When you’re in the midst of a global pandemic, it's not easy to prioritize fitness. Yet staying active will also help relieve stress and clear the mind. Although much of the country is now socially distancing or self-quarantining, we are able to still move our bodies in ways that feel great and even spark moments of joy.
Here are a few creative ways to stay active and be in nature while still following social-distancing guidelines.
Build an outdoor obstacle course
“Consider what you can jump over and up on, what you can crawl under, what you can climb on, and how you are able to challenge your balance,” says Paul Canada, a Chicagoland parkour and acrobatics coach who also builds backyard obstacle courses for clients. Here are his recommendations for using things you might already have at home:
- Set up Hula Hoops or tires at different distances and practice jumping from one to the next. Or place two two-by-fours parallel one to the other and jump across to practice a precision landing.
- Balance a broomstick between two chairs of the same height and crawl under it.
- Use a ladder tilted in an angle to practice climbing. Make sure the ladder is secured!
- Fill bags or buckets and exercise loaded carries, focusing on keeping good posture. Walk on a two-by-four for a greater challenge.
- Add in cardio and conditioning by running a lap around your house or apartment building between rounds of the obstacle course.
Host a “Moving Night”
Substitute your usual retreat towards the couch with active challenges you can do together:
Whole-House Circuit: Set up a circuit workout that spans all the rooms of your house. Designate an exercise and quantity of reps for each room and find out who can complete the most rounds inside a set amount of time. For extra fun, choose exercises unique to each space, such as single-leg-toilet-seat squats or kitchen-counter pushups.
Animal Relay Races: Separated into two teams and set up a start and finished line. Race to your target and back while moving like different animals. You are able to bear crawl, crab walk, hop just like a kangaroo, slither like a snake, flop just like a fish, or waddle like a penguin.
Dance Party: Come up with a playlist of your favorite dance music, dress up like you’re at a party, pour some fancy drinks, and dim the lights. Dance on your own or with your social-distancing circle!
Virtual Workout: For any great impromptu fitness class, gather your shelter-in-place crew and pick from the many on-demand and at-home workouts available.
Go all out on a landscaping or gardening project
“One thing that is going to continue to bring us some happiness during this time is our outdoor spaces. I don’t think nature has ever been more important than it is right now,” says Julie Moir Messervy, a Vermont landscape designer and author of recent Landscaping Ideas That Work. If you are lucky enough to have a yard, Messervy offers some basic steps for cultivating your back yard:
- If you can, position your garden facing south as well as in an area that receives full sunlight. Eliminate a section of grass having a spade or hand trowel.
- Add compost towards the soil to make it soft and friable.
- Create a path resulting in your garden, considering how you might add elements like stepping stones later.
- If you have children, designate an area of the garden as theirs and permit them to add whimsical décor. Hand out shovels and let them outside, hurry up digging in the dirt.
Level your scavenger hunt
Try one of these creative scavenger-hunt ideas on the next neighborhood stroll.
ABCs in Nature: Look for items that start with each letter of the alphabet. Bonus: Take photos products you find and print them out later to create a book.
Name “I Spy”: Walk around your neighborhood looking for the letters in your name, either as present in nature (e.g., a tree branch in the shape of a “Y”), or on manmade objects (e.g., the “S” in a stop sign). Photograph each letter and then assemble them to create a name collage. You can use a digital graphic-design app, such as Canva, or simply print and glue each letter on a poster.
Make the woods your playground as well as your gym
Your local forest preserve has all you need to get everyone moving. Set off trail and find an area with lots of fallen trees. Come up with a hurdle course, let your kids come up with their own imaginative play, or just climb stuff. Some moves to try:
- Crawl on a log.
- Hang and swing from a low, sturdy branch.
- Vault over a fallen tree.
- Jump or do step-ups onto a tree stump.
Conquer your neighborhood
During their annual GOvember challenge, Lively Athletics, a store in Oak Park, Ill., provides customers having a local map and challenges these to walk or run every street around, highlighting or crossing them off as they go. You can print out a roadmap of your own town and do the same. Take photos near landmarks and unique things you discover. Feeling extra motivated? Make use of your finds to create a scavenger hunt for others in your town.
