GOQii Play Archives

June 1, 2020 By Shaeba Shaikh 2 Comments

Top 5 Effective Workouts For Weight Loss During Lockdown

Visiting gyms, joining classes for yoga and zumba have become troublesome because of the COVID-19 lockdown. With limited options, it is natural to get bored and stumble back into a sedentary lifestyle. Don’t put on all the weight you’ve worked so hard to lose. We have some effective workouts to help you lose all that unhealthy weight.

5 Easy and Effective Workouts To Lose Weight

1. Walking/Running:
There’s nothing better than running outdoors – the fresh air and all but the problem is that the lockdown prohibits anyone from stepping out… so how do you do it? There are many ways, in fact, it is easier if you have a treadmill. If you don’t, try spot jogging and taking frequent breaks in between your work from home schedule to walk around the house and unwind.

2. Jump Rope:
Do you want that sleek, slender body? Jump Rope is your answer! It is one of the most underrated yet effective workouts. If you’re new to this, start with a 2-5 min warm up, then do the traditional rope skipping with 30-50 reps. Then, you can run up and down your building stairs, do the rope again for 30-50 reps and end with a cool down. It is high intensity, low cost, doesn’t consume time and is still one of the most effective workouts for weight loss.

3. High Intensity Interval Training:
As the name suggests, it is periods of High Intensity exercises coupled with Low Intensity exercises/rest. The aim for HIIT workout is to target 80% of VO2 Max (Max Oxygen Consumption) for maximum results.

Your typical HIIT session can be:

Warm Up
Lunges for 1-2mins at a stretch
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Pushup for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Squats for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
Abdominal Crunches for 1-2mins
Walk/Jog for 30secs
Cool down

You can add more exercises and modify the exercises as per your fitness levels.

4. Weight Training:
Yes, this might be impossible since most of us don’t have dumbbells and other gym equipment at home but that shouldn’t pose much of a problem. You can still use your daily household equipment as weights. For instance, water bottles filled with water as dumbbells or a bucket of water for your deadlifts. In fact, you can also use your own bodyweight. The key idea here is to undergo a process called Hypertrophy of the muscles, wherein the body increases the size of the muscles and reduces the fat around it. Weight training helps in burning fat 24×7 as opposed to burning fat only during the workout. A beginner can start with 20 reps + 3 sets of deadlifts, squats, lunges, bicep curls, etc.

5. Boot Camp:
This is one of the most intense and effective workouts which alternate between aerobic activities of sprinting/running along with strength exercises and drills. It simultaneously works on your endurance and strength.

You can start a typical routine as:

Warm up
1 min each of Push ups, Lunges, Pull ups, Crunches, Buttkickers, spot jog
Repeat the exercises
Cool down.

To make things easier for you, you can find all the above effective workouts for weight loss on GOQii Play. You’ll be guided by fitness experts in LIVE sessions. More so, you can also subscribe to GOQii and get tips, guidance and motivation from a certified GOQii Coach.

We hope this article helps you choose your workouts and lose weight during the lockdown. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more tips on fitness, do check out Healthy Reads within the app as well.

Stay home, stay safe, get active and #BeTheForce

December 31, 2019 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Level Up Your 2020 With GOQii!

The year has come to an end and around this time, we all begin formulating resolutions for the coming year. While most of us haven’t stuck to our resolutions or surprisingly achieved them, we need to understand that being healthy and active is an ongoing process. It never ends and the only thing to do is Level Up!

What happens once you achieve a health goal? Do you stop? Do you go back to being unhealthy? What happens if you don’t achieve your health goals? Do you give up? The answer is no! You move forward. You rise up to the challenge. You learn all there is to know to push ahead and #BeTheForce. That’s what we mean when we say Level Up.

So how do you Level Up? How do you take things up a notch? Let us help!

How You Can Level Up Your 2020

Below are a few things that GOQii helps you with so you can better equip yourself with the right guidance, right knowledge and the right products – all available within the GOQii App.

GOQii Play: Tired of routine? Have doubts about nutrition? Want to try yoga and meditation? We’ve got all of these covered and much more on GOQii Play. You have access to tons of information from experts in their respective fields. Be it sexual wellness, mental health or medicine, we bring you the latest topics, exciting workouts, healthy recipes among others, all of which will help you better equip yourself to take it to the next level in 2020!
Health Store: Want a trusted source for nutraceuticals? Want to eat healthy snacks? Do you need clothing for your gym? The GOQii Health Store has everything you need to get you started on the right path to good health. The brands and their products are curated by a team of experts to bring you nothing but the best. Let shopping healthy be one of your resolutions this year.
Active Sunday: If motivation doesn’t find you, you need to go out there and find it yourself! Nothing works as better motivation than a group of like-minded individuals who meet up every Sunday for an hour and exercise. GOQii Active Sundays happen every week and are a great way to kickstart your week on a healthy note. Currently, we have around 50 GOQii Champions who conduct Active Sundays across different locations in India and at the pace at which we’re going, this number is likely to increase in the coming year. Want to be a part of this? Click here to register: https://goo.gl/KN82CU
Challenges: In 2019, we initiated 3 challenges that were massive and had a huge impact on healthcare in India. Through the India Steps Challenge, we were able to increase the national step count to an average of 9391. The India Health Quiz helped users increase their knowledge about all things healthy and bust common health myths which were floating around the internet. The GOQii Trail Challenge this year saw an amazing turnout, inspiring stories which included a 60 year old participant completing the trail with a broken arm as well as a blind and sighted duo who completed the 50km arduous trail in 16 hours. In 2020, we’re going to issue more challenges and more opportunities for all of us to shine!

In one app, you have all the tools you need to make 2020 as healthy as possible but don’t forget one of the key ingredients which is YOU! It is your willpower, determination and motivation which will make all the difference. 2020 is about you and what you do to Level Up your lifestyle and make a difference.

So walk more, eat healthy, sleep right and have more fun! The world is your playground. Here’s to a healthy and happy New Year!

#BeTheForce

November 23, 2019 By GOQii 1 Comment

How Mr. Nageswaran Won Rs. 5 Lakh in the India Health Quiz

In a world plagued by fake health news and articles spread via the internet, the India Health Quiz launched by GOQii sought to educate the masses with the correct information in a quiz format which tested their knowledge. The idea was to bust myths and fake health news by getting the correct information from experts via GOQii Play and use that knowledge to play the quiz. Players could accumulate points and exchange them for prizes such as GOQii Trackers, Bags, Cell phones and a grand prize of Rs. 5 lakh which was bagged by Mr. Nageswaran!

With so much of competition, difficult questions and obstacles, how did Mr. Nageswaran manage to claim the grand prize? Let’s find out!

What Motivated Mr. Nageswaran?

Being a GOQii Player for about 3 years, Mr. Nageswaran has been quite active on the GOQii App. When the India Health Quiz was announced, he got curious! He knew he wanted to participate. Furthermore, he wanted to increase his awareness about various things related to fitness and nutrition. This was the right platform for him to do that!

Vying For 1st Place!

If you’re wondering, “Did he have a strategy?” He didn’t plan anything. He just went out and played the quizzes with the aim of getting as many correct answers as possible in a collective effort with his wife. His initial thought was that he just wanted to play and see how far he can reach.

As the days progressed, he used to go back to previous quizzes and sharpen his knowledge. He found that some of the past questions had some relevance to the current ones. Towards the end, he knew almost all the answers without even looking at the options.

One of the boons he had by his side was that he never ran out of keys. How? Mr. Nageswaran is a regular at the GOQii Health Store. He says that most of his groceries come from the GOQii Health Store. In fact, he purchased some product or the other every day. This helped him accumulate keys and use them to participate in the IHQ.

As for lives, he had only managed to invite 50 friends. He had retained this number till the last 10 days of IHQ. Towards the end, he referred more people and got his count up to 90. As a matter of fact, he did not need too many lives at later stages as he knew the answers to most questions. He was left with as many as 2000 lives!

Overcoming Obstacles and Glitches

At the start of IHQ, Mr. Nageswaran face a few technical glitches which reduced as the quiz progressed. He particularly points out that the technical team were always eager to help him with any issue he faced. Despite having faced glitches, he is of the opinion that an online quiz of such magnitude is bound to have glitches. Apart from this, he feels the questions were quite simple except a few technical ones which were very hard to figure out.

