Runner's View on corona aka COVID 19

Its good to get stuck sometimes. Stuck on a dream and working tirelessly until it becomes reality, stuck on a focused mind attaining highest level of spirituality, stuck on your very own physical state following particular health program, diet, exercises etc . But, once in a several life-time, we get stuck on a pandemic and quarantined in a few square yard area also and thats the time now 😊

May be nature desperately needed one RESET signal to be asserted from our side but we didn't have enough time in our fast paced life to look at it. Seeing no other option left, it took one decision in the form of COVID 19 to take care of itself... to have some leisure time for itself...to teach a lesson to all human viruses that "Your very own existence solely depends upon the nature, upon the ecosystem you live in and upon the every tiniest of particles of universe you don't care about!".


Hope, this tough time will also pass by. Though I am not sure if the human civilization will learn the lesson or not!

Anyways, idea behind writing this article is not to go into details of why and how corona is taking charge of the entire world (Everybody is expert on this topic by now.) but to understand what we can do to remain healthy, happy and strong. I would like to segregate this topic in the following category:

a. Exercising and indoor activities
b. Nutrition
c. Mental Health

Exercising and Indoor activity

Man, I cant run ...cant cycle... cant go for tennis...I am loosing my fitness... How to manage this grave situation? Well, as we discussed nature has decided to reset itself and government has decided to take care of our lives, so we are simply not in a position to do any outdoor activity as a responsible citizen of the planet. Lets discuss what we can do staying at home.
  • Do you have static indoor bike? Or bike with trainer? If yes, switch on your TV and  pedal for half an hour to 1-hour.
  • Do you have skipping rope? Start with 3 min and try to achieve 8 min by the end of lock-down.
  • If you don't have rope just do spot jumping like we do in skipping. Absolutely  no problem.
  • Would you like to run a 3K/5K etc in your living room? Depends but i will tell you, Many are already doing in our heart-rate-trainer group. One has done even a full marathon, yes a full marathon in his living room! But lets not try to do this. Running in such a small loop can affect your different muscle group in many ways.
  • Do you have access to stairs? Can you do stair running? Or even easy stair walk?
  • What about spot running for 20 minutes? Can you give it a try?
  • Jumping jacks for 2 minutes? Reach till 8 minutes.
Can we do this simple exercise by changing legs:




Lets move on to simple exercises we can do for 20-30 minutes:
  • Soorya Namaskaram
  • Deep Squat
  • Lunges
  • Heel Raise
  • Plank
  • Push-up
  • Sit-up
  • pull-up(Depends, if you have something to do it.)
  • toe curl 
See what exercises even elites do. Keep it simple, Make it effective through repetition:




Diet

More you stay at home without work and without following any routine, more you will look for food. Sometimes eating is not the requirement of human body but a way to pass the time and that could very easily happen in this crucial time. Be disciplined in eating. Remember what Kipchoge says "Only the disciplined ones are free in life" so rest are slave and hopefully, you wont like to fall in that group. I am trying to list food items (Few could be debatable because of their glycemic indices but i am including them because we don't have access to all the food we wish today!)
  • Unpolished/brown rice
  • Pulses with its shell
  • Multi-grained flour (Shell of any grain should not be peeled)
  • All veggies  (Spinach, Broccoli, Cucumber, Carrot, Peas, Beans, tomato, Cauliflower  and so on...)
  • No potato if possible otherwise take it with high fiber food.
  • No sweet in any form (Sweets/chocolate etc)
  • No/minimal sugar added in your food. Use honey if needed and its there at home.
  • All fruit (In limited quantity! Remember overeating of sweet fruits are actually increasing your glycogen level)
  • Limited dry-fruits
  • Seeds if you have: Chia, sunflower, sesame etc
  • Unsweetened yougurt
  • Mimimal milk
  • Minimal tea/coffee (Take it with honey if you cant resist!)
  • Unprocessed cheese
  • Paneer
  • Ghee
  • No Refine in your cooking. Use mustard/coconut oil or ghee. 
  • No processed/packaged food
 (Pls add to the list in your comment. Will update the list if found it appropriate.)

Apart from this, if you have access to all kind of food, would like to suggest you to try 2 things for the coming days:
  1.  2-week-test . I am sure after this test you would feel great!
  2.  Intermittent-fasting

Don't try both at the same time and pls write in comment for your query on any of the bove. I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge.

Mental Health

The most important part of this article is mental health. I firmly believe your body responds the way your mind signals it. Difference between good and great sportsperson doesnt lie in their physical capabilities but in the head. Watch 2016 Rio olympic 100m men's final race when Bolt was significantly behind and how he didnt give-up making it a history! So, what we can do to fight best with corona? Be aware, Be alert and Stay positive, keep saying... Everybody would be fine!

