We knew this was coming, but now that we’re here, the forecast sounds ominous: Predictions are that given the continuing spread of the coronavirus, and with activity moving back indoors and holiday gatherings taking shape (despite public health warnings), we face a “long darkness before dawn.” In essence, the next few months (before the vaccines become widely available) may mean many of us are once again housebound, isolated, and at enhanced risk of infection. Therefore, it’s going to be important to remain resilient, responsible, and resourceful to keep ourselves healthy and sane. One possible way to achieve that? Exercise, even if only indoors and for limited periods of time.

The good news is that even brief bouts of exercise, indoors and without much equipment, can still provide sufficient benefit to keep our immune and cardiovascular systems healthy and our brains functioning optimally. For example, many of us, in response to the arrival of the winter season, have once again become couch potatoes. But we know that sitting for long periods of time can have negative health consequences. Even brief periods of physical activity that interrupt sitting can counteract its harmful effects, without the need to head to the gym. For example, a few moments of squatting, leg lifting, or pacing around the apartment while speaking on the phone can all work to limit blood sugar and inflammation levels from rising. In fact, a recent study out of Mass General Hospital published in the journal Circulation reported that just 12 minutes of intense exercise a day can be enough to change the biomarkers in your blood system and benefit some of your body’s key biological processes. 

And if you’re looking to boost your immune system (an essential goal given the coronavirus), researchers from The Aging and Brain Health Alliance at Rutgers University Newark recommend some simple yet effective at-home exercises for older adults, including walking the floors of your home every hour, lifting your knees while sitting and wall sits, a relatively easy-to-implement idea given that every home has some walls! To find out more about what they recommend, grab a stable chair and check out their advice here. And for those of you more ambitious, another new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that to really counteract lengthy bouts of sitting, you should undertake closer to 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day, whether by walking on a treadmill, cycling on an indoor bike or even vigorously folding your laundry and going up and down your indoor staircases. Ultimately, any physical activity is better than none, but to cut your risk of early death due to elongated sitting, find out what experts recommend here.

And finally, as a reminder- it’s not only your body that needs attention while staying inside but your mind as well- and here too, exercise can be essential to protecting your memory and keeping the blood flow in your brain optimally functioning. To learn more, set the dials on your indoor bike and read here.