Walking Outside
Taking walks around the neighborhood for at least 30 minutes a few times a day is one great way to maintain your health while social distancing. Make sure to keep at least six feet away from any passersby! These walks not only help to burn calories, but also to exercise muscles. Walks can be intensified to jogs and runs as well. Walking or running not only increases physical health, but mental health as well. According to a Harvard University study, walking for one hour or running for 15 minutes even reduces the risk of developing Major Depressive Disorder.

Body Weight Workouts
Doing pushups, squats and planks are all excellent ways to exercise the body without any equipment whatsoever. These are workouts that most people know how to do already, and if not, they can easily be explained online. Doing these exercises in just one minute intervals for thirty minutes is sufficient as a workout circuit. According to Harvard Medical School, “squats are easy to perform, if done correctly” and that “here are many ways to make them safe and effective for almost anyone”.

Steps on Stairs

Don’t have a Stairmaster machine? No problem! Put on a relatively fast-paced song and go up and down the steps to the beat. This can be done for as long as is appropriate, but don’t overdo it and risk excessive muscle soreness. Climbing 20 steps burns approximately 3 calories! This does not require any equipment, and is 100 percent quarantine friendly. It can often be done in the comfort of your own home, and requires minimal effort. According to Duke University, “stair climbing can help you build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints”.

Yoga Poses
Easy to access online, instructions for various yoga poses can be found on many different websites. These poses are known to be good mood equalizers and are commonly used to manage anxiety and panicked thoughts. Meditations can also be done during different types of yoga. Johns Hopkins University reports that people who participate in yoga “may feel increased mental and physical energy, a boost in alertness and enthusiasm and fewer negative feelings after getting into a routine of practicing yoga.” According to Livestrong.com, Vinyasa yoga burns an average of 550 calories per hour.

Lifting Weighted Objects
Remember how heavy those math books are? Use them as weights! No extra equipment is necessary to exercise arm and shoulder muscles– only books. Lift the books above your head-
as one would with free weights, in sets of 12,10, 8 and then 12 again, increasing the number of books as you go. These circuits can be done until exhaustion, or within the time limit of a half hour. According to the Mayo Clinic, people doing strength training “can see significant improvement in strength with just two or three 20- or 30-minute weight training sessions a week.”