His Thoughts on the India Health Quiz

Mr. Nageswaran says it was a commendable effort on the part of GOQii to think of a unique and interesting way to impart knowledge to its users. He feels some of the concepts about health and nutrition might have gotten etched in the minds of users who played these quizzes regularly. For instance, he would have never known the food sources of various vitamins and minerals if it weren’t for the quiz.

He feels what started as a casual thing, later on became an addiction. He and his wife used to even participate in the quiz while working and trying their best not to miss any quiz. He feels it was definitely a success story for GOQii and a great learning experience for him.

All we can say now is Congratulations to Mr. Nageswaran and a big thank you to everyone who participated! Keep your eyes peeled for the next challenge!

#BeTheForce

October 31, 2019 By GOQii Leave a Comment

The New Age Health Horror of Diabesity

When someone says “horror”, what do you imagine? Definitely nothing pleasant but something extremely scary, right? Do you picture ghosts and demons? If your perception of horror is limited to only supernatural occurrences, you might want to take a big step back. While supernatural entities are subjective, health issues are very much real and their stats are horrifying to say the least.

Recently, we came across a study titled ‘Finding a Policy Solution to India’s Diabetes Epidemic‘ by Karen Siegel, K. M Venkat Narayan and Sanjay Kinra. The study indicated that ‘In India, 35 million people have diabetes—a number expected to more than double by 2025, disproportionately affecting working-age people’. That means over 70 million people. Isn’t that scary?

Diabesity, which is a combination of Diabetes and Obesity, is even worse! Can you picture it? Obesity is a key risk factor for diabetes. India has the world’s largest number of people with Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) and Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG), which are the precursors for diabetes. Obesity and IGT are mostly found in younger populations.

Major Causes Leading to Diabesity

Globalization: facilitates access to various pre-packaged and processed foods. In fact, there is minimal physical activity as we have one touch access to almost everything! Surely, we are growing economically but at the cost of our health.
Nutrition Transition: There is a major shift observed in the meal patterns of Indians today. People are turning more towards western foods, foods that are pre-packaged, ready to eat foods, high in calories, sugar, aerated drinks, hydrogenated fats over the simple traditional food which are high in vitamins, minerals, fiber and other essential nutrients.
Higher Percentage of Abdominal Fat: Abdominal obesity is the key factor of insulin resistance and development of diabetes.
Malnutrition During Pregnancy: Because of the co-existence of underweight and overweight, children are often born underweight and adapted to a low-nutrition environment. Low-birth weight infants are more susceptible than those of normal birth weight to obesity and diabetes, especially when raised in an Obesogenic environment.
Lifestyle: Most people today lead sedentary lifestyles devoid of much movement. Even at work we’re glued to our desks and laptops. This accounts to minimal physical activity. At the same time, the stress factor is the maximum with respect to targets/goals associated with work, family and social circles.

How To Keep It At Bay

Keeping Diabesity at bay actually involves 3 very simple and basic lifestyle modifications:

Make Healthy Food Choices: Choose whole grains and its products over refined ones. Incorporate more fruits and veggies daily. Opt for products less in sugars, fats and high in fiber. Make a habit of reading nutritional labels before buying a product. Do not forget “MODERATION IS THE KEY”.
Exercise: Make it a point to exercise on a regular basis. Exercising will not only keep you active but also help reduce insulin resistance, improve cardio vascular strength, tone your muscles, and increase Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Exercising releases endorphins which is a feel good hormone that will also help you relieve stress(both physical and mental).
Stress Management: Managing time and stress is essential to stop the release of the stress hormone Cortisol which makes you crave for foods that are high in carbs. All that you eat when stressed is stored in the body as fats, especially in the belly. Meditating regularly before going to bed, deep breathing during stressful moments, indulging in your hobbies, exercising, completing your work on time, etc. will help curb stress levels. It is not a single factor that would work but both.

If you want to learn about effective ways to manage obesity and diabetes, or want effective exercises to combat both, tune into GOQii Play and get live coaching from renowned experts you can even interact with.

We hope this article on Diabesity alarms you enough to make necessary lifestyle modifications before its too late! Stay healthy and #BeTheForce!