In view of the current COVID-19 situation and measures implemented by the governments, we have asked some of the experts to share some tips with our running and sports community on how to stay physically, mentally and/or nutritionally healthy during this period.

1. How do we stay active or physically healthy during this period, considering that we are encouraged to stay at home as much as possible?

Thankfully, stay-home exercises have been introduced way before the pandemic. While we might not be able to hit high strength goals due to the limitations of weights (unless you have your own squat rack at home or something), many of us will still be able to hit maintenance and weight loss goals rather easily at the comfort of our homes.

The principles of training are generally the same whether at home or in the gym, but a little bit of creativity might be required. You can give Circuit or Interval training a go, take a jog outside of the home, or transform the staircase right outside your house into your “cardio machine”. You can also consider doing bodyweight exercises to increase range of motion, functionality, or muscular endurance.

2. How do we stay calm during this stressful period?

We don’t.

I get that times are hard and stressful for many of us during this period. The transition of work from the office to home has caused a topsy turvy transformation for many of our schedules and thus, caused us to feel stressed. While we shouldn’t stay stressed and shocked for the time to come, it is important to stay real and embrace how you are feeling, so that you can acknowledge where you are right now, and decide what needs to be done about it. So I would definitely say that step one is to stay true to your feelings and be real with yourself.

Once you feel better, a good idea would be to write down everything you need to do that you can control, and just allocate time throughout the week to get it done. If you can’t control it, don’t worry too much about it right away. After all, like the coronavirus, you can’t control what you can’t control. What you can though, is your time and how you use it to solve your problems. With time allocated and committed to getting things back on track, it’s really a commitment and process game. Great results always come from great processes, and during this time, if your plan is good, and the time spent on executing your plans are solid, you’ll be fine in no time.

3. Are there any simple nutrition plans, tips or recipes that we can follow?

Simple nutrition tips

1. Get a lot of vegetables to fill on the plate.

Since you are not moving as much, you will not need much energy too. Filling the plate with vegetables will help keep your food volume similar while reducing the calories to what your body probably needs currently.

2. Prepare your ingredients in advance.

Shave time off your main cooking time by chopping your vegetables and marinating your meat in advance. Feel free to buy frozen vegetables if you must – many of them are chopped and prepped, and the super low temperature keeps nutrients locked in. Preparing your ingredients in advance will save you hours when you cook for yourself or your family.

3. Invest in time-saving kitchen equipment.

You don’t need to spend an hour in the kitchen to cook your meals, and you certainly do not need to be a masterchef to feed yourself with nice food. Investing in time-saving kitchen tools like an oven, a blender, a sous-vide machine and/or a rice cooker can help you get a nice meal out at a fraction of the time you need to spend in the kitchen.

4. If it doesn’t fit the goal, it doesn’t go into the kitchen.

If you are like me, and you’re cooped up at home all day long, there’ll only be one thing you want to do: SNACK.

It could be because you’re bored or stressed, but the one answer to feeling comfortable again is most definitely going to be food. While you don’t have to stop eating nor snacking, you do want to avoid dishing in too many high-calorie products into your body.

A typical rule of thumb I would share with my clients is to not keep anything that doesn’t fit their fitness goal in their house. Unfortunately, it’s easier to say than to do so if you absolutely must have that packet of potato chips in the house, hide it somewhere you can’t see.

Meanwhile, choose snacks that might help your fitness goals. A lean protein snack like eggs or lean beef jerkies will come in handy to regulate your appetite, while fruits and vegetables will help you get some of the nutrients you need.

5. Always, always have emergency food lying around

I use this nifty trick as a way to avoid the hungry hippo situation. Yes, the one where you eat a truckload of junk food because you do not feel like cooking, or have simply too much work to do and when you finally feel hungry, the hippo effect hits fast and next thing you know, you ate a cow.

Keeping low to no cooked food around like skimmed milk, yoghurts, oatmeal, muesli salad greens or pre-chopped fruits allows you to have food when you are hungry, and therefore avoid moving towards the excuse of convenience due to the lack of healthy food available. You can easily mix some oats, milk, nuts and berries together to get a healthy meal ready in less than 2 minutes.

6. Keep things simple.

Ultimately, practical nutrition is not supposed to be hard. If you prepare in advance, build up a routine and have a few useful recipes to curb your hunger according to your own goals and preference, cooking in the kitchen should and will be super easy. And if not, plan some days out that gives you an allowance to order out. At least in Singapore, we have multiple options to consider eating out at, so you will be fine.

ABOUT JAMES YEO

James also holds rich experiences in both the exercise and performance nutrition industry. His experience includes sports coaching, personal training and was even a sports scientist for a well-known government corporation.

With a niche in weight management and sports performance, James is a sports nutritionist at Core Collective who empowers different individuals, including competitive athletes, salespeople, and busy business owners to achieve their fitness goals in the most successful and sustainable way possible.

Holding multiple qualifications from both exercise science and nutrition, James links both exercise and nutrition together to paint a fuller picture on how to better measure and manage your health, fitness, and nutrition to reach out to your goals. He believes that eating towards your best body doesn’t require any sacrifice in taste.

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While sporting arenas have fallen silent in coronavirus times, AIA Global Ambassador David Beckham, celebrated coach Jose Mourinho and the stars of Tottenham Hotspur have come together to remind us that the virus outbreak can never put a damper on the true value of sportsmanship. Our shared love for sports continues to be a powerful platform to positively impact people’s lives.

Through a series of episodes, it will speak to the importance of taking even small actions to improve our health and wellness, whether relating to getting sufficient sleep, spending time with family and friends, eating well or getting enough exercise.

The episodes include a focus on the importance of getting sufficient sleep, which raises awareness of the physical and mental benefits of sleep. In one episode, David Beckham meets South Korea’s Son Heung-Min and Brazil’s Lucas Moura, both of whom credit stable sleep patterns as one of the major factors in boosting their performance in training and on the pitch.

Alongside Spurs in-house experts, they discuss how the Club supports them in establishing good routines, getting enough quality sleep and offer tips everyone can use in their daily lives. The Spurs team emphasize how the combination of all these individual actions can really help to increase both mental and physical fitness. At a time when we are all focussed on our health, doing what we can to help us be stronger, fitter and boost our immunity has never been more important.

Stay tuned!

“As new club owner with Inter Miami CF, I want to help our team be the best they can be. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn about Spurs’ pioneering approach to player health and wellness and to get insight from a manager as experienced and successful as Jose was a real privilege. There is a lot of science and new thinking in the game since I was a player but it’s clear that simple things like a solid routine and great sleep are still really important.”

– David Beckham, Football Legend & International Sporting Icon

About Tottenham Hotspur

Founded in 1882, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has a tradition of playing an entertaining and attacking style of football. The English Premier League Club, based in North London, reached the final of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history in the 2018/2019 season having already secured qualification for Europe’s elite competition for the fourth year in a row.

In April 2019, the Club opened a new 62,303-seat stadium that sits at the heart of a £1billion sport-led regeneration of North Tottenham. The stadium is the largest football club stadium in London and is a multi-use venue with the ability to host a variety of events 365 days a year, including NFL, rugby, concerts and other major events.

When complete, the stadium development scheme will support 3,500 new jobs with £293m pumped into the local economy each year – an increase of 1,700 new jobs and £166m in local spending per year

Tottenham Hotspur also has:

• A fan base of more than 460 million followers worldwide including 272 highly engaged, mobilised and official Supporters’ Clubs
• A £100m state-of-the-art Training Centre that supports the Club’s ambition to attract, develop and retain the best talent
• Commercial partnerships with globally-recognised brands including AIA Group Limited (AIA), one of the world’s leading providers of life insurance services, and Nike, the world’s leading sports footwear and apparel company
• An award-winning Foundation that has created three million opportunities to help enhance the lives of people in its local community through education, employment, health and social inclusion programmes

The initiative is underpinned by AIA’s purpose-led brand promise of helping people to live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives. It sees David Beckham visit Spurs’ training ground and stadium where he met with Head Coach Jose Mourinho, first team players, coaches and nutritionists. David Beckham and members of the Spurs team discuss the simple health and lifestyle choices everyone can make to improve their health, whether a professional player or not.

Both David Beckham and Spurs are playing a key role in making AIA synonymous with Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, through leveraging the power of football to reach millions across the Asia-Pacific region.

In view of the current COVID-19 situation and measures implemented by the governments, we have asked some of the experts to share some tips with our running and sports community on how to stay physically, mentally and/or nutritionally healthy during this period.

1. How do we stay active or physically healthy during this period, considering that we are encouraged to stay at home as much as possible?

The fundamentals of staying active and physically healthy remain the same: Set outcome goals, set process goals, and then execute. 

The considerations of setting fitness outcome goals, for example, ‘doing 30 push-ups’ remain much the same pre-COVID-19. 

Event-based outcome goals are harder to set because mass participation events are likely one of the last to return as the world progressively reopens.

Three ways you can work around that is to sign up for virtual events, aim for an event later in the calendar, and do individual time-trials. 

Process goals like working out every day or leaving your seat to move every 45 minutes keep you on track to your outcome goal.

Ultimately, having goals help. 

As for execution, things are more challenging because of space, equipment, and social limitations. 

But one thing almost everyone can do is to put more focus on strength and conditioning fundamentals, which consists mostly of bodyweight workouts and mobility work. You can do these at home. 

The next step will be to follow a structured strength and conditioning plan. For this, you might need home-gym equipment or improvisation. 

Another place to start is generic workouts that are in abundance on the internet. They work excellent for the short term or if you know what you’re doing. In the long run, it might lead to overuse injuries, and eventually, a personalized approach is more sustainable. 

Regardless of your fitness understanding, the current period is an excellent time to find out more about your body through the help of professionals or self-exploration. Paying attention to your mental, physical, and emotional strength and conditioning is one of the best investments to make now.

2. How do we stay calm during this stressful period?

There’re plenty of mental strategies you can adopt. The one which worked best for me was to sense-make, plan for the worst, and then forge ahead. 

Like many, I struggled with adjusting at first. The turning point came after I tried to make sense of the change the world is going through.

During this period, plenty of paid information is cheaper or even free, so I took advantage and tuned in to more webinars, podcasts, and news. I gathered the content and analyzed them.

The result is a written piece about the most probable future for our lifestyles, the economy, and various industries. 

I sent a summary of my thoughts to my employees to let them know what things are going to be like in the days ahead and made sure that they know everyone’s taken care of. 

I’m not sure how useful it was for them, but having a better sense of the future helped me set new personal goals and direction for the company. 

Since then, every day has had more resemblance to another working day, and it has been easier to stay calm.

3. Are there any simple nutrition plans, tips or recipes that we can follow?

Yes, there are, but first I have to make a disclaimer that I’m not a professional in this area. 

I subscribe to a whole-food plant-based diet for compassionate reasons, and I find it meaningful, healthy, and sustainable.

4. Are there any recommendations on resources (youtube channel/video, social media pages, blogs, books, podcasts etc) to refer to?

For fitness and wellness goals, I believe the most efficient way to learn is to talk to a professional. I recommend seeking out residents of Core Collective, which is a co-working space for such professionals.

My team at Second Wind Nation is also working on an app that aims to mass-personalize structured strength and conditioning and running training plans. Follow us at our Instagram or Facebook for more updates.

ABOUT JING ZHI CHUA

Jung Zhi Chua is a Running Coach and the Founder of Second Wind Nation.

Jing Zhi is also a swim and bike coach who has worked with clients ranging from Southeast Asia’s top marathoners and triathletes to absolute beginners and injured folks. His services are sought after by international brands like Pocari Sweat, New Balance, and Polar.

His skillsets include biomechanical assessment, strength and conditioning, and training program design.

In view of the current COVID-19 situation and measures implemented by the governments, we have asked some of the National Athletes to share some tips with our running and sports community on how to stay physically, mentally and/or nutritionally healthy during this period.

1. How do we stay active or physically healthy during this period, considering that we are encouraged to stay at home as much as possible?

I ride my bike almost every evening on the smart trainer going on Zwift, the virtual reality cycling app. I created a structured training for my group, so it has been more than 30 days riding on a specific plan.

I also incorporate strength training (weight & body weight) after each ride, so that I can still maintain my strength for swimming and not lose too much muscle mass. 

2. How do we stay calm during this stressful period?

I think it’s important not to get too carried away with the current outbreak, of course, it’s important to practice precautions but don’t get too obsessed about things like trying to sanitize or cleaning everything there is to clean, hoarding food or buying grocery like it’s doomsday coming. It creates unnecessary stress for yourself and people around you.

I think what helps is also to continue to exercise or for those who do not exercise on a regular basis, it’s a good time to start. We all know by exercising, it boosts our “feel good” hormone and that keeps us calm & happy during a challenging time like this. You immediately feel good after each workout and it stays with you for the rest of the day. You will be less grumpy or moody indirectly, and you will see yourself lighten up, talk to your spouse and kids better.. and you sleep better!

3. Are there any simple nutrition plans, tips or recipes that we can follow?

I eat clean most of the time and it has helped with weight management during the less-active time during my off-season. It will also work during lock-down period like this when your overall activity level (not just training volume) is lower.

Eating clean to me means – I avoid processed food, oily meals like our all-time favourite “Char-kueh-tiaw”, “curry mee”, “nasi lemak” and sweet stuff such as ice-cream and alcohol.

My wife cooks mostly at home, so our diet is more towards vegetables (complex carbs) and 10% or less is meat.

4. Are there any recommendations on resources (youtube channel/video, social media pages, blogs, books, podcasts etc) to refer to?

For the past few weeks, I take the time to read & watch videos on sport science studies to understand human performance better.

ABOUT ALDRIAN YEO

Aldrian Yeo is a Team Malaysia Triathlete who represented the country at the Southeast Asian Games 2019.

Aldrian started off as a swimmer representing Sarawak in his teens. He then moved to triathlon in 1999 but only took the sport seriously 8 years ago at the age of 28.

His other achievements include 3rd Overall Men (2nd Malaysian) at the Port Dickson International Triathlon 2016, 3rd Overall Malaysian at the IRONMAN 70.3 Putrajaya 2016 and 12th (Elite) at the Thailand Tri-League 2016 (Bangsaen, Thailand).

In view of the current COVID-19 situation and measures implemented by the governments, we have asked some of the experts to share some tips with our running and sports community on how to stay physically, mentally and/or nutritionally healthy during this period.

1. How do we stay active or physically healthy during this period, considering that we are encouraged to stay at home as much as possible?

During this time, it’s really important that we all follow the guidelines set by government and health authorities and practice social distancing.

However, where possible and if allowed (this varies from country to country and even state to state) getting out and running is a fantastic way to stay active, move and also reduce the stress and anxiety that may have been caused by the current situation.

In Australia, there is a ‘running’ boom occurring, however, at present runners are only able to head out in pairs. It’s critical that this privilege is not taken advantage of, with seasoned runners really embracing the opportunity to continue to still be able to train, whilst others are venturing out for runs more than ever before.

During this period, it’s important not to put your immune system at risk with hard workouts, making sure you prepare before runs with hydration and refuel after runs and not to overreach.

It’s also important when running outside where it is busy, to try and avoid crowded tracks/trails where possible. In order to combat this, avoid peal times by running at different times of the day. When passing runners out on course, make sure to go wide and give fair warning to ensure you are not going to close to each other.

If you cannot leave the house due to restrictions, using online training exercises to focus on core strength can be a great way to stay active, or if you’re lucky enough to have a treadmill then obviously that’s another avenue to take.

Why not use this time to mix things up? Online yoga courses are fantastic if you want to focus on developing such things as physical, mental, social and spiritual development. Try to focus on any other weaknesses and imbalances, in such hectic and busy lives this time could really be used to improve those ‘1%ers’.

2. How do we stay calm during this stressful period?

This sudden change to all lives has caused a lot of stress and anxiety worldwide, people from all corners of the globe are being faced with uncertain and unprecedented times. There is a lot of anxiety around the loss of control over the situation, on top of the health concerns and risks associated with COVID-19. Many have even lost jobs, gone into financial hardship and been distanced from family and friends.

In these times it’s important to focus on what you can control, and doing your best to keep yourself calm and safe.

With the constant news cycle and social media feeds it can all become overwhelming, so ensure you consider taking breaks from constantly reading and watching ‘Corona’ related news and stories. Try to give yourself a mental refresh and find some positive stories, documentaries to watch, or even listen to a podcast that is fun or informative.

Take time away from the screens, by reading a good book, engaging in a fun game, plant a veggie patch. Things that you have always wanted to do but just didn’t have the time. Even try meditation or yoga, which are a fantastic way to manage stress. So ensure you incorporate a variety of activities, which allow you to break up your day and help establish that routine.

3. Are there any simple nutrition plans, tips or recipes that we can follow?

Given that we are a bit more restricted around general moving in our regular daily lives, it’s super important now more than ever to make healthy choices during this period. The level of incidental exercise has dropped (ie walking to public transport) so we are burning less overall calories.

Stress and anxiety have obviously built up with the isolation and along with that, there is a real danger that we turn to food as a distraction or support mechanism. If you can try to ensure you continue a healthy association with food and that connection needs to be around using foods to enhance your physical and emotional wellbeing, then you will be much better for it.

This is a great chance to hone your cooking skills and focus your energy on eating healthy and wholesome food. Consider experimenting with some different dishes, jumping online and finding some new and interesting recipes. This time could also be used to bulk cook and freeze food to reduce food waste.

4. Are there any recommendations on resources (youtube channel/video, social media pages, blogs, books, podcasts etc) to refer to?

Here are some specific running-related recommendations, which can assist with that motivation and inspiration:

• Be inspired by Eluid Kipchoges 1.59 Feat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-XgKRJUEgQ
• Listen to a podcast that helps you get better with running https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1506419354
• For book recommendations, follow https://www.instagram.com/run_coaching_with_dave/?hl=en, who has recommended a bunch of amazing books that are all running related.
• Start an online running program with an expert coach via www.run2pb.co https://www.run2pb.co/ongoingcoachingsignup
• Follow Run Culture, one of Australia’s Leading running physiotherapists who has a great (low cost) online course, which has practical and efficient exercises for runners to build strength and conditioning https://run-therapy.teachable.com

ABOUT ZAC NEWMAN

Zac Newman is a Running Coach and the Co-Founder of Run2PB Online Run Coaching.

Zac is a long-distance runner with a wealth of experience in track, cross country and road races spanning over 20 years of training and competitive experiences across the globe.

He has competed in major marathons including London, Chicago and the prestigious Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan, as well as finishing in the top 10 at the Melbourne Marathon on two occasions. His personal best timing for the Marathon is 2h25min.