KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala has released a fitness video to urge South Africans to stay active during the lockdown.
Photo: Screenshot
Watch: Witness the fitness with KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala
The video, published on Easter Sunday, is as wholesome as it is informative. We can’t confirm how far he’s strayed from his house though.
KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala has released a fitness video to urge South Africans to stay active during the lockdown.
Photo: Screenshot
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier Sihle Zikalala has released a fitness video encouraging South Africans to stay fit while stuck at home during lockdown.
It’s not the ab-crunching, air-punching video we wanted, nor what we could necessarily stomach on Easter Sunday, but by God is it glorious.
Watch: KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala’s home workout video:
‘Stay fit – at home’
In between enthusiastic jumping jacks and doing his best impression of a sour-worm with Ironman ambitions, Premier-turned-fitness guru Zikala conveyed a message to South Africans that during this uncertain time, when getting to the gym and going for long runs on the beach-front is impossible, that it remains critical to our health that we keep up with a workout program.
“The KZN government is at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Together we will conquer and win the war.”
“Let us all adhere to lockdown regulations, stay physically active at home, keep yourself motivated by doing daily workouts and eating healthy.”
He said that all South Africans, by staying home and staying fit, were helping healthcare workers go about their crucial work in ensuring that the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t overwhelm the healthcare system.
Without breaking a sweat the Premier reminded South Africans to continue to wash their hands regularly and adhere to social distancing recommendations.
“Let us cooperate with our healthcare workers who are doing screening and testing at home and in public areas. Adhere to basic protocols – wash your hands with soap and water regularly, keep a distance of at least two meters between yourself and others.”
“Stay fit – at home.”
Mandela’s fitness advice
If you don’t find enough inspiration to get out (into your yard) and get active, then perhaps you might prefer to heed the advise of Former President Nelson Mandela, who managed to stay fit for 27 years while imprisoned on Robben Island.
Exercise dissipates tension, and tension is the enemy of serenity. I found that I worked better and thought more clearly when I was in good physical condition, and so training became one of the inflexible disciplines of my life,’ he said in his famed autobiography, A Long Walk To Freedom.
Four mornings a week he’d set off for a run and three evenings a week he’d work out in a Soweto boxing gym – his way of losing himself “in something that was not the struggle”.
He said he’d wake up the next morning feeling refreshed – “mentally and physically lighter” and “ready to take up the fight again” – advice we could all take right now.
