Use fitness to your immune system’s advantage.
Exercise can have a profound effect on your life including improved mode, weight loss and most important right now, boosting your immune system! With the pandemic still raging on and flu season hit, now is the time to make exercise a part of your chores to improve your life.
The profound impact exercise has on improving the immune system is well documented. Exercise protects the host from viral infections and boost the immune system before a virus is even present. The good news is that even if you have never exercised, starting today can decrease inflammation in your cardiovascular system. Moderate exercise has been shown to increase the exchange and redeployment of highly effective immune cells across the entire body.
Tips for staying physically active during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Determine to take care of yourself during this period. Deciding to be healthy can help others in your family make the same choice.
- Identify an ‘active space’ in the house to do exercise. Utilize exercise equipment if available (e.g. yoga mats, dumbbells, resistance bands).
- Have a specific time in the morning or evening to do exercise and get into a routine timetable. Try to make each day meaningful with small achievable physical activity goals. The overall goal each day should be to move more and sit less.
- Find ways to do simple muscle strengthening exercises using your body weight around your home such as planks, push ups or squats.
Want to learn more about how to keep your immune system firing? Check out the full study at this link.