Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - Talking Coronavirus: How To Work Out When You're Not Leaving The House

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

Regular listeners will know that we normally focus on helping you reach a health or wellness goal. But these aren’t normal times. The novel coronavirus, or Covid-19, is now a global pandemic, and in the UK, we’re facing what the Prime Minister has declared ‘the worst public health crisis for a generation’. Right now, all we - like you - want to know, is how to stay as physically and mentally well as possible, and how we can minimise the risk of causing harm to others. So, that’s exactly what we’ll be aiming to find out over the next few episodes, where we’ll be putting your coronavirus questions to scientists, healthcare professionals and fitness experts. In this episode, Senior Editor Roisín Dervish-O’Kane chats to Laura Hoggins, PT and Head of Brand at Foundry Fitness, author of Lift Yourself and coach at FIIT about getting motivated, adjusting your fitness goals and creating a fitness routine you can stick with. Join Women’s Health on Instagram: @womenshealthuk Join Roisín Dervish-O’Kane on Instagram: @roisin.dervishokane Join Laura Hoggins on Instagram: @laurabiceps Topics: How to stay motivated when your plans are on hold What muscle groups to prioritise if you’re hunched over a desk all day How to build a circuit without any kit How to get your cardio in when you’re housebound Offer: With our Sweat and Reset training programme, you will receive all the benefits of a personal trainer, from the comfort of your own home. For this week only, you can get 12 weeks' access to our Sweat and Reset training programme with a huge 25% discount if you go to getfiit.tv/wh – so that's just £3.75 per week. Or if you want to go for an annual Fiit subscription, it’s £120 for the year - only £2.30 per week.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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following advice from the government, stop all non-essential travel and gathering. So we do apologise for any compromised sound quality. And that's not all that's different. Regular listeners will know that we normally focus on how you can hit a healthful wellness goal, but these are not normal times. We're facing the biggest health crisis for a generation. And right now, all we, like you, want to know is how to stay as physically and mentally well as possible and how we can minimize the risk of causing harm to others. So that's exactly what we'll be aiming to find out over the next few episodes, where we'll be putting questions you've asked us about how coronavirus affects your health and well-being to a range of scientists, healthcare professionals and fitness

experts. Today is Laura Hogan, PT and head of brand app Foundry Fit and author of Lift Yourself. She's also a fit trainer and she's been keeping everyone's motivation up via her Instagram account at Laura Biceps. Welcome, Laura. Hello, how you doing? I'm doing all right, thank you. As I say, in these adjusted times. So firstly, you must be having a lot of questions and people within your community about how they keep fit in these new kind of, we're social distance, we're self-isolated, whatever, we're basically, we're on our own and we're not able to do the things that we normally do. What are people asking you? Yeah, honestly, this has been the most crazy few days. For me personally, you know, in the service industry, I spend my life,

my, every single day in helping people become the best version of themselves, you know, be healthy, fit. And as of current standings, I'm unable to physically be anywhere near anyone. And if you think about it, we have to completely adapt. And it's taken me

and, you know, the community, and my members and my peers a very long time to really consider that this is potentially our new norm for the foreseeable. And I think people are going through a whole range of emotions. I think physically, yes, you know, we're going to miss that

interaction, our regular gym, you know, program, whatever it is that people have worked so hard to get into, they're now faced with, wow, as of today, I can't do that. And I think that, you know, we have to really pay respect to the impact it has on people's mental health as well. It's both. You know, I'm all for performance goals and hitting TVs and all of that stuff. That's fantastic. But actually fitness to some people is just turning up and just feeling like, you know, they've done their best that day or, you know, relieving some stress and now that's being taken away, people are left with not knowing what to do. And I really can relate to that because it impacts both you and I too, right? So now we're left on our own. What do we do? We can be upset about it

or we can adapt fast. And there is so much genuinely that we can do in the space of our own home. And, you know, obviously you mentioned working at the foundry, we are a physical gym. our doors are not open so we're in the position where we have to go online and that service is going to continue but in a different way so just this morning actually I did my first

Instagram live workout and I wasn't sure really how it was going to go and I cannot tell you how impressed how amazed I was at the participation of people how grateful people were and even though no it's not I'm not there I'm not there's no music

and no experience and they just sat at home it was for some the best part of their day and I think we need to hold on to that and we need to find ways that we can connect digitally and things that we can do to keep a routine because as you say, fitness for many people it's a bit of an anchor

and what we probably need in all these kind of crazy times of transition when the advice changes every day is anchoring so that's what we want to do today in normal everyday life I'm running for a train you're on a bus or climbing up

