Attention to Exercise Order During Pandemic Process!

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people stated that while they wanted to be protected from the virus, they actually switched to a sedentary lifestyle.

However, it should not be forgotten that one of the most important conditions of a healthy life is sports and regular exercises. Doing the most appropriate exercises on certain days of the week helps the person to overcome this process more comfortably by affecting the soul-body balance positively. Associate Professor of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Memorial Service Hospital. Dr. Hakan Sofu gave information about the things to consider about exercise planning in the coronavirus process.

You can stay healthy and overcome your stress and anxiety. 

Regular exercise has many different benefits on body and mental health. It is possible to list the benefits of active and regular sports habits as follows:

• It relaxes the blood circulation
• It provides the ideal level of lung and heart functions.
• While the level of good cholesterol called HDL increases, it decreases the level of bad cholesterol called LDL.
• It regulates blood pressure (blood pressure) and blood sugar levels.
• It increases activity capacity with the development of muscle strength and balance.
• It minimizes the risk of chronic fatigue and burnout syndrome.
• The immune system gets stronger thanks to regular exercise and increases the body resistance against diseases.
• It increases life energy by removing harmful toxins and reducing stress. Sports habits reduce the risk of depression as well as help in the treatment of depression.
• Regular exercise, which protects against the risk of osteoporosis in women, also helps the treatment of patients with osteoporosis.
• While the incidence of degenerative joint diseases (calcification) and cartilage disorders is minimized in people who do sports, reflexes become stronger and reduce chronic neck, back and waist pain.

Choose the best exercise for you

Before starting a regular exercise program, it is absolutely necessary to have health checks. After determining the general health condition with medical screening tests, the sports type and exercise program suitable for the person is selected. It is important to apply a warm-up-stretching-opening period before starting exercise as much as it is important to do sports in a suitable environment in order to prevent any injury. The body should be prepared for sports with a warm-up-stretching-stretching period of approximately 25% of the planned exercise time (for example, 60 minutes for a 15-minute exercise). At the end of the exercise, the cooling period of the body should not be neglected by stretching movements. The rules to be considered when doing regular sports can be listed as follows:

• Before starting regular sports, have a health check and determine the appropriate sports and exercise program for you.
• Eat at least 2 hours before starting exercise, and keep your stomach full during exercise.
• Do not exercise with a sleepless and tired body.
• Minimize the risk of injury by doing sports in suitable environmental conditions and on the ground.
• Before starting sports, make your body ready by making warming-up-stretching movements.
• Do not neglect the stretching period and the cooling period after the sports program.
• Do your sports within the framework of the program you have determined with your specialist doctor.
• Increase your efficiency rate by doing sports without pushing your individual limits and risking your body.

Intense sports program should not cause various ailments

Applying an intense exercise program without resting the body sufficiently after sports is called 'riding-training'. Especially, if the exercises are characterized by repetitive loading exercises that work a certain body area, approximately 48 hours intervals are required between sessions. If exercising is done in the gym, 3 days a week is considered the ideal frequency. For those who have just started sports and are interested in activities requiring low level performance, there is no harm in working every day of the week by keeping their daily training periods short. People who are interested in long-distance running (half marathon or marathon), mountaineering, triathlon, bodybuilding, etc., do not allow the body to restore the normal physiology after the body's recovery and recovery process, which may cause many different health problems. For example, over time, the risk of intense muscle and protein loss, excessive weight loss, loss of balance and movement coordination due to fluid-electrolyte imbalances, falls, kidney diseases, heart rhythm and blood pressure disorders increases significantly. In addition to these, immune system disorders, recurrent disabilities, nervousness-tension state, sleep disorders, and loss of motivation or performance in daily life may occur.

Eat right before and after exercise

It is very important to recover water and vital minerals (such as sodium, potassium, calcium) lost during the exercise program. Therefore, you should drink plenty of water while doing sports, and when the activity ends, sufficient protein, carbohydrate and minerals should be taken. Another issue that should be considered especially is not to drink alcohol before and after sports. Similarly, excessive calorie loading should not be done. Energy drinks contain water, high amounts of sugar and caffeine. In addition to raising blood sugar at an uncontrolled rate, energy drinks carry the risk of toxic effects on the heart, brain and nervous system due to the caffeine it contains. For these reasons, energy drinks are not routinely recommended. On the other hand, sports drinks produced as liquid and mineral supplements can be used.