One physical activity that boosts physical health is exercise. No doubt, young and old alike do exercises as much as they can to keep physically healthy, especially these days when we have to keep our immune systems strong to fight the covid virus.
There are many physical exercises that we could do to make ourselves stronger, healthier, have a stronger immune system to fight diseases and to be also mentally healthy. Exercising is not only good for the body but also for the mind as well because some studies found that exercising boosts mental health in a way that when we do physical exercises we also become happy and positive.
Exercising regularly and eating the right kind of food are good health regimens. If you do not have the time to exercise because you’re busy, you can find time if you really want to do it. Following are some exercises for your physical fitness as I retrieved from a book “ The Secrets of Health, Youth and Longevity written by Dr. R. Palma.
First off, you can do breathing exercises as a warm-up and as a preparation for more exercises that you have chosen according to exercise goals.
- Controlled breathing exercise - In controlled breathing exercise, you maximize your inhale and exhale breathing. You have to count 3 when you inhale and count 6 when you exhale. Then gradually increase inhale to 4 counts and exhale to 8 counts. After that, inhale 5 counts and exhale 10 counts, and so on. Exhalation must be twice long as inhalation.
This exercise is reported to be the best practice to make your respiratory muscles and lungs stronger.
- Postural exercise - have your hands clasped behind your back with the palms facing each other, arms and forearms straight. Have your shoulders stretched backward making it so you're trying to meet your elbows with each other. Relax and do this twenty times. This exercise is good for your shoulder and chest muscles. This is good for those who have bad posture such as the humpback posture because it straightens the spine.
- Neck exercises
- Put your left palm on your left temple and your right palm on your right temple. Resist with your right hand as you bring down your head towards the right shoulder. The same thing should be done with your left palm resisting as you move your head towards your left shoulder. Alternately do it five times for each side.
- Place your right palm on your forehead and left palm at the back of your head. Move your head forward and downward at the same time resisting with your right hand then move your head backward as you resist with your left hand. It should be alternately done
- Turn your head to the left as far as you can, looking at your shoulder. Then to your right. Do this five times for each side.
- Make a circular motion with your chin, first clockwise, five times, then counterclockwise, five times also
This is good for your neck muscles and also for stiff neck and neck pains. This will be great especially for those working for long hours on the computer whether you are at home or in the office.
- Bending exercise - extend both your hands overhead, bend forward bringing down both hands. Then stretch backward as far as you can with your arms extended bringing them towards you back as far as they can go. Bending forward and backward is 1 (one) count. Do this twenty times.
This will exercise your arm, shoulder, abdominal and back muscles. This is also good to make your waist slimmer.
- Shadowboxing - this is good for both males and females. You can fight with an imaginary opponent as in boxing. Do this for 3 to 5 minutes. The movements of your legs, body, arms, and head not only exercises almost all of your body muscles but more importantly, it improves your reflexes.
- Hip exercises
- standing on the floor, place both hands on your hips, then make a circular motion with your hip. First clockwise, ten times; then counterclockwise, ten times. This exercises your hips. It is also good for slimming your waist.
- Standing on the floor, extend both hands to the sides at right angles to your body. Bend to the right, at the same time bring down your right hand and bring up your left hand; then bend to the left; this is one count. Do this twenty times. This exercises your hip and abdominal muscles.
- Standing on the floor with both hands extended to the sides at the right angle to your body. Turn to the right as far as you can, then to the left as far as you can; this is one count. Do this twenty times. This exercises your abdominal muscles. and beneficial for slimming your waist.
- Mental exercises - chess, word puzzles, scrabble, pictionary, memorizing some poems or phrases can also boost your memory. You can also memorize phone numbers as we often forget and cannot really memorize at one time. We usually memorize our phone numbers but sometimes not. We always rely on our smartphones to get our friend’s phone number and surprisingly, our own phone numbers
If you want to do your exercises while doing your office work, it is possible these days because there are already products in the market that offer such ergonomic furniture. One of them is FlexiSpot. One outstanding product from this company is the Cycle Desk Bike V9 Pro.
With this desk bike, you can work productively and at the same time do leg exercises with pedaling cycling as it has a built-in bike. It also has a movable and spacious desktop that can be easily moved forward, backward, up, or down to find your comfort zone. A well-made wide surface holds your books, laptop, tablet, and more.
It can also be assembled in only one minute. The seat is adjustable and with a gentle press on the lever. Sitting on the padded cushion is the most comfortable experience you will ever have.
