Hybrid working became common after the pandemic. It’s where you work from the office sometimes and from home the rest of the time.

Did you know there’s also such a thing as hybrid exercise?

We’ve seen a lot of it over the last year or so. You may already be practising this successful method without realising it!

It’s where you combine exercise, which is done outside the home, either outdoors or at an external venue, with training at home. Usually, during the week, people will do a mixture of the two.

Read on to learn more about how people make hybrid exercise work and its many benefits.

What Does Hybrid Exercise Look Like, Then?

Outside the home, exercise can include activities at a gym, a group class, a dance studio or a swimming pool. This can be done independently, with an instructor or in a group.

When people exercise at home, this can be done independently or by following a programme (a book, printed programme, DVDs or online videos). An online exercise studio is a great solution for safe, enjoyable and effective home exercise.

What Are the Benefits of Hybrid Exercise?

Hybrid exercise is both more enjoyable and more effective. It’s an easy way to fit regular exercise into your lifestyle and get more results.

Variety is vital in fitness – we need to do various fitness activities both for optimal health and fitness and to stop us from getting bored.

People always look surprised when I say we need to avoid boredom. I think they assume that exercise has to be somewhat painful and tedious. But I don’t believe in ‘no pain, no gain’, and I know that the more you enjoy something, the more you will do it. So I want to ensure you aren’t bored with your exercise routine!

Hybrid exercise is convenient – it’s easier to fit in the training you want and need to do. So you get more benefits!

You can enjoy the social aspect of a class and the flexibility of home exercise, which you can fit around your other commitments.

Who Can Benefit from Hybrid Exercise?

Everyone!

It’s great if you have a busy schedule. Maybe you’re working, volunteering or looking after grandchildren (or all three!). When you want to fit in commitments, responsibilities and social engagements, hybrid exercise can help you keep your routine up.

It works if you live further away from leisure facilities or don’t like driving or taking transport daily.

Hybrid exercise gives you more options if you get tired quickly, or your energy varies daily. You can go out to a class when you’re full of beans and do a short home workout when you’ve got less in the tank.

How Can You Make Hybrid Exercise Work for You?

Make friends with your calendar.

Fit various activities throughout the week. Only book a class on the days you know you can get there. Put home exercise in your calendar like a scheduled gym session.

Make the most of the social opportunities. When you go to a class, have coffee or lunch with people afterwards, make most of the social interaction and enjoy it!

Don’t try to replicate the exercises from your class when you’re at home. Do something complementary and well-suited to home exercise. If you do strength training and aerobic exercise when you’re out, go for some balance and mobility work on your home days.

Follow a plan or programme. It’s very, very hard to succeed with home exercise without one! You could use a book, DVD, website or a programme from your doctor or physical therapist.

Ensure that the author or online instructor you follow is qualified, experienced and delivers exercises at the right level.

For example, here’s a taster of some of the Move More Easily exercises that members of our online Studio enjoy:

Look at the Vida Wellness Studio and try our 14-day trial if you want help and support to exercise at home. It’s an online exercise studio for people who wish to improve their balance and posture, feel stronger, and move more easily.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How often do you exercise? Do you enjoy it? Do you do hybrid exercise or is there a different plan that works better for you?

Having experienced tensions, along with some degree of emotional baggage is, in fact, part of the human experience. Yet, for some mothers, daughters, sons and spouses these rifts run so deep that there is little chance that either party is going to be able to put their differences aside even when care is needed.

Stepping into the role of caregiver is an honorable act of love. It can be rewarding, and in many circumstances the act of caring for someone you love can lead to emotional and spiritual growth.

It should also be noted that caring for someone you love can place additional strains on your relationship, even when there is a solid foundation. Therefore, practicing emotional self-care is an important strategy for self-preservation.

What Is Emotional Self-Care?

Emotional self-care is the act of wrapping yourself in a blanket of comfort and shielding yourself from situations and individuals that increase your distress. It also means that sometimes you will need to repel individuals and possibly circumvent situations that are likely to derail your emotional peace.

What Happens If You Don’t Practice Self-Care as a Caregiver?

So, what might you encounter if you do not actively engage in self-care strategies? You are likely to experience some level of emotional stress, and when compounded over time, unresolved stress can lead to distress and eventually burnout.

Having outlets for your stress and having someone with whom to confide is essential. Networking with other caregivers and talking to those in situations similar to yours can also be of benefit. What matters most is that you make emotional self-care a part of your daily routine.

7 Emotional Self-Care Strategies

In addition to having the proper outlets, you may also participate in practices that you alone can control to ease your emotional distress. The following are seven strategies that you may find helpful when developing a plan for practicing emotional self-care:

Make a Playlist of Music That Brings You Comfort

Listening to music can change your mood. You might make more than one playlist so that you have a variety of tunes that you can listen to depending on how you are feeling at the time.

When you are feeling stressed you may choose to listen to a set of tracks that you find relaxing, and when you’re sad, you may choose to listen to a different type of music.

Write an Encouraging Letter to Yourself

When you are emotionally distressed it may be really challenging to identify your most positive attributes. Consider writing a letter of encouragement and address it to yourself. When you are having a particularly challenging day you can pull it out and read it aloud to remind yourself of all the great things about you.

Create a No-Dumping Zone

Have you ever picked up the phone or walked into a room and someone begins talking non-stop about all of their problems?

It can be exhausting to have someone dump all of their distress on you. Creating a no-dumping zone can be a great way to set boundaries and re-direct individuals who might not respect your need for emotional wellness.

Set a Time to Be Alone in Quiet and Peace

Setting a time to reflect and to relax your mind can be a perfect way to begin or end your day. This alone time should not require you to do anything; rather, it should be about time to focus on emotional wholeness.

