Exercise and Immunity: Keeping Active during Lockdown
The COVID-19 outbreak has interrupted our normal daily routines, and that means our regular exercise habits have been knocked off track. It is more important than ever to keep moving and stay active to keep your body and mind healthy.
Your immune system has three main lines of defence – physical barriers like the skin, natural immunity from disease-fighting immune cells, and adaptive immunity from cells called lymphocytes. Exercise helps to keep all three lines of defence healthy and strong.
Here’s why exercise is important for immunity, and how you can keep active under the current restrictions.
The Key Benefits of Exercise
Overall wellness: Exercise stimulates blood circulation, improves your bone and muscle strength, and promotes better balance as well as flexibility.
Reduced health risks: Exercise keeps your blood pressure in check, reducing the risk of health problems like heart disease and stroke.
Weight management: Keeping active will help to prevent you from gaining unwanted kilos during lockdown.
Mental focus: It can be hard to concentrate while working from home, but exercise is a great way to clear your mind and improve your focus. Regular physical activity will help you and your family to concentrate on work and home-schooling tasks.
Stress relief: We’re all feeling more anxious than normal right now, and exercise is a great way to lower your anxiety levels. Getting active releases feel-good chemicals like endorphins and serotonin, quickly improving your mood. This can also help to strengthen your immune system.
Exercising at Home
While gyms and fitness centres are closed and in-person classes are on hold, there are still many ways you and your family can be active during the day. You’ll find a huge variety of workout videos and resources online, plus there are plenty of smartphone apps to help you count your steps, time your workouts and more.
Sometimes, a nice quick walk or jog during the allowed daily period for exercise is enough to get your blood pumping and leave you feeling ready to tackle the day. But if you’re looking at a long-term fitness plan, health professionals advise that you include these five components in every workout:
- A warm-up: Start slowly to warm up your muscles as well as joints, and prevent strains or sprains.
- Cardiovascular (aerobic) exercise: Get your heart rate up by walking, jogging or cycling.
- Resistance (strength-building) exercises: Use dumbbells, weights or bands, or do push-ups and crunches, to strengthen your muscles.
- Flexibility exercises: Bending and stretching will help with flexibility and balance.
- A cool-down: A few minutes of slower, gentler movements and stretches will help your body to cool down after working out. This will help to combat muscle pain and stiffness.
Exercising when you’re Sick
During cold and ‘flu season, a common concern is whether it’s safe to exercise when you’re feeling sick. While exercise is a great immune system booster, it’s also important to let your body rest and recover when it’s fighting off an illness.
Health professionals say that your approach to exercise should depend on whether your symptoms are “above the neck” or “below the neck”.
For symptoms like sinus congestion, a sore throat and sneezing (above the neck symptoms): You can still do light to moderate exercise, but be sure to reduce the intensity. A gentle stretching routine or yoga session will be kinder to your body than a strenuous run. If you start to feel worse during your workout, end your session early with a gentle cool-down routine.
For symptoms like coughing, a tight chest, shortness of breath, fever, aching joints, nausea and stomach upsets (below the neck symptoms): Avoid your workout altogether. Let your body rest and recover. Exercising when you have a more serious infection can cause respiratory problems, dehydration and dizziness, making your symptoms worse. Wait until about a week after you recover before easing back into your exercise routine again.
If you’re going out to exercise in public, remember to follow social distancing guidelines, wear a mask, and practice good personal hygiene to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Supporting your exercise habits with a balanced diet and a healthy sleep schedule will give your body the best chance at fighting off illness.
Should you require any further support or guidance in this regard, make contact with the LifeAssist National Support Centre.