COVID-19 has changed how we conduct our daily lives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It's the new normal now: Social distancing, wearing mask in public and of course, working from home. 

Unfortunately, the fitness industry is impacted badly. We were not able to practice/ work out at our favourite studios during the circuit breaker - and even now in phase 2, there's a limit on the capacity. Some studios are not even open yet. 

So how does this impact us?

For many of us, we won't be able to easily resume our old routines of going to our favourite studios before/after work as we shift towards working from home. While some of us might be lucky enough to have ample space and equipment in our homes, there are those of us who might be living in cramped apartments without much room for exercise.

With all that being said, we're sharing 3 tips on how to keep your fitness focus in this new normal.

1) Find the right online workouts

Fortunately, online classes have exploded in popularity and can be found via a multitude of channels. There are live classes on Classpass/Mindbody, and even videos on YouTube which you can choose to follow in your own free time.

The downside is that it will not be easy to get the feeling of progression that you normally might have when following the same instructor. Some YouTube videos are usually promotional videos that try to get you to subscribe to a paid service. We recommend following a routine / weekly classes rather than sporadically so that progress can be felt more clearly. 

2) Finding the right trigger

Finding the right fitness content is the easy part. For most of us, the biggest obstacle in getting to exercise lies within ourselves. After a long day at work, it might be tempting to just slouch at your couch or chill on your bed and snack on our favourite comfort food. This temptation is definitely much more prevalent since most of us might be working from home during the pandemic.

So here are some quick mental tricks that can help you build a habit of exercising regularly.

We could learn to first set more manageable goals. Most of us, when starting to exercise, might adopt overly ambitious fitness goals to attempt to motivate ourselves. However, this might backfire as we find that we are unable to come close to achieving these goals.

We at Anya Active, always believe that we need to first learn to love and be comfortable with ourselves and where we are. We can then seek to constantly improve ourselves from a position of peace and inner strength. We push ourselves because we enjoy the process and believe that it is good for us. We should not be pushing ourselves to exercise because we are dissatisfied with how we currently look or feel.

Setting micro, achievable goals will help us achieve this. As we hit our small goals on a daily or weekly basis, we can then build the confidence to constantly increase our goals and have the momentum to build on our fitness routine.

Another tip is having a “go with the flow” attitude. Most of us are conditioned to only think that long, intense sessions in the gym count as exercise. However, the daily demands of our work or personal lives sometimes means that we are not able to find the time needed to embark on these fitness sessions. Having an adaptable mindset towards exercise can go a long way. If you’re unable to find time to do a 1 hour yoga session, you can always consider some micro-exercises as you do your daily chores. You could do some planks while waiting for certain household chores, taking a brisk walk while you walk your dog or simply taking the stairs instead of the lift can be many small but meaningful ways to introduce more fitness into our lifestyles.

Lets not be discouraged when we are unable to find time to get into long intense workouts. If we keep an open mind, we find that there are many opportunities to improve our fitness in our daily activities. Always remember that small progress is better than no progress!

3) Going Social

Always remember that we are never alone in our fitness journey. Sometimes embarking on group exercises with your friends can help in motivating everyone. While different people might have varying levels of fitness, it can be fun and rewarding to just get together for a run outdoors or to do a HIIT session together online over zoom.

Having friends to work out together can be a very helpful and fun way to also keep a healthy social life. Since social gatherings are currently still limited to 5, we might not be able to meet up with larger circles of friends. In this case, online fitness sessions together with your large circle of friends can still be a very good way of bonding while also keeping yourself fit!

If you like working out with your friends but are unable to find an appropriate outdoor location, you can always search for fitness studios that you can hire on an ad-hoc basis. Most studios are able to provide equipment that might not be common, such as thick floor mats, fitness mats or full length mirror. Of course, do remember to keep your group size to 5 until there are advisory changes from the government :)