lifestyle factors. Poor sleep is linked to a host of disease risks, whereas sleeping well can help with the physical energy and mental motivation to exercise, and exercise is one of many ways to promote a good night’s sleep.
One very basic move with lots of benefits is push-ups. They’re a very effective way to strengthen not just your arms and chest but core muscles in the back and stomach. Being able to do push-ups has even been linked to disease prevention. A study last year of firefighters found those who could do 40 or more push-ups in a row had a 96% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease over a 10-year period compared to other firefighters who couldn’t do 10. That’s not proof that push-ups prevent disease, but it suggests that being in shape does. (And yes, it makes you wonder about some of those firefighters.)
There are of course myriad other exercises beyond the push-up that can be done without equipment.
I asked Kelli Calabrese, an exercise physiologist, nutrition expert, and wellness coach, to recommend whole-body workouts to improve strength and aerobic endurance, without needing any special equipment. Each exercise is linked to an explainer so you can see how it’s done properly.
Whatever exercise you do — don’t let your fitness…
