Exercises that can boost your immunity
Deep Breathing exercises
Like cardiovascular exercises improve your cardiac health, breathing exercises improve the health of your lungs. Regular breathing exercises help by calming the mind, improving oxygenation, and also training the diaphragm to carry out the respiration instead of the accessory muscles.
You can start by doing diaphragmatic breathing:
1. Sit in a comfortable and relaxed position.
2. Put one hand on your chest and the other hand on your stomach.
3. Breathe in through your nose. During this type of breathing, make sure your stomach is moving outward while your chest remains relatively still.
4. Exhale slowly for about two seconds and your stomach is moving in inwards.
5. Repeat.
Rib-stretch breathing can also help:
1. Stand up directly and arch your lower back
2. Breathe out
3. Slowly inhale air until your lungs fill to capacity
4. Hold your breath for about 10-20 seconds
5. Breathe out slowly via your mouth. You can do this usually or with pursed lips.
Cardio-endurance activity and strengthening
Some powerful and easy exercises or activities can be incorporated into your day-to-day life to boost yourimmunity. Even the most workout phobic amongst us can level up with them. Just 20 minutes of a brisk stroll or a even dance workout at home with a YouTube tutorial can help.
The key here is to enjoy whatever you are doing to get the best benefits out of it. Also keep yourself physically active specially now when most of us are operating from home, sitting at a desk and still getting tired. Follow the 20-20-20 rule—take your eyes away from the screen for 20 minutes; get up from your chair and perform a few exercises for the neck, shoulders, and legs for 20 counts; and do 20 seconds of deep breathing.
Apart from all these you can practice strengthening using various household items like water bottle, back packs, water jars, can/packets of grains or any other food items etc. This will prevent muscles from losing their mass and strength because of long term deconditioning—while also helping to boost your immunity.
