Home Workout Plan: Mood Lifting Exercises For Emotional Wellness

We will start with a disclaimer: we are not athletes. But we do want to share what the Bach® Team is doing to lift our — at times — low mood at home during the lockdown in the hopes that it will help you too. Regular exercise is helping us with our mental health and emotional wellness in abundance, alongside eating well, chatting to friends and making sure we try new hobbies.

With our limited workout space and equipment, these exercises are simple. But if you do have equipment at home, add it in wherever you think it would make the workout better. Regardless, these should be enough to get your heart rate up, your muscles turned on and your endorphins pumping. And most importantly, lift your mood.

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Yoga Flow

Yoga is a great way to take a time out and focus your mind. We’ve been enjoying YouTube classes, alongside free flows. Some are easier than others, but we really love a gentle, soul-nourishing session at the moment. Yoga is a great opportunity to reconnect to how you really feel and take some time to recalibrate before you move on with your day. Here is how we start each day: with a basic flow. Add to this with a simple YouTube tutorial.

1. Start standing in mountain pose. With your arms by your side, your palms should face forward and your fingers should be spread wide. Your feet should be hip width apart. Pull your knee caps up, engage your quads, pull your belly button in and up, and relax your shoulders down. Your hips should be above your feet; your heart above your hips; and your head above your heart. This stance will be your ‘reset’ move.
2. Flow down. Move from your hips, reaching your fingers towards your toes until you reach as far as possible. Lift back up halfway with your back straight, looking down towards your feet. Bend back down.
3. Flow to your downward dog. Plant your hands on the floor, bending your knees as much as you need. Step one foot back and then the other, until you are in a high plank. Slowly, bend your arms until your body reaches the floor completely and your forehead is on the floor. Straighten your arms a little so your head and shoulders come off the floor and relax back down. Now, push your body back up to high plank and bend at your hips, so that your legs and arms are straight, but your hips are as high as possible.
4. Head back to standing. From downward dog, hop or walk your feet towards your hands. Once you are in a forward fold, move upwards from your hips and with your arms raising above your head. Bring your arms by your side and stand in your mountain pose again.

HIIT Workout

This HIIT workout is a simple 10 moves, repeated for four rounds for 20 minutes and you should be working up a sweat. You’ll actually only be working out for 10 minutes, as 10 minutes are dedicated to rest. Feel free to swap in different moves where you want. A few examples: press ups (either in full or on your knees), burpees, lunges, jumping squats/lunges, high knees, shoulder taps and any other body weight movement.

The hard work and sweat during a HIIT is a sure way to boost your endorphins after, but make sure you eat nourishing food alongside it and drink plenty of water.

1. Squats (30 seconds)
   Top tip: stand with your feet shoulder width apart and sit back on your heels, engaging your core. Lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground, drive through the heels and squeeze your glutes to return to a standing position.
2. 30 second rest
3. Jumping jacks (30 seconds)
4. 30 second rest
5. Mountain climbers (30 seconds)
   Top tip: start in a plank position, keeping your core engaged and your shoulders, hips and feet in a straight line. Drive your knee towards your chest, one at a time, as quickly as you can, while staying strong in your plank.
6. 30 second rest
7. Tricep dips (30 seconds)
   Top tip: find a sturdy chair, bench or step and sit on it with your feet flat on the floor, hip distance apart. Position your hands so that your palms are down beside your hips with your fingers gripping the front of the chair seat, then slide forward just far enough that your bottom clears the edge of the chair. Lower yourself until your elbows are bent between 45 and 90 degrees and then slowly push yourself back up to the start position and repeat.
8. 30 second rest
9. Plank (30 seconds)
   Top tip: plant your forearms flat on the floor directly underneath your shoulders with your feet hip-width apart. When you lift your body off the floor, make sure you are squeezing your abdominals, glutes and quads and try not to let your hips rise or drop.
10. 30 second rest

Repeat three times.

Scroll down for more articles or learn more about how emotions affect decisions, how emotions affect learning or our physical health, and 10 ways to improve your emotional health today.