So is it important that we, why is it important that we see our body's moving? Yeah, I think, well, for physical health, right, we, we know the basic importance of, of movement, of being able to do, you know, moderate exercise, you know, regularly within your day. And I think we need to sort of be aware, as you say, that because that commute's being taken away, you know, what could you do in, in replacement of that? You know, could you take, you know, if you're on the phone or you've got it, you've got a conference call if you're working from home, could you set yourself a challenge? No, this sounds ridiculous, but could you, could you march on the spot during that conference

call? You know, you know what I mean? It's like, you know, could I say to myself, right, on the hour, every hour, I'm going to get up from the sofa, I'm going to pause what I'm watching, I'm going to close my laptop, and I'm going to go up and down the stairs 30 times. And, you know, or, you know, there's so much that we can do. And I think if we talk about the support that we can give digitally, you know, can we say, right, at this time per day, I'm going to schedule an online workout, a YouTube workout, or something that I can look forward to during the day. Or you could do with a friend.

Maybe you schedule it and say, right, we're going to press play at the same time, FaceTime each other, do it together. I think there are still things that we can do and there is such a wealth of information on the internet. And probably from your favourite trainer is probably like me right now looking at ways in which they can connect with people online. Absolutely. I love the point there about,

making it social and getting in touch with your friends as well because I think this is something we've done a few episodes about the impact of coronavirus on our healthy habits and kind of what we do next and a big thing that's come up time again is motivation because normal life has stopped you know people's holidays are off people's weddings are off the things that you do that you want to be energetic for and you want to look your best for and feel your best for those of those things have been cancelled. So it's really cheesy, but how do we dig deep and want to be able to still be our best selves when we don't really know what we're doing it for?

Yeah, totally. And I think, you know, even if we weren't in this situation of isolation, I do think that still applies, right? Not everyone's going to be motivated all of the time. But there's, you know, for me personally, I can say for my training, there's days I wake up and I think no chance do I want to train today. But I have enough discipline to know when I should. or I need to or, you know, actually it would be really good for me.

You know, focusing on the fact that I will feel better. I know, obviously you mentioned about an event we want to look good for. We're in a position where, you know, potentially we're in isolation, right? So are there things that you can do via social media that can enable you a bit of, you know, external interaction and, you know, looking good as a result of fitness? You know, I guess that's another thing, right, isn't it? how can we start to shift even more our focus on. I'm going to do this for me because I want to feel good.

I want to feel like I've started my day the best way possible. And, you know, when there is a time, hopefully in the not too distant future, when we're out of isolation, you know, how can I take this time for me to come out stronger? And that's definitely my approach. And I would say that to my clients in that, you know, focus on what do you really want to achieve in the now? How can you feel good?

And what could you maybe do to sort of practice, you know, Is it you want to practice getting your split or, you know, a pistol squat or a handstand? I don't know what it is. You know, what could your new goals be? When the environment is adapted, how could you find motivation in maybe hitting a new goal, right? And if social interaction is important to you, absolutely, why don't you, you know, set a little challenge, you know, make a peer group and say, right, today on the hour every hour, we're going to do this five-minute little workout and, you know, see how many reps you can do. Like there's little things that I think we can do. But if we can just focus on, this will help me.

This will help my headspace. This will physically help me come out of this stronger. Then I think that motivation will lie there. Okay. So we've spoken about the physical benefits, the mental benefits as well. It's that you have a routine. You have something to look forward to. Neurochemically as well.

We're going to need a bit of help feeling good possibly. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I think, you know, If I think about, you know, especially within London, I guess it's my closest proximity, you know, the class warrior, someone that's super engaged in, you know, participating in some sort of fitness, that they'll miss those endorphins, that social interaction, you know, that high of completing something that you were told to do. Now we're left to our own devices.

So absolutely, we will miss that. And I think, obviously, you spoke about fit. You know, fit is an app that you can digitally work out with other people. You know, there's a leaderboard. So if it's the competitive side in you that pushes you a little bit further and makes you feel amazing for trying your best, then perhaps that's an option for you. On the point about fit, we actually have an offer at the moment. So with the Women's Health Sweat and Reset Training Program, so you can receive all the benefits for personal trainer while you're at home, as Laura says, you get to work out with other people. And for this week only, you can get 12 weeks of the Women's Health Sweat and Reset Training Program with a huge 25% discount.

if you go to the link, which is get fit, and that fits with two eyes, dot TV slash WH. That's get fit with two eyes. Dot TV slash WH. That's only 375 per week. Or if you want to go for an annual fit subscription, it's £120 to the year, which works out as £2.30 per week.

