Santiago de Chile, Apr 3 (EFE) .- If the risk of being infected by the coronavirus is already a sufficient concern, home isolation as prevention can generate stress and anxiety. The solution in Chile: follow the training of athletes on social networks who, from their homes, seek to shape the body and mind of their confined compatriots.
Around 2 million people are under compulsory quarantine in the southern country, where the 3,000 positive cases of COVID-19 have already been surpassed and at least 18 have died since the first contagion on Chilean soil was registered on March 3.
The quarantines arrived with the passage of days and currently, despite the fact that the Government has not decreed confinement at the national level, citizens from Santiago de Chile and the cities of Chillán, Padre Las Casas, Temuco, Osorno, Puerto Williams , Punta Arenas, Easter Island or Chiloé cannot leave their homes.
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And the abnormality of this situation generates among the inmates a feeling of “entrapment in which freedoms are seen as private,” Ignacio Gallardo, a doctor in Psychology from the University of Chile and an academic from SEK University, explained to Efe.
“There is a threat to the freedom to move where and when you want. Even a person who did not go out, the fact of having to be locked up, generates a border that was not there before and before that there is a feeling of feeling trapped” , he detailed.
This stress requires a “strategy” and physical exercise, the expert warned, is one of the most effective solutions.
“They are the exercises that allow us to break a little the alert in which we are continuously with the situation. Overcome the initial resistance we enter a phase of a healthier consciousness in which we must be today and there the exercise makes us breathe and oxygenate our thinking, “Gallardo reported.
THE CHILEANS ON THE MOVE, BUT WITHOUT LEAVING
To promote preventive isolation measures against the coronavirus and promote this escape valve against confinement, the Chilean Ministry of Sports promoted the #EntrenaenCasa campaign through social networks to promote physical exercise.
Chilean athletes joined the campaign through the daily publication of their training routines, adapted for all audiences, with moderate intensity for any age and with the tools that anyone has at home.
In those videos, Hockey player Manuela Urroz does leg exercises with a lawn chair, Pan American Skating champion María José Moya practices squats, or swimmer Natalie Lusbacher teaches push-ups on a mat from her living room.
The Sports Minister, Cecilia Pérez, explained to Efe that with this they seek a “balance” between the physical and mental situation of the confined citizens.
“We are living a tremendous social crossroads, for which none of us was prepared, that is why at this time it is essential to support ourselves in carrying out physical activity. A healthy mind in a healthy body. That phrase must be kept in mind especially today in day, “Pérez explained.
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Without a doubt, the 800-meter master athlete Evelyn Ortiz went one step further and for two weeks every afternoon she stands in front of her computer in her living room and performs live training sessions on social networks for thousands of people.
The initiative began with videos for their “running” students and from there, without realizing it, their classes began to be replicated in living rooms and home rooms throughout Chile.
“Athletes have an innate characteristic and that is that there is no excuse. We live that there are no excuses to achieve a goal, and I try to pass it on to people. I do not want to be told that they do not have a gym at home, or dumbbells, or the space. If you have space to put a plasma you have room to put your body, it is a matter of priorities “, explained Efe Ortiz.
And so, with two sponges washing dishes on their feet and in the middle of their living room, push-ups and crunches come and go every day, some cardio, pilates, or aerobics, to help “bring the mind to another side and that generates a benefit for health. “
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Ortiz pointed out that sharing their sports routines with people through social networks and live also means being able to interact with them at a time when almost the entire planet is isolated in their homes.
“Being in confinement, many hours glued to the television or cell phone, or listening to so much news and so much information generates a feeling of anguish and in some people depression. So (sports) is undoubtedly a benefit that today takes much more weight from root of the situation, “added Ortiz.
REVERT NEGATIVITY
Ortiz explained that these classes are a routine that breaks the vicious circle of confinement, an idea endorsed by the psychologist Gallardo, who gave as an example to the 33 Chilean miners who in August 2010 were trapped in a deposit in the north of the country for 70 days.
Gallardo explained that two of the miners used to run through the tunnels of the mine as the days passed and thus managed to turn a negative situation into a positive one. They stopped running while locked up, to be locked up while running.
“They later said that the only important thing was that they ran and so they did not think about the days that were passing. The running of the bulls became what accompanied the exercise, what there was before running and after running,” Gallardo said.
(c) EFE Agency