  • Dont see every message on social media. Stay away, it creates negative thought. May be 15 minute of each day on news could be enough to make you alert and aware  of the situation.
  • There is a fragile difference between confidence and over-confidence! Don't think if you are a runner or a triathlete or an athlete or a good sports-person- You are immune. Thousands of cases across the world contradicts this theory. So, be at home. Dont be a fool COVID19 wearer contributing to complete the chain. Be a sensible, responsible citizen- that's all. 
  • Start meditation.
  • Devote 15 minutes of your day on yourself. Be just with yourself , no-one else.
  • Everybody has given-up on something which he liked doing it most as a kid or an adult but life took a different route and everything was just left behind! Can we do something for those interests now staying indoor? List could be:
    • Were you a movie freak?
    • Would you like to revisit Nagraj, Chacha Chaudhary, Super Commando Dhruv ?
    • Would you like to read Malgudi Days again?
    • Can we do something for the books waiting on our shelves written by legends like Premchand, Renu, Shukla, Agey. Or, if you had never time for The monk who sold his ferrary or Fountain head!
    • Did you want to travel the world but You had no time. Can we prepare a wish-list and think how we will accomplish it?
    • Did you like the documentary? On kenyans, On wild-life, On philosophers? On anybody?
    • Did you like writting stories? Can we wake our sleeping authors up from inside?
    • Had not enough time to spend with your kids? Can we do it now?
    • You liked cooking or baking but time never allowed you? Your wife is waiting for you in the kitchen😜
    •  Painting? Can we do it now? If you have a kid, its easier fun then.
    • Would you like to knit for anybody you love?
    • You wanted to talk for an hour with your mom/dad/sis/loved ones. Come on! Do it. Technology has made it far easier.
    • You always loved learning? Learn something new: New language, New technology, Jewelery designing, Cloth desiging, even you can learn and explore new hobbies.
    • Wanted to see the birds flying, clouds taking different shapes, twinkling stars like childhood? Its the time my friend.
    • List goes long.... But the point is "Utilize this precious time, Dont waste it in anxiety!"
                                                                               Stay Positive!

I was reading one article on linked-in about the learnings from Corona time! It was so positive. Would suggest everybody to keep on thinking on the priority of life. Its right time to re-think, re-analyze and reshape.

How would you like to see yourself while leaving the world? If you get this answer from within. Keep working towards it, stay positive on your karma!

Be Happy! Stay Indoor! Keep youself sanitized!










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heat, Humidity and HR based (aka MAF) Training

Image
This is one topic I wanted to touch upon since onset of summer but could not manage to do so due to other commitments and priorities. Finally, I'm here with some thoughts which are particularly with respect to MAF based heart rate (HR) training  in hot and humid environment. In order to understand it in a better way, lets divide this problem (not really a problem!) further into below sections and solve it meticulously: Heat/Humidity impact on our heart Should we tweak our basic training strategy? Handling hot/humid weather Adversity or opportunity? Key Take-aways Heat/Humidity impact on our heart HEAT: Its proven fact that sizzling temperature in the summer (or due to sauna bath, sun bath on sea beach etc :) ) forces our dear heart to work harder. For every single degree rise in our internal temperature, heart beats 8-12 times more in a minute and as a runner or endurance athlete it hurts us, doesn't it, specially when we're doing MAF traing ( or HR ba...
Read more

How a MAF based training should look like on a particular day

Everything in its simplest form looks beautiful and so is running. Today, work-out has been named so fascinating that we take more pride in saying than doing it. It was my tempo today, tomorrow I will be doing interval and day after that my coach has planned hill training for me. Aah! looks so pleasing, so impressive and so satisfying. If you are expecting any such fancy stuff in this article, then pls don’t read it! Any run with MAF training is pretty simple. Its as simple as running is. Few minutes of warm-up followed by run at your MAF followed by few minutes of cool down. Typically it should look like following (Suggested by Phil Maffetone) Now lets understand each part separately! ·        Warm-up ·        MAF run ·        Cool Down Warm-up Why warm-up is actually required? What are the benefits and how we should do it, are some of the questions which are expect...
Read more

Introduction to MAF training

What i feel is MAF training is nothing but a process of bringing out your endurance potential already present in you since millions of years. We are designed to possess abundant endurance otherwise could not have survived for so long. The problem is that somehow with time we changed our original form, we changed our original eating habits, we disturbed our mental focus because of different external factors and that's where we started making ourselves a lazy bear! So, lets be original, be sharp, be human! MAF training would help you achieve that originality. Purpose of MAF training Correct the Structure Balance the Chemistry in Body Improve Mental and emotional quotient For you to be an efficient runner, to be a good triathlete, to be good at any sports or even to be a good human all the above three aspects should be in proper equilibrium. Structure is related to our muscle balance, our bones, our joints, tendons, ligaments. They need to be in balanced state to achieve op...
Read more