I hope you all had a blessed Qatar National Sport Day (QNSD)! For me, the day began with a bumpy start due to my pregnancy nausea but ended up being such an enjoyable day out. I had the pleasure of providing prenatal and general female body shaping fitness classes at Losail International Circuit for their annual ladies-only QNSD event. This was my third time being a part of their extensive list of activities and I am so happy I was able to feel better. I got so sad thinking that I might would have to cancel my attendance once my nausea hit early that morning, but thankfully, I was able to manage my situation and hit the road. So how about you? What did you end up doing on your day off? Did you stay in and enjoy your time off at home or did you opt to go out and take part in some of the country-wide events? If you were at home, were you at least a bit active?
I completely understand those who chose to stay in and enjoy their time, and those who chose to enjoy their time in the outdoors but not necessarily related to sports or fitness. I also believe that there shouldn’t necessarily be a scheduled reason for you to be fit and active, but a National Sport Day such as ours help reinforce the idea of health and fitness in our lives as a lifestyle and it allows the general public to have the excuse and/or motivation to get busy and active on a national holiday celebrating overall wellness.
Regardless of what you ended up doing, I still urge you all to take this as a reminder of how critical and important sports alongside health and fitness are for our daily routines and overall lifestyles. So if you were out and about or if you are usually active but just wanted a day-off then good for you, but if you did not to do anything active, please ask yourself why and try to figure out the reasons you didn’t allow yourself to engage in this socially motivating and community bonding opportunity. Whatever your reasons, I feel I want to share how you can be active and make a positive difference in their health without changing your routine and without feeling it as such a big change to implant in your life. So let’s get started.
Just as a reminder, the usual standard is three days of exercise for a minimum of 20 minutes per week, but if you are being real with yourself and know that you will not reach that level, then how about this routine with a few tips:
The Rule of 10s: Aim for just 10 high knees, 10 sit-ups, 10 push-ups and 10 squats or 10 jumping jacks, 10 dips, 10 lunges and 10 planks each day. This can be done at home and only takes a few minutes. If you are feeling stronger, then do both routines together each day.
The Rule of Standing: Aim to stand up and move for a minute or two every one hour. Get your blood circulating and give your mind a quick break from whatever it is your doing.
The Rule of Walking: Whenever and wherever you can, try to walk at least 20-30 minutes during your day.
The Rule of RRR: Aim to rest, relax and recover well each day. You have to relieve your mind and body of all and just give one hour a day to yourself to breathe and enjoy ‘doing nothing.’ Aim to also sleep well each night because rest and recovery are crucial to your health too.
The Rule of Creativity: Be creative with your time and your activities, you can fit in more calorie burning movements into your daily routine by incorporating chores or hobbies into your health activities such as cleaning the house, organizing your room, cooking yourself a healthy homemade meal or even dancing as you get ready for work or to go out. There are so many ways to get your heart pumping and get those muscles moving, so just get creative.
The author is a wellness advocate and influencer @keys2balance.
Reem Abdulrahman Jassim al-Muftah
