Preventing diseases these days seems complicated.

While there are no guarantees in life (each day is a gift), illness and disability are genetically, environmentally, age or lifestyle-related issues that often begin before people know they are affected.

When it comes to protecting your health, washing your hands has always been one of the best places to start.

The single most important thing you can do to keep from getting sick and stop the spread of disease-causing germs like the pandemic taking over the world right now is to wash your hands often. Precautions are a top priority, just like staying inside.

While anxiety and fear are on the rise with COVID-19, and people are starting to feel helpless, let us turn the problem upside down.

What CAN you do that’s in your control when it comes to staying healthy and active?  

So you might be stuck inside, and you have to wash your hands more. What an opportunity to keep active while you wash your hands! You can even ADD in a FUNctional movement while you clean.

What is FUNctional exercise precisely?

Even if you feel limited by injury or illness, your body still wants to move. Strength is an essential component of staying flexible and mobile as we age. The science shows that whether you use weights in a gym or your body weight, strength training leads to lifelong functionality, power, and neural coordination. 

In my book, The Play Book: How to Get In The Habit Of Good Health, I discuss the value of functional play and how it reduces the impact of lifestyle-related diseases when you implement the right habits.

All it takes is soap and water, 20 seconds of scrubbing hands and wrists, and then a good rinse. As a coach, I often suggest to my clients that combining something you have to do with exercise makes exercise less of a chore. Don’t let those 20 seconds go to waste – add some functional movements and reap the physical (and hygienic) rewards.

Need some ideas?

CLICK HERE to watch the video on the five ways to get stronger while you wash your hands.  Pick a different one every time you scrub for a little variety!

20 seconds of Balance

• Stand on one leg for a count of 10 then stand on the other for a count of 10

20 seconds of Leg Strength

• Back leg raises (count to 10 on one side than ten on the other)
• Side leg raise (count to 10 on one side than ten on the other)
• Calf raises (20 counts)

20 seconds of Cardio

• March in place (20 counts)

Play (exercise) is a great way to stay healthy and prevent immune deficiencies that lead to viruses becoming severe in your body.

When play or exercises are part of the way you live, the notion of having to make time for working out becomes less overwhelming. Optimal health is a long-term process. Play for life. Focusing on fun might not sound very serious, but there’s a good reason successful people create time for it: the more fun we have, the more we feel truly alive.

Stay healthy!