So obviously, as you say, financially, everyone is recalibrating and working out their budgets. Absolutely. On that, you know, having been honored to be a part of the sweat and reset trainer team amongst incredible other coaches, those workouts are fantastic and genuinely, you know, having obviously recorded them, you can do them anywhere and you don't have to be at a specific level and there's some that you don't even need any equipment. Totally. And I should say as well that they dance and research into the best free things that are available.

I think it's become quite highly rated. There's night training club, which those are people love. On the yoga side of thing, yoga with Adrienne, and on her YouTube channel, she's got really good breath. There's some workouts which it's very breath-focused. There's some which are properly challenging. And then Down Dog, which does beginners yoga, hit and bar. They have made everything, I think they've made stuff free until April the 1st. So if you are, if things are tight, that that might be a consideration.

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because we will get through this time. We absolutely will. But when we're sat alone with our own thoughts, that can be a really dangerous time. Yeah, there's something so empowering, isn't there, in where so much is going on, where you've got a fitness goal, that is something that only that you have the power to do. The sense of ownership and empowerment that someone must be able to get from that would be major. Yeah, 100%.

And I think all of these little goals, all these things that you can set yourself, we just must not underestimate, you know, just the power of just showing up. You know, yes, goals are important. But if you don't have any goals, that's okay as well. So I think it's just finding out what works for you. and if just moving is your goal, then that's fantastic. You're talking there about the importance of showing up. Is that where, I don't know, say committing to doing a half an hour YouTube video or something, is that going to be helpful then if someone doesn't have a fitness goal in mind?

Well, absolutely. I think depending on the level of experience or how trained the individual is, with limited equipment, yes, it absolutely might be challenging. and you could change your mindset into, well, actually my goal, my physical goal and my training goal might slightly change. But if you don't, if you didn't really have a goal, actually we can find some joy in movement. And I think, as you say, it's about the regularity of it. You know, it is very physically important to keep as active as possible. And, you know, if I really think about it, in our offices, we're sat down at a desk and our shoulders are pretty much hunched over.

and, you know, our glutes don't get much love and, you know, our shoulders, our posterior chain, all of the muscle that you're down our back, our posterior chain, don't get much support. And if we're not doing the commute, we're not going to our regular gym class, actually that's a lot of movement that you would count on in your normal day, not there. So perhaps we can be a bit more conscious about the types of things that we do. You know, can we work, you know, our big muscle groups and with no equipment at all, Can we do big compound movements? Like we talked about the push-up, we talked about the squat.

And, you know, yes, it's absolutely great that we can do it at body weight. But can we think a little bit outside of the box there? Could you squat your child? Could you squat the 5 million toilet rolls that you've bought? You know, like there's so many different things that I think if we had an open mind about it, we could start to actually challenge ourselves in ways that we didn't think were possible. That's a really good shout. So we're talking there about some good compound moves.

So we talk. Can you list some of the essentials? Because some people might not like following a video, they might just want to set their own little circuit themselves. What are some of the key things? And where can people go to check form? Yeah, absolutely. So I guess for form check in all of my videos,

I do very much coach them through as if you were there in front to me. So hopefully with that, and with the videos that I've done with fit on the women's health sweat and reset plan, there is coaching available. I do think that the types of movements that we could do, if we think about the functional movement patterns, is your squat. So that's your knee-dominant movement that's working predominantly,

your quads, your glutes, with a bit of assistance with your hamstrings and your core. Then you've got sort of your unilateral version, your single reg, so lunges. You've got the plyometric version. So, you know, jump squats or plyometric lunges, depending on how much your neighbours are going to love you after a while. you then have your more hip dominant movement.

So things like a glute bridge that you can do, you can make that harder, you're elevating your heels on the sofa. You could do it single leg. You could do it with resistance, as I said, with your child. We've got things like, you know, single leg RDL, essentially a more hamstring dominant deadlift. So let's talk about imagining there's a door behind you and you are keeping your knees soft

and you're going to open that door behind you with your bum, standing on one leg right. So it's challenging for our balance, our core, and we're working our hamstrings. So a lot of that stuff, actually, in the videos that I've done or on Sweat and Reset Plan, they are a part of it.

We talk about sort of working the core, so there's lots of different plank variations that we can do. Perhaps Google, what's the world record plank? You know, give it a go. We've got time to beat it, okay? There'll be a world record holder in one of us, right? I challenge you, Rishie.

So there's lots of different plan of variations we can do. we could do weighted things. We could do our upper body, right? You're obviously talking about nailing your first push-up. So I think with the push-up, start where you're at. You know, if you're starting or working on your knees, I actually have a video on this on my Instagram that you can easily find.

