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Physical exercise: How to pick up where we left off
People who had stopped physical exercise for more than two months would inevitably face a performance decline, thus it was essential for them to decrease the frequency, intensity, duration and types of exercise upon resuming training.
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ndriana Apriani, a 32-year-old consultant currently working for a financial institution, loves exercising. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she used to do 5-kilometer runs three times a week during the weekdays, while on the weekends, she would run 10 km to 15 km on Car Free Day in Jakarta.
Her 5 km runs on the weekdays usually took about 50 minutes, while her extended weekend regimens could take one-and-a-half to two hours. Her friend Fitri Putranti, a 32-year-old telecommunications company employee, used to follow the same regimen. Both women live in South Jakarta.
Yet, starting in March 2020, due to fears of the coronavirus outbreak, Indriana and Fitri stopped these outdoor exercises, opting to do some indoor exercises instead such as yoga and Latin dance from home.
Several months into home quarantine, both began longing to resume their more intense outdoor physical exercises.
“Spending too much time being inactive at home, my sleeping patterns became abnormal. Back when I was commuting to the office, I would usually get so tired at around 10 p.m. and fall asleep straight away. Now, it takes longer for my body to feel tired, so I am only able to sleep at around 12 a.m.,” Fitri said.
Meanwhile, Indriana said that after a while, her “lighter” daily yoga and dance exercises did little to help keep her physical lethargy at bay. “I started to get tired and feel weak more easily,” she said.
To feel better, Indriana and Fitri have recently started to engage in their more strenuous outdoor activities again by running around the neighborhood complexes in which they live, wearing face masks and keeping proper distance from passersby, of course.
However, given the long break, they both needed to lower the intensity and duration of their sessions to allow their bodies to adjust properly.
Indonesian Fitness Trainer Association nutrition and fitness expert Jansen Ongko said that people who had stopped physical exercise for more than two months would inevitably face a performance decline, thus it was essential for them to decrease the frequency, intensity, duration and types of exercise upon resuming training.
Sophia Hage, a medical doctor specializing in physical exercise, said that this performance decline had to do with our decreasing muscle, lung and cardiovascular strength upon hitting a pause with our physical exercises for a while.
“The work-from-home situation, which has caused a lot of people to just sit down for long hours at home for a prolonged period, has also further decreased our movement flexibility,” she said.
So, how do we get ourselves to slow down with our physical exercise once we start again? For Jansen, it starts with not forgetting how to stretch, both before and after physical exercise.
“Maybe it’s best to limit your sessions to 20- to 30-minute low intensity sessions. Don’t jump to doing sprints straight away; better to take long-distance runs with a steady pace instead. Also, it is not advisable for you to do high intensity interval trainings straight away after having paused with your regimen for quite a while,” Jansen said.
He also advised restarters to decrease the frequency with which they conduct their exercises: for instance, if you used to do four sessions a week, you could maybe cut down to just two weekly sessions and build from there.
“When I started again, I could only do 15- to 20-minute sessions, running around the pool area of my apartment, finishing only 2 km courses in each session. Slowly, I began to increase both the time and intensity,” Indriana said.
Sophia said the best way to gauge whether you already reached the limit of your physical strength was by doing the “speaking test” when you started to feel tired from your exercise.
“Try speaking one complete sentence within one breath. If you can do that, that means that your body is still fit. If you can’t, that means it’s time to stop your session right there,” she said.
Sophia noted that feeling joint aches after exercising was completely normal. These aches mean you have properly put pressures on your muscles and they will usually disappear within two days, according to her.
“If, however, you only begin to feel the aches two days after the exercise, you have delayed onset muscle soreness, which signals you that you exercised too hard in your last session and that you need to lower your intensity,” she added.
Apparently, as exercise enthusiasts, Indriana and Fitri know these steps well. So far, resuming their outdoor exercise activities has brought them great benefits.
“I feel happier the entire day and more motivated to complete my assignments working from home,” Fitri said.