Listen to What Your Body Is Telling You

Are you feeling tired all the time, experiencing aches and pains or walking around with your stomach in knots? Listen to your body; perhaps it is trying to tell you something. Should these symptoms persist, it is important to reach out to your doctor.

Be Gentle with Yourself

You may find that in the course of caring for a loved one you become frustrated, short-tempered or in some situations, you may even feel angry. It is okay to experience a wide range of emotions, in fact it is healthy.

Embrace your feelings. Don’t beat yourself up by feeling guilty or by overthinking your actions. Be gentle with yourself, you are human.

Find Passions Outside Your Role as a Caregiver

Make sure that you are taking time to do things that have nothing to do with your role as a caregiver. Reach out and ask for help if you need someone to assist with the care of your loved one so that you can do something you enjoy.

Learning to effectively put your needs first does not come naturally for most caregivers. Should you find that you are in need of more pointed support do not be afraid to reach out to a professional counselor or therapist to help you find ways to care for yourself while you care for your loved one.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How do you practice emotional self-care? If you had to create an emotional-self-care kit what items would you include? Please share your thoughts below!

As I’ve grown older, I’m getting better at letting go.

When a friend rings my doorbell unexpectedly, I no longer apologize for the bills and catalogs scattered across the kitchen table. Or the dog toy minefield she must navigate to reach the coffee pot.

I don’t fret when I scramble a few eggs, pop bread in the toaster, and call it dinner.

If my text or phone call goes unanswered? Oh well!

And I don’t feel obligated to finish a book.

Years ago, when a novel and I didn’t mesh, I plowed through the tedium and pushed on to the final page. Either I didn’t want to waste the good money I’d spent on it, or I felt loyal to the author who had devoted years of her life to writing the story. I couldn’t let the book go.

But not anymore! I’ve bailed on several novels this year, but I loved every single book on this list…

The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Loigman

The stunning, colorful cover (based on ketubah designs) grabbed me, and I adored the author’s last book, The Wartime Sisters. Although fantasy is not usually the genre I crave, I had to try Lynda Loigman’s latest novel.

And I’m so glad I did!

Abby, a late-century divorce attorney, comes across journals written by her beloved grandmother, Sara. Sara had a gift for matchmaking at a time when only Jewish men on New York’s Lower East Side earned money in that vocation. Is it possible Sara has passed this gift along to her granddaughter?

Along with a delightful and heartwarming storyline, I enjoyed learning about Jewish culture and the historical tradition of Jewish matchmaking.

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

“It is a gift in this life that we don’t know what awaits us.”

After finishing this thought-provoking book, I had one question for myself: How in the world was this my first Elizabeth Strout novel?

In 2020, when the world shuts down, Lucy and William leave their Manhattan apartments for a seaside cottage in Maine. The divorced couple rides out the pandemic together, rekindling friendship and compatibility.

Strout writes in an autobiographical, relatable way. Her reflections about love, aging, suffering, grown children, and hope might be any reader’s thoughts. I saw myself time and time again as I lost myself in the pages.

Now that I’ve met the characters in this novel, I plan to pick up Strout’s bestseller Oh William! next. And also, her Pulitzer Prize-winning, Olive Kitteridge. I have some reading to do!

Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah

Along with 35 other Smith College coeds, Jacqueline Bouvier (don’t call her Jackie!) set sail for a study abroad program in 1949. Living with the Comtesse de Renty and her daughters in Paris, Jacqueline signed a pledge to speak only French – at all times – for her entire one-year stay.

In this well-researched novel written in Jacqueline’s voice, the young student discovers a world of art and passion in France. Jacqueline’s year abroad brings her new possibilities, other points of view, and a relationship with a man her mother would never deem suitable. It sparks her lifelong love affair with art, design, and all things French.

Despite the lack of central heating, ample food, and toilet paper, Jacqueline doesn’t miss her suffocating home or her mother’s tight control. She doesn’t miss Mummy’s constant reminders to marry a man with money, power, and political aspirations.

Which she did… Years after her time in Paris, Jacqueline returned to France with her husband, President John F. Kennedy, on a state visit. The President introduced himself to a Paris crowd as “the man who accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Paris.”

Heaps of books exist – fiction and non-fiction – on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. I’ve read many of them. But this is the first I’ve come across focusing on her study-abroad year in Paris. And I loved it.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Lots of media buzz swirls around this recently published mystery. And the hype is well-deserved; I could not put it down.

Jen watches her teenage son stab a man on the street in front of their home. In the wee hours of the morning, her handcuffed son rides off to jail. His – and her – life is in ruins. Jen finally falls asleep, worrying about how she will help her son when she wakes up. Except she wakes up a day before the murder.

How would it be to live our lives in reverse? Like Jen, would we look at situations with a fresh lens? Would we take more time to stop and smell the roses? No doubt, when given a chance, any human would do things differently.

For readers who don’t appreciate a time travel story (like me), this novel is seamless, clever, and well executed.

The Social Graces by Renee Rosen

Fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age will also savor this historical fiction novel narrated by Caroline Astor, Alva Vanderbilt, and Society. Caroline – the Mrs. Astor is a Knickerbocker. Alva is new money. And Knickerbockers do not want to mingle with the nouveau-riche.

Alva will stop at nothing to persuade society to accept her. Based on fact, this novel is a delightful romp of the extravagant measures the two women undertook to maintain their places in society’s hierarchy.

Several of Ms. Rosen’s other novels seem intriguing, including her next one (April 2023), which revolves around cosmetic icon Estee Lauder.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What’s your philosophy? How long do you stick with a book before you bail and move on to another? Do you feel obligated to finish? Any books you’ve plodded through and were glad you read to the end?