Fitness fanatics go stir-crazy
You can’t replicate the gym
Corey Cashman has installed a bar above his door so he can do pull-ups every time he passes it. He started out with ten sets of three repetitions but adds one repetition every week ‘to build up strength’. Currently he does eighty pull-ups a day.
The clinical psychology student also did a seventy-five-day challenge which required him to work out for forty-five minutes twice a day, and one of these sessions had to be outside. ‘If you fail, you have to start the whole process over again’, he says.
It’s hard to think clearly because you can’t blow off steam
He doesn’t feel he’s obsessed with working out. ‘I used to say that obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated’, he says, smiling. ‘Maybe when I was younger, when I was very self-conscious about being skinny. But now I feel like overall my life is better. Sometimes obsession is necessary for self-improvement.’
Corey is one of the many students who have been hit hard by the gyms closing because of the corona pandemic. He used to work out four to six times a week, but it hasn’t been easy to keep up a workout schedule. ‘It’s hard to think clearly because you can’t blow off steam. To me, not training is more of a strain than training.’ And however hard he tries, ‘you just can’t replicate the gym at home’.
Mental health
Exercising is good for you, science tells us. A sedentary lifestyle can contribute to increased levels of anxiety and depression, while working out may improve your mental health. Many people are now beginning to experience that strong link between exercise and wellbeing firsthand.
‘Sitting at home the entire day to work or study is a big problem’, says UG sports psychologist Yannick Hill. ‘When you are prohibited from playing sports and don’t move around very much, you can start feeling anxious. People become more and more aware that they aren’t living healthily.’
He recommends that people develop some kind of routine which involves movement, ‘even if it’s just for a short walk’. That’s easier said than done sometimes, though: if you exercise, study and rest in the same space, that leads to blurred boundaries between work and leisure time, which means you’re never really off the clock. And while it’s important to exert yourself, Hill says, it’s just as important to really relax afterwards.
In control
For Corey, the drive to follow a strict exercise regime came from feeling insecure about his weight when he was sixteen. ‘Once I started working out, I felt in control. I had something I was excited about. I was so skinny when I started and I knew it was going to be a long journey, but I said to myself: what else am I going to do?’
My life is better if the training is going well
He started bodybuilding and entered an important competition in London in 2015, when he was twenty years old. Despite being the youngest participant, he managed to come in twelfth place. ‘It feels good to exert yourself, it releases endorphins. Also, it helps me to keep to a better routine overall. I feel like every other aspect of my life is going better if the training is going well.’
When his workout plan was disrupted, Corey – who also runs a mental coaching company for athletes called Instantia Performance – got increasingly frustrated. ‘I also started losing a lot of weight and wasn’t eating as much and as clean as I should have been. Some people put on weight during lockdown, but I lost weight.’
Ritual
Lynne Huegel, who studies clinical neuropsychology, recognises Corey’s struggle. She too used to work out three to five times a week at her local gym, mostly lifting weights. ‘I notice I get stronger not just on a physical, but also on a mental level. It’s a nice feeling to set yourself new challenges and overcome them’, she says. After a stressful day of studying, Huegel would normally ‘exercise the stress away’.
She tried hard to stay active, even without her usual routine. ‘I could do workouts at home, but you do lose motivation. It’s a completely different scenario than having this ritual of getting dressed and biking to the gym.’
My back hurts from sitting so much
The result of breaking her five-year habit? ‘I feel more anxious and moodier in general, and my boyfriend can testify to that. I need to move my body to feel calm’, she says. ‘I noticed that not having that outlet is hard, especially during the last exam period. I didn’t feel rested at all and had restless nights where I couldn’t sleep and would be tired during the day.’
Lynne’s performance has dropped, too. Her home body weights are considerably lighter than the weights she would take on at the gym. ‘And I sometimes still can’t finish the workouts, which demoralises me’, she says.
She’s started to feel sluggish. ‘My back hurts from sitting so much. You eat, sit in bed and watch Netflix and then a whole day has passed again without getting in any proper exercise. Then I think, oh god, I’ve gained weight, or I wonder if I’ll ever get back to the same level I was on before.’
Downward spiral
It can be very frustrating to see your physical performance drop after just a couple of weeks of not exercising, sports psychologist Hill agrees. It’s easy to get caught in a downward spiral where you don’t want to go outside and become even weaker. ‘That is when you need to dig deep and try to find adaptations, some kind of physical exercise you genuinely get enjoyment from. Developing a behavioural routine like that can help equip you for the future, should you find yourself in a similar situation.’
While Lynne does look forward to getting her routine back once her gym opens again, she’s reluctant to go there multiple times a week immediately. The coronavirus has left her apprehensive of crowded indoor spaces. ‘I would never go to the gym in the evenings again, it’s way too busy then. Also, everyone is supposed to wipe down the tools, but so many people don’t give a shit about that.’
Still, she’ll risk going there outside of peak hours – for the sake of her mental health.