How To Protect Your Mental Health Whilst Housebound

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For most of us right now, the scope of our day-to-day reality has been drastically reduced to the four walls of our homes. And whilst this is a necessary measure in light of the current situation, it poses some real concerns for the state of many people’s mental health.   

Being confined to our homes for an extended period of time can be very challenging — not only physically but mentally. So it’s incredibly important that we all take the time to nurture and protect our mental health whilst we see this period of self-isolation through.

With this in mind, we thought we’d share a few tips on keeping mentally healthy and happy whilst housebound. We hope they can be of some use.

Exercise

Keeping active is absolutely essential for remaining both physically and mentally healthy. This is of course true in normal circumstances, but at present it’s more important than ever.

Not only does exercise provide us with a regular routine to follow, but it can drastically help to increase and maintain a healthy mental state.

HelpGuide says that regular exercise “relieves stress, improves memory, helps you sleep better, and boosts your overall mood”.

And, according to mentalhealth.org.uk, “Participation in regular physical activity can increase our self-esteem and can reduce stress and anxiety. It also plays a role in preventing the development of mental health problems and in improving the quality of life of people experiencing mental health problems”.

For some inspiration, take a look at these 10 workouts you can perform from home without any equipment. 

Meditate

By now the positive benefits of meditation have been widely documented. But suffice to say that meditating on a regular basis is a very effective method for keeping emotionally and mentally balanced.

It can be especially helpful for creating mental space — offering a place of silence and stillness when we’re otherwise overwhelmed by news feeds, social media, and other forms of external stimulus.

We’re currently living through times of extreme anxiety and uncertainty. So, for many of us, engaging with activities like meditation is more important and necessary than ever before.

But we’ve covered this topic in a little more depth in a previous post. So if you’d like to read more about meditation and how it can be of huge benefit to both your mental and physical health, see here.

Keep your mind stimulated

Boredom presents a big risk when it comes to our mental health during self-isolation.  Having nothing to do can contribute to a general sense of unease, discomfort, and anxiety. And being unoccupied makes us more likely to overthink things and fall into negative mental spirals.

On Mind’s coronavirus advice page, they recommended solving puzzles, reading books, watching films, and listening to podcasts in order to keep occupied. They also suggest learning new skills or taking an online course. OpenLearn and FutureLearn are two excellent resources for finding free courses. Or, if you’re interested in learning a new language, you could try Duolingo.

Connect with friends and family

Humans are social by nature, which means social distancing doesn’t come naturally to many of us. We all enjoy spending time with family and friends, and though most of us are currently isolated from our social circles, being unable to meet face-to-face doesn’t mean we can’t spend time with the people we care about.

We’re lucky to live in such an intimately connected world. Nowadays it’s easy for even the most technophobic of us to make video calls and send voice messages. So it’s both important and feasible to keep in touch with those we’d normally see on a regular basis.

If you have friends you’d usually meet with once a week for a coffee, arrange a group video call instead. You can still drink coffee and chat together, but from the comfort of your own homes.

You could even go old school and write a letter to a friend you haven’t contacted for a while. This also has a 2-for-1 benefit: you can keep your mind active by writing and reconnect with a distant friend at the same time.

More resources

For more information and advice on the upkeep of mental health during this difficult time, there are some excellent articles by Time, Mind, Mental Health Foundation, and the BBC.

5 Benefits Of Volunteering

Photo by Matthias Zomer from Pexels

Volunteering is a great thing to do with our spare time. It’s fun, fulfilling, and rewarding. And with more than one in five people reporting that they volunteer at least once a month, it’s something that lots of us are doing.

But beyond all the obvious reasons, why exactly should you volunteer? Well, there are lots of advantages to giving our time to a worthy cause, both for ourselves and the community in general. And though we won’t cover them all today, here are 5 benefits of volunteering that show what a truly worthy pursuit it is. . .

Volunteering develops new skills

Volunteering presents amazing opportunities to learn new skills in easygoing and informal environments.

In voluntary positions, due to the lack of financial incentive, there’s often no performance-based pressure whatsoever. This creates a completely safe environment in which to explore new skills and creative pursuits without fear of judgement.

Helps build experience

Aside from allowing you to learn new skills from scratch, volunteering also lets you develop existing skills in order to build experience.

Volunteering can give your CV an enormous boost. But it’s also a fun and rewarding way to simply build on skills that you’d like to develop.

Makes you feel connected to a cause

It’s incredibly important that we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. It gives us a sense of perspective and purpose, and can really add a lot of extra meaning to our lives.

Volunteering allows us to get out into our communities and really make an impact. And by helping out in even the smallest ways we can come to feel more connected to our towns, cities, and neighbours.

Helps you make friends and expand your network

You’ll meet all sorts of people through volunteering. Some of them might turn into lifelong friends, and others could become valuable contacts who may even help you progress in your career.

It’s especially powerful if you’re new to an area. By volunteering in an unfamiliar place, not only will you meet locals and make friends, but you’ll feel immediately connected to your new location and its residents.

It’s is good for the mind

Volunteering can be an incredibly effective antidote to stress and anxiety. It can help take your mind off your current worries by forcing you to focus on something completely different. And due to the selfless nature of most voluntary positions, they offer a unique and profoundly effective way of getting out of our heads for a little while.

On top of this, learning and applying new skills through volunteering can help to keep our brains active and curious. And volunteering with animals could be especially effective when it comes to mental wellbeing.

What’s more, you might even find that after volunteering for a short while you’ll start to feel more self-confident.

Get involved!

There are lots of ways to get involved and volunteer in your local community. For general positions you can check out do-it.org, where you’ll find a huge variety of positions in all sorts of areas.

The Benefits Of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

You may have heard of High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short. It’s an incredibly popular way to workout. Lauded for its ability to yield big results for relatively short bouts of exercise, HIIT is all the rage, and rightly so.

A typical session consists of small bursts of high-intensity exercise (usually anywhere from 20 to 40 seconds) followed by low-intensity recovery periods. With the overall session lasting around 10 to 30 minutes.

This might not seem like much through the lens of an endurance athlete. But the evidence is mounting, and it seems that when it comes to HIIT, short really is sweet.

So here are 5 benefits of High Intensity Interval Training. Who knows, they might even make you think twice before going out on your next 10 mile run.

Fits around tight schedules. . .

To reap the benefits of High Intensity Interval Training, you only need to workout for a total of 10-20 minutes, three times a week. This is perfect for those who otherwise avoid exercise due to time constraints. Pencilling in three 20 minute sessions over the course of a week is much more conceivable than trying to fit in a big run every other day.

Plus, due to the heightened intensity of this style of training, you don’t need to devote huge amounts of time to it in order to see big results.

In a study focussing on healthy but sedentary individuals, it was found that just 1 minute of HIIT performed three times a week could improve blood sugar scores and aerobic capacity after just six weeks. So short, regular bursts of HIIT could prove effective even for the busiest people.

. . . and in tight spaces

A very convenient benefit of HIIT is the fact that it can be performed pretty much anywhere. There are lots of different HIIT sessions out there, designed to suit any fitness level and environmental obstacle. So whether you’re in a small bedroom or a back garden, you can make it work for your situation.

You can even try a low-impact HIIT session designed for hotel rooms. Which means, unfortunately, that a cramped B&B no longer serves as a valid excuse to skip a training day.

It may reduce blood pressure

Research is beginning to suggest that HIIT may be effective for reducing heart rate and blood pressure in obese individuals.

In one study, adults with high blood pressure performed HIIT on a stationary bike three days a week, for 20 minutes per session, over the course of eight weeks. At the end of the study it was found that the HIIT group’s blood pressure decreased as much as a second group who had been training for four days a week at 30 minutes per session.

It burns fat

High Intensity Interval Training is known for its fat-burning effects. And the reason it works so well is that it produces excess post-oxygen consumption (EPOC). Essentially, your body continues to burn calories for a longer period after a HIIT session.

In one study, from Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, it was concluded that participants who performed HIIT on a stationary bicycle burned more calories in the following 24 hours than participants who cycled at a moderate and steady rate.

In other studies, out of Laval University and East Tennessee State University, researchers found that participants following a HIIT training programme lost more body fat than participants performing steady-state cardio for the same length of time.

So for anyone looking to burn more calories and, ultimately, lose more fat, HIIT could be a very effective option.

It provides variety

HIIT training exposes you to a huge array of exercises, targeting many different muscle groups. Full-body-burning burpees, ab-crunching crunches, shoulder-sculpting push-ups. They’re all there.

The diversity of this kind of workout ensures that your entire body feels the benefit. So it’s a very well-balanced way to stay fit. Plus, with all the variety of HIIT, you’ll be much less likely to grow bored in the long run.

Up the intensity

For some HIIT inspiration, take a look at these 6 plyometric exercises to fit into your next workout session. And don’t forget to stretch!

The Benefits Of Becoming A Lifeguard

 Image by Capri23auto from Pixabay 

Becoming a certified lifeguard is a fantastic way to gain new skills and get involved in a role that can really make a difference!

And for anyone who’s interested in exploring this rewarding line of work, here are 5 benefits of becoming a lifeguard.

Improve your communication skills

Even when they’re not in the water, lifeguards are still interacting with people. Monitoring waterside behaviour, dealing with dangerous situations, and challenging unsafe conduct. These are skills that all lifeguards will learn, and they provide excellent boosts to communication abilities.

Increase your self-confidence

Lifeguarding is a highly responsible role. When on duty, a lifeguard is responsible for the physical safety of everyone in the water. This means that lifeguards need to feel comfortable taking the initiative, enforcing rules, and making judgement calls.

