Yoga, Pilates or even dance, you can practice a gentle physical activity, at home, alone or with children to do good for your body and your morale.

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DAINA LE LARDIC / SIPA

  • Between confinements, the curfew and teleworking, the French have been even more sedentary since the start of the health crisis.

  • A lack of activity bad for physical and moral health.

  • But, despite the curfew and the closure of sports halls, you can practice a physical and fun activity, alone or with your family, to do good morale.

Generalized teleworking, closed gyms, shortened or even canceled PE lessons at school and curfew at the end of the day.

Add a dose of ambient gloom and season it with rotten weather and you've got depressed mollassons skewers.

If in France, we were not already the champions of physical activity, easily succumbing to the call of screens, the health crisis, its confinements and now the curfew have come to reinforce our sedentary lifestyle, to the detriment of our health. physical and mental.

Unsurprisingly, it is recommended to move more to ventilate the body and mind.

You still have to find the motivation to get started.

For this,

20 Minutes

 gives you simple advice to apply to do yourself good while having fun.

Get some fresh air and walk

In its latest epidemiological bulletin published on February 3 and devoted to "the physical activity and sedentary lifestyle of adults during the period of confinement linked to the Covid-19 epidemic", Public Health France draws up a rather alarming state of affairs: " During the confinement period, half of the population did not reach the recommendations of at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day ”, far from the 10,000 daily steps recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be in shape.

Thus, since last March, the step counters of our smartphones are only too little used and sometimes display among teleworkers who do not go outside, only a few hundred steps.

If you have the time and the inclination, a short jog at lunchtime will allow you to let off steam.

But “running is not for everyone, and we have the right not to like it, reassures Dr. Bernadette de Gasquet, doctor and yoga teacher, and author of 

I love not running.

My guide to moving without getting damaged

(ed.

Du

Rocher).

Especially since without any coaching, it can be brutal ”.

So putting on sneakers and a coat just to go outside is also good.

Moreover, "a brisk walk is much easier to manage", confirms Dr. De Gasquet.

About twenty minutes, after lunch, to promote good digestion and regulate blood sugar levels or, even better, in the morning: your biological clock will be even better synchronized and bonus, your body will synthesize vitamin D, that one even which is essential for healthy bones and boosts the immune system.

Try sports at home

The survey of Public Health France, carried out among 2,000 participants, also reveals that on average, "47% of respondents declared having reduced their physical activity and 61% having increased their daily time spent sitting".

However, “we know that a sedentary lifestyle, even in ordinary times, is not good.

There is added stress, we eat too much, we drink too much, ”underlines Dr. De Gasquet, and we move too little.

However, "you have to move several times a day, and especially not to cross your legs when you are seated".

The more motivated can take up sport at home.

“You can do activity sequences like yoga or Pilates for twenty minutes,” the doctor prescribed.

For people who need more movement, it is possible to jump rope, squats, weight training or stairs for cardio ”.

But taking some precautions to avoid hurting yourself.

“A joint should never hurt you,” insists Dr. De Gasquet.

If there is pain in the elbow, shoulder, or knee, it is because the gesture is wrong and you are damaging yourself.

In case of pain in the back or the spine it's the same, we stop.

With the muscles, it's normal to have pain, you just have to take it slow ”.

And stretch, but at the right time.

“If we really retracted a muscle as much as possible during sport and we pull on it, there will be resistance and we can get micro injuries, feared the doctor.

You have to stay a little quiet, come back to a normal state, then stretch ”.

Move while having fun, and with family

You feel deprived once the curfew comes, as La Fontaine's ant would advise: well dance now!

While dancing, you don't have to be great sportsmen to move while having fun and with your family.

In addition, it will allow children to exercise.

This is what Miliam offers, a brand new platform launched this Monday, which intends to "move families through video programs of body awareness and dance".

"We wanted to offer parents the possibility of doing a physical activity with their children, in a fun way, at home", explain Julie Boulaire and Christine Lavorel, the founders.

The Miliam platform thus offers “routes of around 80 minutes, not necessarily to be done all at once, explains Christine.

The videos are adapted according to the ages of the children, from 4 to 11 years old, to promote motor skills and stimulate the imagination ”.

On all the videos, the children are guided by Julie, who has long given dance lessons in Montessori schools, and who provides for each course "relaxation, warm-up, stretching, carrying, and, for the most part. large, well detailed whole choreographies.

I do each course as if I were the parent, and for all the exercises and choreographies that we offer, we take care to ensure the good posture of parents and children ”.

Each video is therefore available in two versions, "one with Julie's voiceover to learn the gestures, explains Christine, and one with the music, specially composed by an artist".

And if “the idea was born before the coronavirus health crisis and the confinements, these dance videos meet a need for movement and reconnection after the confinements, believe the two creators of Miliam.

While moving, it offers a moment of relaxation, play and bond between parents and children ”.

Sedentary lifestyle has long-term effects

And there is an urgent need to move more.

"We always tend in France to put aside the brain and the rest of the body and the muscles, it is a big mistake, they walk together, they communicate", explains Professor François Carré, cardiologist.

This doctor from Rennes University Hospital never ceases to warn about a sedentary lifestyle "time bomb", with "people who have lost the habit of moving".

Between 6 and 17 years old, the WHO recommends one hour of activity per day, moderate to sustained, and 150 to 300 minutes for adults per week.

Regarding children and adolescents, more than 58% of them reduced their physical activity during the first confinement, recalls "Report Card", inventory of the latest publications on sedentary lifestyle published last week by Onaps (National observatory of physical activity and sedentary lifestyle).

No study has yet been published on the second confinement, decided in October.

But, observes Onaps, "there is unfortunately no doubt that such a deterioration in the active and sedentary behaviors of the youngest is likely to have health and behavioral implications in the years to come".

However, warned in November Ruediger Krech, responsible for health promotion at the WHO, "if we do not remain active, we run the risk of creating another pandemic of poor health due to sedentary behavior".

Health

Too many screens, less sport ... Since confinement, sedentary lifestyle has worsened among children

Health

Too many screens, too sedentary ... Too few French people practice physical activity

  • Curfew

  • Physical activity

  • Health

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus