Exercising and working out regularly has been a regular part of my lifestyle for over a year now (LO 4). I’ve bought different types of gym equipment so I can workout at home, without having to pay for a gym membership. With DP1 and DP2 being so stressful with it’s workload, I find it hard to go out to a gym and come back, hence being able to work out at the leisure of my home is convenient. I find working out at home beneficial also because it is much easier to keep up consistency. Something I’ve learned is no matter which workout is performed, without a daily effort there will be no results. With my equipment being at home it’s really easy to convince myself into working out. Recently I have been working on my chest with the help of a bench press machine and a barbell for deadlifts (LO 2). Working out helps me stay physically fit and active as due to COVID I don’t walk around anymore and sitting at home all day really wears me down. Especially as physical activity helps with mental health as well, it was beneficial for me to help me get through the pandemic mentally. I didn’t/can’t do much cardio because my metabolism is fast and one of my goals is to stay lean but add on muscle (LO 1). But occasionally I have been going on short runs around the neighbourhood and also around the nearby running track. (Figure 1&2). However I have been my diet is quite protein rich as well in order to build sufficient muscle. Doing cardio would make it easier to lose weight, which is not what is required for my fitness goals.

As school in person has just started, it has also given me the opportunity to get back to playing the sports I played before school ended. Staying after school and playing football with my friends not only improved on my physical fitness but also strengthened my long lost connections with my friends due school closing. As we played football after school, we tried to work on our free kicks and penalties, as the most prominent issue with us during SAISA Football was that we had good shots on target but none of them managed to get to the back of the net. Each of us would help each other on anything we felt needed improving, especially things like where to hit the ball, which part of the foot should you hit the ball and keeping your head down whilst shooting to have the ball go on target (LO5) (LO4). Shooting using both legs was important as well because my position on the football team was left winger, which meant that I had to be able to play well with my left foot. Although I had a strong right foot, working with my left foot felt foreign however after taking many shots on many days it started to feel more natural (LO1). More goals for next time would be to call upon more players so we would be able to simulate a proper game and we could introduce what we had applied in our practice into a real game scenario. Over the last few weeks I have also been going to TAFA, a local football academy to play some full scale games with them. Coming back to playing full games at first was difficult, however as you get accustomed to the routine again, it gets easier.  (figure 3).