Prison workout beats the lockdown blues

They call it “the prison workout” — and it may just be what we all need right now.

 No, it doesn’t involve weights, dumb-bells, and bare-knuckle brawls in the gym, but it is just the ticket for combatting lockdown blues.

 We should all be resisting the “I’ll get fit once the lockdown ends” mindset, and the Prison Workout is the perfect way to do that, Charles Sturt University health and fitness expert, Dr Eevon Stott said.

 “Keeping fit during lockdown is very important, of course, the physical benefits are so important, cardiovascular, muscle strength, bone density, balance and general well-being,” Dr Stott said.

 “Exercise also releases ‘happy hormones’ such as endorphins and dopamine that make us feel better,” she said.

 Many people however probably enjoy the social aspect of exercise as much as the physical benefits, something that they may now be missing with the closure of health and fitness centres.

 “People do go to the gym for social aspects as well as physical. If that is the case for you, then look at an online intensive fitness group.”

 She said that, even without this, people can turn their lounge-rooms and even bedrooms into a fitness centre, hence the term “prison workout”.

 “You can have a complete work-out in the size of a prison cell, that’s why it’s called the prison workout,” she added.

 “Even with the lockdown, you can still exercise from home. Why wait? Start the habit now… it takes about 18-days to get a habit going, that’s the minimum, for some people tough it’s more like 23, or even 34 days,” she explained.

 She believes that, now is not the time to delay starting good exercise habits.

 “Because you can ‘lose’ fitness, it doesn’t take long for ‘detraining’ to lose the benefits of fitness in two weeks,” she added.

 Getting fit and enjoying the benefits of better health and quality of life, even during a once on 100-year-pandemic, all start with small steps, she believes.

 “As Van Gogh, the great painter, said, ‘great things are accomplished by a series of little things put-together’.

 “Just do one thing well at the start, a push-up, touch-your toes, whatever, just get started” Dr Stott concluded.