PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OF YOUTH DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OF YOUTH DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Ainur Baglan

Magister degree, The Kazakh Medical University for School of Public Health,

Republic of Kazakhstan, Almay

Keywords: students, self-isolation, traditional and distance learning, physical activity, lifestyle, physical activity, eating patterns, bad habits, sleep patterns, COVID-19, IPAQ.

According to the WHO definition, physical activity is any body movement produced by skeletal muscle that requires The term "physical activity" refers to any kind of movement, including during rest, travel to and from places, or while working. Both moderate and intense physical activity contribute to improving health.  Popular physical activities include walking, running, cycling, roller skating, sports (fitness, yoga), outdoor activities and games suitable for but with the onset of the pandemic, the physical activity of the population has sharply decreased, preferences have gone to passively spending time in isolation, or in general choosing an occupation with less energy and effort. The situation has become tense due to the fact that all professions and work activities have moved to the online format. and we stopped wasting time going to gyms, going to work, shopping malls – actually garbage.  They took out and went out to walk the dog on schedule. These were necessary measures to improve the situation with the spread of the virus.

This led to the fact that this target audience, that is, young people from18 to 35 years old felt all the delights of student life and the complexities of offline learning and combining interests and leisure.  Their physical workload was mainly computer work and sedentary learning mode.  All communication turned into chats and social networks, few whose leisure is associated with sports constantly, continued it in this state, since the situation with isolation put pressure on the mental state of the young organism.  Based on these factors, we can conclude that not all, but many have stopped engaging in physical activity or completely abandoned it and preferred a sofa life or generally changed interest.

The economic losses associated with a sedentary lifestyle on a global scale are estimated at $ 68 billion: 54 billion is spent on medical care, and another $ 14 billion is lost due to a decrease in labor productivity.  During the pandemic and in quarantine conditions, opportunities to play sports are limited, but right now physical activity is especially important – both for physical and mental health.  A person of any age can find something to do: just take a walk, run, ride a bike.  You can do exercises at home and even just dance.

The main thing is to move.  Therefore, I suggest a deeper discussion of the student's daily routine and how to improve physical activity.

The main component of the student's activity mode is his work, which represents activities aimed at mastering knowledge and obtaining skills.  The student, of course, lives in his own specific rhythm of life: he must get up at a specific time, perform his duties, study, rest and sleep.  The whole organism participates in the mental activity of the student as a whole.  And the correct alternation of load and rest is the basis of effective performance.  The correct mode of work and rest ensures high efficiency, and a cheerful state for a long time.  One can imagine that students have a very busy schedule.  Some students, for their convenience, can even schedule their day by hours and minutes, and sometimes even the night, for example, in a diary.

Based on this, the question arises, does rest have a place in the student's life? Rest is the next component on which we need to focus our attention.  What is rest? Rest is a state of rest, leading to the restoration of strength and efficiency, and rest is also a condition for maintaining health, because thanks to rest, a person gets the opportunity to relieve tension that accumulates in the course of work.  By the way, during the working day a person needs to take small breaks, and for a whole week there should be at least 1-2 days off, since a person's biorhythm is designed for 5-6 days of fruitful activity.  If a person works all week without rest, then he exposes himself to enormous loads that weaken the nervous system and wear out the body.  Rest, as a component of a healthy lifestyle of a student, is established to be divided into active and passive. However, there is rarely time for active rest in a student's life, so most often students have a second type of rest – passive. The best kind of passive rest is sleep.  Scientists studying the need for sleep have found that those who sleep little have severe mental disorders, such people have significantly worsened mental activity, reduced ability to work, which is unacceptable for students.  It happens that students have to stay up all night, thereby depriving themselves of rest, and it happens that they only manage to sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  You should know that it is best to sleep during the day from 12 to 17 o'clock, at night in the interval from 23 to 8 o'clock in the morning.

Proper nutrition is also considered an integral component of a healthy lifestyle.  Nowadays, people have begun to devote more and more time to the study of proper nutrition.  This phenomenon is due to the fact that a person strives to be healthy and workable.  According to scientists, proper, scientifically formed nutrition is the most important condition for human health, efficiency and mental activity.  When a person eats food, then together with it he receives all the necessary elements that are guaranteed to provide the body with energy.  It is important not only what we eat, but how much we eat, when we eat and in what combinations we eat certain foods.

After analyzing the student's daily routine, we can safely assume that there is not enough time for a full meal, from the word at all.  Eating a lot is not right, not eating at all is also unacceptable.  Therefore, the question itself begs: how many times a day should I eat? Scientists believe that the number of meals should be four.  The main meal should be at dinner, since at night, since at night the blood does not participate in mental and physical work and the released mass of it rushes to assimilation of food.  For many students, this happens.  In the morning, I want to sleep longer, so breakfast is "on the go": tea or coffee with sandwiches.  Lunch is already as necessary, depending on the curriculum, but dinner, as they say, "in full".  It is very important to observe a proper, balanced and nutritious diet.  If a person does not eat enough, then with insufficient nutrition, a person loses weight dramatically, his well-being worsens, working capacity decreases, immunity decreases.  With excessive nutrition, body weight increases, this can lead to diseases associated with metabolic disorders.  

And finally, the most important component of a healthy lifestyle of a student is the influence of physical activity.  Motor activity is a small muscular activity that allows you to maintain physical fitness, improve well-being, provide a surge of energy, giving additional opportunities for mental activity of the student.  People themselves must develop a constant habit of doing sports in order to ensure a harmonious balance between mental and physical exertion.  This is one of the main parts of a healthy lifestyle of a person.  Sports give people determination and self-confidence.  People who are constantly engaged in physical education are less prone to stress, because they cope better with anxiety, anxiety, depression, anger, fear and other negative emotions.  

According to the recommendations published by WHO, adults, including people with chronic diseases or disabilities, are recommended to devote at least 150-300 minutes a week to moderate to intense physical exercise, and children and adolescents should exercise at least an hour a day.

There are many elements that ensure a healthy lifestyle for students.  Thus, it can be concluded that the work and rest regime has a huge impact on the state of human health as a whole, proper and balanced nutrition makes it possible to feel comfortable throughout the day.  And active physical education establishes the general condition of the student, which allows you to lead a full life.  Consequently, all these components can effectively influence the student's learning activities.  

Despite the fact that attention is currently being paid to those who are most affected by the virus, there are many signs that the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting social, cultural, economic, political and multifaceted consequences for the whole society, including young people, as highlighted in the Secretary-General's report "Shared responsibility, global solidarity".