Turning to fitness during the pandemic

When the world was hit by COVID-19 in early 2020,  this deadly virus forced people to stay at home in quarantine. With this newfound seemingly endless amount of free time, many started searching for new hobbies and activities to fill their time with. One of the most popular pass times was fitness and exercise. Two University of the District of Columbia students started their fitness journeys along with millions of others across the country. Now it has become a fixture in their lives.

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The first person I talked with was Jermaine Silver who is a Biology major here at UDC. Jermaine was in the middle of his junior year in high school when the pandemic hit and was only expecting it to last a week or two, but after a month had passed and his school switched to online learning he knew things wouldn't be going back to normal any time soon. To help fill his free time Silvera turned to fitness.  He started running three miles four days a week consistently. Pretty soon he had even invested in a home gym set-up and was researching different workouts and how to target certain muscle groups. This was just the beginning, after sticking with this fitness regimen he began exploring different nutritional supplements and meal prep recipes that could be beneficial. 

“Taking on this lifestyle made being in quarantine bearable and has done amazing things for my physical and mental health,” he explained How he encourages others to give fitness a shot because of the difference it made in his life.

Meanwhile,  Cristina Hansberry, a Business major here at UDC, started her fitness journey a little later, towards the end of  2020. She began just trying to get some runs inconsistently on her home treadmill but as she progressed she decided to go deeper and look for workouts online,  on platforms like youtube where content creators are making workouts for people to follow. By 2021 she had already created a firm workout plan and was consistently following it. That plan consisted of a constant regimen of Cardio like running 2 miles a day and core workouts like sit-ups? When gyms started to open back up she decided to get a membership to her local gym. Now she is able to do targeted exercises on the equipment she now has at her disposal. For Hansberry, the decision to get fit has had a marked effect.  

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 “I definitely have more drive for day to day, just more energy in general, and also I'm sleeping and eating better than I used to in the past, I'm just a healthier person.”

From these accounts it's easy to see how beneficial a fit and healthy lifestyle can be to all aspects of someone's life, so why not give it a shot?