This level of responsibility, coupled with the autonomy that comes with it, can be a huge confidence booster.

There’s also the fact that being a lifeguard is plain fun. And knowing that it’s your job to look out for people and keep them safe from harm can leave you feeling really positive at the end of a shift!  

Develop sought-after skills

Not only is being a lifeguard an incredibly rewarding job in itself, but it also paves the way for future employment.

Communication, self-confidence, team work, leadership, responsibility. These are all job market buzz words, and they’re all the skills of a good lifeguard.

Showing prospective employers that you’re capable of maintaining public safety, whilst working independently, demonstrates dependability and maturity. It also shows that you’re willing to take on roles of increased responsibility and autonomy.

Learn life-saving skills

When training as a lifeguard you’ll learn invaluable life-saving skills. And though hopefully you’ll never need to use them, they’re indispensable tools that you’ll be able to carry with you throughout the rest of your life. After all, what’s more transferrable than first aid training?

This also comes back to increased self-confidence. It’s incredibly liberating and comforting to know that, in any event, if the situation called for it, you could potentially save someone’s life.   

Make new friends

From the training room to the pool, becoming a lifeguard is a great way to meet likeminded individuals. The training itself can often prove to be an excellent bonding experience, and working with other lifeguards on-shift (sharing experiences and developing together)  can help build lasting friendships. 

Fancy a challenge? 

If lifeguarding may be of interest to you or someone you know, why not take a course and learn some invaluable life skills? Here at Jesmond Pool we offer a 5-day training course, see bel ow for details!

How To Stretch Like A Pro

Stretching: a controversial topic. Does it work or not? And if so, which type of stretch is best? Should you do it before or after workouts? And though there’s much disagreement on the specifics, many experts and trainers do seem to agree that certain types of stretching can be beneficial to our fitness.

The first trick is in figuring out which type of stretching is best for your purposes. The second is learning how to perform those stretches in an optimal manner.

Which stretch is best?

The first point of call is to look at the different types of stretches and see what’s what. To begin, three of the best-known stretch types are static, dynamic, and ballistic. Here are their respective definitions according to the NHS:

“- Static stretch: stretching a muscle to the point of mild discomfort and holding that position, typically for at least 30 seconds or longer.

– Dynamic stretch: performing gentle repetitive movements, such as arm swings, where one gradually increases the range of motion of the movement, but always remains within the normal range of motion.

– Ballistic stretch: involves going into a stretch and performing bouncing or jerking movements to increase range of motion.”

Though there are wildly varied opinions on the subject, many coaches will advocate the practise of dynamic stretching before any workout.”

Of the above, probably the most popular amongst trainers and casual athletes is dynamic.

Dynamic stretching incorporates movement into your routine. And one of the main advantages of movement is that it warms your muscles up. Compare this to static stretching which, though it does loosen muscles, doesn’t have the same “warming” effect, and so doesn’t prepare your body in the same way that a dynamic stretch will.

Of course, this is not to say that static stretching is bad. In fact, many fitness experts claim that static stretching is the best method for increasing range of movement.

But when it comes to sporting performance, at least, dynamic stretching might just have the edge. Particularly as it subjects the body to slow and gentle variations of the more intense movements that are about to follow during the actual exercise or sport.

On the other end of the scale is ballistic stretching. This takes the principals of dynamic stretching a little further, adding in a “jerking” movement that pushes muscles past their normal range of movement. This distinction is important, as dynamic stretching doesn’t push you beyond your edge like ballistic stretching does. In fact, ballistic stretching is said to carry a higher risk of injury, and many experts advise that non-professionals should stick to dynamic stretching when warming up.

So, in quick summary, it could be argued that a combination of pre-workout dynamic stretching and post-workout static stretching may work as an effective and beneficial combination.

A few rules

There are lots of dos and don’ts when it comes to stretching, but here are a few basic suggestions that you might find helpful:

– Always wait at least an hour after waking up before stretching.

– If you’d like to incorporate both dynamic and static stretching into your routine, perform dynamic before a workout and static after.

– Try not to hold intense stretches for longer than 15 seconds at a time.

– Remember to relax and breathe; holding your breath whilst stretching will tense your muscles, thus defeating the purpose of the exercise.

Some dynamic stretches

You’ll find a huge amount of dynamic stretches out there if you go looking. And there are many different routines designed to suit many different sports and workouts. The main thing to remember, however, is to always warm-up the muscle groups that you’re going to be engaging whilst exercising.

That said, here are a few examples of dynamic stretches to use a general starting point:

• Walking lunge
• Side to side lunge
• Dynamic hamstring stretch
• Standing side stretch
• Hip circles
• Dynamic arm and chest stretch

 And when you’re done stretching, why not try the Tennis Champ Workout or some good old fashioned plyometric exercises to get a real sweat on?