But start on your knees and just, you know, keep your elbows in, work. You know, maybe you do a set of 10 on the hour, every hour. That's your challenge. And, you know, maybe you video them. And at the end of, you know, when we're allowed out and all of that, you know, you could look at the before and after, right? that could be your goal. If you feel like you've nailed your push up on your knees,

you know, you could do what we call a slow eccentric. The eccentric is the lowering phase of a lift. So imagine you're up in that high plank, keeping the elbows in. You're going to slowly lower your body to the floor as slow as you can. You'll feel the tension in your muscles. Once you're on the floor, big press up, okay? So you're going to go, just work the eccentric, and it will help with the concentric part of the movement, the actual press.

You could do hand release, you could do shoulder taps, All of this, we can work on our shoulder stability and our upper body strength. The thing that is most challenging, I would say, in most workouts, is working in different planes of movement. So in the frontal planes, making sure we're doing, you know, side lunges or Cossacks, cosax squats, you know, making sure that you're working your mobility. And the other thing is our sort of our pulling movements is very hard to do. We do a lot of squatting and press-ups, especially in body weight.

If you've got a resistance band at home, you can. tie that up to something and you could work on those pools, on those rows. So yeah, there's lots. But I think if you just try and keep it as rounded as possible, you know, be safe and work with what your body is physically able to do. Obviously, if you feel unwell, don't feel like you have to be working five million birthdays, you know, just take down the intensity and just decide today what movement's going to make me feel good today and do that. Absolutely. And we should say as well. The advice, official advice from the government is changing all the time. So to stay up to date and head to the NHS website or NHS 111. And Laura, what about people getting their cardio in?

Do you have any tips for doing cardio in like a small space? Yeah, absolutely. I think also, perhaps when we're talking about reframing what does fitness look like for us, the definition of cardio is anything that elevates your heart rate, right? So actually, you know, lifting weight, or doing body weight movements at a relatively high rep range. I'm talking between the sort of 10 to 15 reps. We can reduce the rest in between exercises. And, you know, I'll eat my hat if you tell me that you don't find that challenging or from a heart rate perspective.

So, you know, there's things like high knees or you can do A skips or you can do regress burpees. You know, there's so much that we can do that is of lower impact that is going to be challenging for your heart rate. You know, carry something heavy, marching on the spot. you know that that could be an adaptation you know i do um farmers marches i would hold two heavy farmers handles and i would march on the spot which is very challenging and it would really jack my heart rate what could you hold that's really heavy and march on the spot like it doesn't have to be a treadmill

or running up and down a track you know we can do things in more of a circuit format that will help your cardiovascular development and you will feel it um i did a in my live workout this morning um i sort of started so i had to finish that way i did the whole thing whilst kind of coaching it live, right? And I was pretty gas. You know, I did, you know, work with, be creative about, you know, have fun creating your own workouts, you know, take the power back. You know, all these fitness instructors have been telling you what to do all this time. Maybe you can have fun. If there's a space in your, on your kitchen or on your, if you've got a whiteboard or whatever it is, create your own workout.

Cardio doesn't have to be going for a run or running on a treadmill. It can be doing things at higher repetition with less rest. Yeah, and I promise you it will help your cardiovascular fitness. It's really helpful. Okay, I think we're almost out of time. So just before we go, if there's one thing that you want, one tip, or one thing that you want people to take away about how they can stay fit at home during these kind of slightly strange and altered times, what would it be?

Refram how you view fitness. Because fitness, the world can be our gym. We're very fortunate that we have access to all these wild and wonderful gyms. But actually, you have the control to do. whatever you can in the space that you have. Take down your expectations of getting a deadlift PB. Now's not the time for that. Now's the time for looking after ourselves, for our loved one, doing the best thing for us, but also staying as active as possible because right now we need that support for our mental health. So reframe fitness, do what you can with what you have

and try to find some enjoyment in maybe something you hadn't even considered doing. So maybe that's it. I'm going to commit to it. I'm going to do some sort of yoga. Thank you so much for coming on. I'm spreading so much positivity and giving us some really good info. I hope all of you listening have found it helpful. Just to say before I go, I mentioned before, but the information is changing all the time, and we're trying to keep our content as upstate as possible. But the situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic is developing.

So for all the latest advice, you can visit the World Health Organization, or if you're in the UK, the NHS website can provide useful information and support. We do have some US listeners so you guys can contact the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. And also just to say that if the show does go on a break over the next few weeks, don't worry, we'll be back. But our showing for goal is a weekly show, there's a good chance that we might need to pause recording due to disruption caused by the coronavirus. Okay, so I guess all that's said is to take care and stay well, everyone. Bye for me and bye for my guest.

Bye. Take care. Later. Bye.