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E-News Exclusive


Counseling Clients About Physical Activity During COVID-19

By Jenna A. Bell, PhD, RD

There’s no shortage of questions about health and wellness from clients, family members, and friends during this complicated and extraordinary time of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Among the many questions are inquiries about physical activity: Is it safe? What should I do? How do I stay motivated? Are there any resources I can tap into?

Many of your clients who are sheltering in place may need some tips on how to stay healthy and physically active at home. Resources are available to the fitness industry such as the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) webpage “Personal Trainers, Fitness Professionals and the Coronavirus (COVID-19),” an online treasure trove of information geared to helping sports medicine and fitness professionals and their clients stay safe.

In addition to ACSM’s resource, your colleagues’ creative input also is helpful to add ideas to your toolbox. Today’s Dietitian (TD) sits down with a panel of fitness industry experts to get their perspective on how individuals can remain as healthy as possible during this difficult time.

Expert Panel

  • Sandy Todd Webster, editor-in-chief, IDEA Fitness Journal, IDEA Health & Fitness Association.
  • Len Kravitz, PhD, CSCS, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico, and author of HIIT Your Limit.
  • Pete McCall, host of the podcast All About Fitness and author of Smarter Workouts.
  • Pamela Nisevich Bede, MS, RD, a nutrition expert with Swim, Bike, Run, Eat! and the author of Sweat. Eat. Repeat.

TD: Is it safe to exercise during the COVID-19 outbreak?
Webster: Yes, physical activity may help you remain healthy. Moderate-intensity exercise has been shown to support immune function. Moving daily can also help relieve stress and anxiety.

Kravitz: Please continue your current exercise program. However, if you were regularly exercising in a gym, now you’ll need to move your program somewhere such as your home, where you’re not around people. The most important precautions are those regarding your own health. If you start feeling any undue aches and pains, discomfort breathing, nausea (during exercise, or anytime, for that matter), it means stop. If these conditions persist, you need to contact your medical professional for further guidance.

McCall: My advice is to limit high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to two workouts per week. To protect the immune system, include moderate-intensity workouts—breathing quicker than normal, but not out of breath.

TD: What type of exercise should I do?
Kravitz: While sheltering in place, I’m doing what all of the newest research suggests. Every 30 minutes (I am awake) I’m getting up and moving. For me, I’m using my house as an obstacle course and just walking through all of the rooms and changing directions—keeping it brisk. Brisk is always better. Work up to three minutes every 30 minutes. (To learn more about Kravitz’s recommendation, visit Move 3 for Every 30).

Nisevich Bede: Use what you’ve got. There’s no equipment needed to do a round of push-ups, lunges, and squats during those television commercial breaks. Lifting weights can be as glorious as lifting a gallon of water, [which is] similar to a kettlebell.

TD: How do I stay motivated to exercise while at home?
Nisevich Bede: The gyms are closed, the pools shut down, and there’s no way to do a group workout class. With obstacles to group fitness, clients may be tempted to call it quits for the time being. But here are a few considerations to stay motivated:

  • Suggest clients include their children for a family physical education class.
  • Play music with high-tempo beats. Recent research on endurance runners has found that this type of music is a huge motivator and may lower levels of perceived exertion.
  • Listen to a podcast or audio book during exercise to make the time fly by.
  • Track workouts and nutrition goals to feel more in control during this tumultuous time.

TD: Are there resources you can recommend?
Webster: The IDEA Health & Fitness Association website is brimming with credible and actionable information, including more than 10,000 evidence-based articles on health, fitness, exercise physiology, nutrition, and habit change strategies. We also have a Workout Builder that shows progressions and regressions of exercises to accommodate physical abilities from the beginner to the more advanced exerciser.

Nisevich Bede: Many gyms and personal trainers have done an amazing job pivoting quickly to online fitness classes and workouts. See what your local gym has done to stay connected with members online.

Getting Started
Nisevich Bede emphasizes that staying fit during COVID-19 requires all of us to “flex our creative thinking in addition to our muscles.”

Starting a workout regimen can seem like a lot of work—even for clients who currently exercise. The following are some tips and ideas you can share with clients:

  • Start with the basics. Do three sets of 10 to 20 repetitions (increase the number of reps based on fitness level) of exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, plank holds, squats, lunges, and jumping jacks.
  • Set goals. Clients can create challenges to keep themselves on track and enthusiastic. Work with clients to set fitness goals and encourage them to work toward them. For example, they can aim to do one set of 10 push-ups or increase the number of burpees or squats over 30 days.
  • Decide to “train.” Suggest athletic clients take the opportunity of being homebound to train for an event such as a 5K or a marathon. Help them develop a training schedule to enable them to stay on task.
  • Encourage screen time. As mentioned, there are plenty of online exercise videos from which clients can choose. Suggest they select the ones they’re interested in and help them create a calendar of workouts. For example, on Monday, they can choose HIIT; Tuesday, Hatha yoga; Wednesday, a body weight workout; and so on.
  • Listen up. Suggest podcasts, audiobooks, and music playlists they can listen to during workouts. The addition may help keep clients motivated.

Regardless of the type of workout clients choose, establishing an exercise routine may be one of the few benefits of sheltering in place. Making time for physical activity also may help us dietitians feel better, too.

— Jenna A. Bell, PhD, RD, is the coauthor of Energy to Burn. She’s sheltering in place at her home in St. Petersburg, Florida.