Is anyone else physical activity levels dropping during quarantine? This has been happening to so many if they are not going to and from work every day? Maybe you didn’t notice this was a problem before the Covid-19 Pandemic. But if you’ve noticed your physical activity levels have been dropping since March, it’s time to pick them back up.

Before we go any further, I want to do a mental health check. To be fully healthy all parts of our bodies should be working properly. Mental health is arguably one of the most important aspects of health. It’s the gateway to our ENTIRE being. For something as scary as a global pandemic with no end in sight it’s understandable that some of us will struggle. If you are struggling with your mental health, please check out my 15 Tips to Improve Mental Health HERE!

My Teaching Career

If you follow my blog you will know that I am a K-12 PE teacher. I have been for a few years now, and I can say it’s the best job I’ve ever had. It keeps me on my toes, mentally and physically! There are days where I come home exhausted, but I wouldn’t trade what I do for anything.

One of the many benefits of teaching PE for me is that it keeps me active. Whether I’m playing with my students or just walking around monitoring, I’m constantly in motion.

I use my Fitbit to keep track of my active minutes, and I’ve set a 60 minute goal for myself each day. That just means that I need to spend 60 minutes of my day performing vigorous activity.

Check out my post detailing how much physical activity adults should be getting weekly.

What I do is I plan to participate fully with 2-3 classes. That means I’ll either get into their games, or do whatever workouts I have assigned for the day. Another way I like to get my workouts in is just do ALL of the warm ups with the kids in every grade. I’m still running up and down my gym trying to make sure everyone is taken care of, and those minutes start adding up!

The point of this section, is you can see how easy it is for me to stay active. But what happens when the world goes into lockdown mode???

What Happened In Quarantine

So many people were making jokes about eating, while others were binge watching everything on Netflix and Hulu. Then there were the people that exercised daily and kept up with their every day routines to stay healthy

I fell somewhere in the middle. Quarantine had me cooking like crazy, and trying out the Keto lifestyle (which I just recently transitioned into low carb and intermittent fasting). I also ordered myself some new rollerblades, and invited all of my readers to take my 90 day body and mind transformation challenge with me. This included my weekly goals such as running 5 times a week, walking my dog daily and other ways to keep active.

I was doing great, but then the reality of what was happening in the world set in, and my motivation started to trickle off. My physical activity levels were dropping. I still was active, but compared to how many active minutes and steps I was getting according to my Fitbit while teaching I felt like I was barely moving.

I was working on my “Shallow Body Image Goals” but I just wasn’t doing enough. For those of us who do not have sedentary jobs, getting movement and physical activity is so easy. We don’t realize how much movement we get until we are stuck inside, because it’s not safe to go to go back to work.

Your Goals and Motivation

You might be in a similar situation like me. You’re still pretty active in quarantine, but you just feel like you could be doing more since you’ve noticed your physical activity levels dropping. Or maybe you’re the complete opposite where you live a rather sedentary lifestyle and work has no effect on your day to day physical activity levels.

Whatever the case may be I’m challenging you to get up and start moving. Quarantine did a number on so many. Physically and mentally. It’s time we take full control over our lives and do something that makes our body and soul feel good…which is exercise.

You don’t have to run miles and miles a day. Find an activity you enjoy and work at it. If you’re looking for easy ways to improve your fitness, check out my post 10 Easy Ways To Improve Your Quarantine Workout.

For more creative and not the norm type workouts, check out my post about the Benefits Swimming has on the Body, TikTok Workouts and Normalizing Rollerblading for Adults.

Check out Detroit PE’s YouTube channel for more of my 15 Second Workout Series.

Set Goals…Then CRUSH Them

The number one way to improve yourself is to set goals. If you’re aimlessly going through life with no plan, you probably are not functioning to your full potential.

Take a step back to assess your life. What are areas you want to improve? It doesn’t even have to be physically. It could be that you want to read one new book a month, or tell the people you’re closest to how much you love or appreciate them each week. You need to have a starting point so you can build on it.

Take a look at one of my post detailing how daily progress towards your goals can land you big results.

Some of us got pretty lazy in quarantine, and it’s time to reverse the damage and work at our goals daily. As seen HERE setbacks happen. It’s up to you and only you to get back on the motivation train and crush whatever goals you’ve set for yourself.

Once you are finished reading this post, I want you to write down 5 things you want to accomplish by the end of the year. Don’t overshoot. Create realistic goals for yourself. I want you to put these goals in a spot in your house or phone where you will see them every day. Then I want you to work at them EVERY DAY.

Whether work kept you active or not…start moving, start achieving!

You can do anything you set your mind to. Go be the best version of yourself that you can possibly be!

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