Mr. Huu and his homemade fitness chair
Diverse methods
Many Hue people are familiar with the gym, yoga or sports activities such as Zumba… However, when the COVID–19 pandemic was raging, sport lovers had to "break up" with the gym and the park.
So they had to find the ways to adapt to it in order to maintain their health, keep fit, at the same time, "interact" and "talk" with their companions.
Ms. Phuong, who lives in the United States, regularly practices online gyms with Ms. Tuong Vy. Each week, through webcam or social networks, Ms. Vy and Ms. Phuong do practice four times, each time lasts 45 minutes.
Because they could not meet face to face and did not have enough gym equipment, they had to warm-up before the appointment, then turn on the digital devices and instruct the moves.
"We do mostly basic butt and chest exercises with popular buyable tools such as dumbbells, single barbell, mini band, etc., to keep fit and increase physical strength," Vy said.
Tuong Vy regularly filmed exercise videos to share with practitioners
To limit going out, Mr. Huynh Van Huu, a Physical Education teacher, chose to practice at home. "I have already bought any equipment that is affordable, but I still need specialized tools, so I must innovate it and be creative to make the training easier," Mr. Huu shared happily.
Using a small wooden ladder covered by the raincoat to have a smooth surface, Mr. Huu took advantage of the slope of the ladder to make a fitness chair. He breathes methodically and lifts the barbell up and down rhythmically.
"Of course, the feeling is not the same as in the gym, but this can both maintain my health and limit going out. Practice at home is also very beneficial and interesting," Mr. Huu said.
Not only Mr. Huu, a lot of people choose to practice yoga, jogging, cycling, pushing-up, sitting-up and sports exercises at home to limit going out. The space may not be as spacious as in the parks and the gyms, but instead, the safety, sense of closeness and freedom will help many people feel confident to train their bodies.
Together "passing through" the epidemic
Sharing to maintain health, many new and good ideas and good deeds have appeared when many people choose to practice sports at home. As a gym personal trainer, Ms. Tuong Vy is always willing to share lectures with her students when they practice on their own.
Not being able to be face to face as in the gym, she is willing to record exercise videos and send them via social networks to her students or instruct them online to practice properly.
Training at home is not as spacious as in the gym but free and comfortable.
Mr. Dang Nhat Minh, a gym trainer, is also very interested in joining training with his students at home. He said: “When practicing together, the practitioners themselves not only transfers positive energy, but they will also have more motivation to try. That's how I find joy and the feeling of being helpful to others. ”
Nguyen Nhat Quang, a young man from Hue, is following the current "trend" on social networks, which is a sports challenge in the form of dropping the "ha-ha - smiley" icon on Facebook. After each day, Nhat Quang keeps track of the number of smiley icons, for each icon, he will do 3 times sitting-up. Each ‘like’ from the first post will be equal to the number of days sustaining the challenge.
In addition to exercises, fresh and clean meals are also an important factor to help people ensure physical fitness and nutritional balance. Beside actively sharing knowledge, Tuong Vy also actualizes the idea of providing nutritious food which is processed with less oil and less fried foods so that everyone has delicious, clean and energy-efficient meal.
Vy shared: "Although the gym is temporarily closed, people are limited to go out, the maintenance of nutrition and doing exercise is never redundant." What Tuong Vy shares is very practical. Health is extremely important, and perhaps, more and more people are aware of this, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Story and photos: Mai Hue