Get active in Poland – let’s keep moving

Get active in Poland. Hippocrates said once:

Sport is a preserver of Health

Hypocrates

But how can we “do sport” nowadays, if all gyms, swimming pools and any other training rooms are closed because of pandemic lockdown? What are the possibilities at this difficult time to stay in shape or at least give ourselves possibilities for any activity? I did a little research about it and I found few good alternatives.

• Indoor activities
• Outdoor activities
• Apps for hiking, running and biking
• Additional equipment and accessories

Undertaking all kinds of physical activity gives us many more benefits. Sport not only improves our health and condition, but also has a positive effect on our mood. People who move even a little have more energy, better mood, well-being and self-esteem. What benefits can sport bring us? One of the main benefits of sport is that you are less likely to suffer from many diseases. The most important one:

• strengthens the immune system – I made a separate article about it, so feel free to click link and read more about simple and efficient ways to improve your immunity
• movement improves your mental performance, which means the ability to remember increases
• sport gives a sense of satisfaction, which increases our self-esteem
• lowers blood sugar levels
• regulates metabolism
• reduces the risk of cardiovascular disorders
• lowers blood pressure
• prevents osteoporosis

As you know this, you might want to ask: “but what know?” Let’s start with simple things.

Indoor activity – training at home

Idea itself is not complicated at all. The simplest ways to exercise do not demand any specific equipment, except comfortable clothes and a little bit of space. Taking into the consideration, that you have already some experience with workout and you know your own preferences, I would have advise using Youtube and/or Facebook which are full of movies with any kind of training which you can perform at home. Since uncle Google is our best friend as we talk about finding any kind of the information’s, just type into the browser “home workout” with any additional phrase, as for example: “no equipment”. This results with plenty of movies and monthly or weekly plans for people with equipment at home. Changing phrase for “ABS workout” or “stamina” gives you respective results as well.

But once again – this way is dedicated for people who have already some experience with sport activities. You need to know what types of training is important for you and what suits you – for example on the base of activities done just before gym’s lockdown. It is important, since jumping directly in to advanced 1x hour cross training workout by someone who starts an adventure with sport activity or had a longer break from it, may result with more bad (injury, demotivation) than a good things.

So what if you are not experienced and you would need some additional help? I would have advised to find qualified personal trainer who will set up plan form on the base of your preference and health condition. He or she, can also advise you where to start and I which direction you should have go. I found not so long ago a search engine portal called: “Lepszy Trener”, for personal trainers. I need to say honestly, that I did not contact any trainer from there, but I spent some time with this portal. You can easily find there trainer adjusted to your preferred type of workout sorted location wise. Also – in the left bottom corner of each single avatar, you may see what languages are supported by specific person. Link to portal, below:

Additional fact worth mentioning. If you are beneficiary of the ”Multisport Card” program, you get video trainings, meetings with qualified trainers, so called “diet wizard” and e-books in the price of membership card. It might be worth mentioning here.

Outdoor activities

As we can read on official polish website – gov.pl, on the base of situation from 24^th of October 2020, we do not need to wear a mask in a places, which are commonly used for outdoor activities.

Where do you not need to cover your mouth and nose? In the forest, park, greenery, botanical gardens, historic gardens, in family allotment gardens and on the beach.

But what would be the best option to find a hiking trail or the nearest forest or park. It is not so simple, especially if you are new in the city. This is a great moment to introduce one of my favorite applications which I discovered last year while I was visiting Slovakia. I mean Mapy.cz Application gives wide spectrum of information’s about any touristic and worth seeing places at the chosen place. For example: forests, beaches, viewpoints, hiking trails, bike trails, walking trails, historical monuments and many more. You may reach it via webpage as well as mobile application. Using one registered account, allows you to plan track on a laptop via browser and simply sync it up with your smartphone. You may want to ask, what is the price of such great tool. So now the biggest surprise: “it is for free”.

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You might use it all over the globe, also offline since application allows you to download specific maps and use them offline on your smartphone. At the same time, it is available in many most common European languages. You may use it as compass, navigation and map at the same time. It also offers feature to register all your tracks just like in case of running apps. 

Talking about apps based on free GPS tracking of sports, I need to mention here as well Endomondo and Strava which allow to you to join community of runners, bikers and hikers. You can find a lot of people in apps themseles as well as facebook community.

Additional equipment and accessories

You might as well want to buy additional equipment which would have give you opportunity to bring your activity on a higher level. Additional weights, kettlebell, running shoes and thermo clothes or for example treadmill. What would be the smartest option nowadays to buy such things? You might look for sport stores in your neighbourhood, by typing in the Google: “sklep sportowy”.

But if you don’t want to go anywhere and you know exactly what do you want to buy, online shopping might be more convenient for you. The biggest and most popular on the polish market are: Decathlon, 4F, Martes Sport Intersport and Go Sport. Majority of them offer as well possibilities to order your equipment via internet and local pick up. Worth mentioning here, is that the Decathlon offers right now free delivery for order higher then 19,99 zł. This is a bargain.

Summary – Get active in Poland

As mentioned already (and as it is confirmed by multiple scientist and specialists), any kind of activity is very important for us. Despite the tough times, I would like to motivate you to keep moving and challenging yourself. except explosion of endorphins, you will also gain satisfaction from taking care about your heath and long time wellness. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below – your feedback is very welcome.

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