Coronavirus shutdown: With gyms shut, UPites find other ways to stay fit at home

With the threat of growing coronavirus COVID-19 cases, a safety directive has seen public hotspots in Mumbai — such as cinemas, malls and gyms — close. While people might find it easier to make the switch by watching a movie or two at home, it’s not going down as easily with hardcore gym lovers and fitness freaks who are feeling the workout blues already. Speaking to us, peple from Lucknow, Varanasi and Kanpur including celebs, share on how they’re trying to adapt to other forms of working out and more...
Siddharth Arora
“Whenever possible I go for a game of lawn tennis.Since it is not a team game so it is safe and at the same time you burn a lot of calories. Yoga is also a great regime to keep oneself healthy, so I am practicing it every day. So even though yoga studios and gyms are closed, I am trying my best to keep myself fit with the basic workout techniques that I know of," says the actor better known as Beera of Na Bole Tum Na Maine Kuch Kaha 2 and who hails from Varanasi.
Sazid Ahmed Qureshi (BCCL)
Sazid Ahmed Qureshi
“It’s very difficult for a person like me, who works out for most part of the day to be told to sit at home without working out. Since I have closed the gym, I am now working out in the morning and evening with the basic equipment that I have at my home. Plus, for my clients, on special request, I am regularly making videos of workouts and diets to follow and sending to them on Whatsapp or uploading them online,” says Sajid, a gym owner in Lucknow.
Ravish Ahmed
Exercising is a very important part of my daily routine. I do weight training and
cardiovascular exercises in the gym but now after they hav ebeen closed, I am working out at home. I try to follow a basic work out regimen and do weights, pilates, and strength training. It’s much less than what I do in the gym, but it’s something. It’s not making me feel that I am wasting my time, says Ahmed, a gym owner from Lucknow.
Ravish Ahmed (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Karan Singh
Gym jaa kar exercise karne ka toh abhi option hi nahi hai. But this does not mean that I will leave exercising. Being a fitness freak, I am gyming at home. Though I am missing on heavy weight exercises but with yoga, cycling and rope skipping, I ensure that I burn out same amount of calories that I used to burn out in the gym. I will now only go to the gym once the scare of Coronavirus ends and the gym is properly sanitized,” says Karan, a fitness enthusiast from Kanpur.
Sargam Gupta
“Exercising is now a part of my life and I can’t even think of giving a miss to my exercise schedule for a day. I have been regularly exercising for past two years and this sudden break from the gym was surely a shock for me. Nowadays with the lockdown, I am working out at home. My trainer sometimes guides me through videos he sends on mobiles which are really helpful,” says Sargam a student from Kanpur.
(L) Karan Singh (R) Naveen Singh (BCCL)
Naveen Singh
“Till the time it is not happening, I have chalked out a schedule with my trainer. I take out at least half and hour in the morning for the workout. It is mixture of yoga asanas and push-ups. I make a good use of staircase and climb up and down the stairs several times to make up for working out on the treadmill,” says Naveen, a businessman from Varanasi, who works out in a
gym regularly.
Asfar Tahir (BCCL)
Asfar Tahir
“We can still try to maintain a healthy fitness routine with a few basic workout exercises like the push-ups, squats, mountain climbing, etc which require least space at home in doing. For
addicts like me, I workout thrice a day or sometimes increase the repetitions of the sets of exercises,” says Asfar, a gym trainer in Luycknow.
(L) Ritu Pathak (R) Sargam Gupta (BCCL)
Ritu Pathak
As soon as the cases of Coronavirus patients started increasing, I stopped going to the gym. I chose to work out at home. I have also hired a personal trainer who trains me every day. Now, in place of weight training and other tough exercises, I am focusing on aerobics for maintaining my fitness,” says Ritu, a homemaker from Kanpur.