Stiff, shoulders hunched, head sunken.
Clumsy legs.
Closed hips and sore joints.
Impatient.
Irritable.
Tired eyesight and dry skin.
We have economy class corps, of transoceanic flight on a
low cost
airline
.
But we have not made such a trip, but another that has taken us from the sofa to the table, from the table to the bed, and all over again.
With little caloric expenditure and a lot of anguish.
We drag a body from a pandemic that is also heavier - between one and three kilos more - and that has been clenching its jaw for a year.
The by-products of months of confinement and telework begin to reach the offices of physiotherapists, psychiatrists, traumatologists, ophthalmologists.
Yes, with the pandemic your investment in the gym in recent years has vanished.
Fat accumulated in unusual places, stiff neck and pain in the lower back from long hours of teleworking in chairs designed for sitting down to dinner for half an hour.
Anxious bodies that have managed uncertainty by tensing every muscle and spending sleepless nights.
"We battle stress by clenching our jaw," says physiotherapist Lida Herraiz from Gonzalo Vidal Chiropractic's office.
"This season almost 80% of the people I deal with have that gesture of accumulated tension."
The Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (SEEDO) maintains that 49.8% of Spaniards have gained weight in our pandemic. With the daily rituals of getting up, getting dressed, hurrying, or taking public transportation outlawed, physical activity was reduced to a minimum. A year later, putting on something other than a tracksuit is a challenge. The abrupt decline in what experts call incidental physical activity - the movements for daily functioning, from getting dressed to walking down stairs - has turned everything upside down. "From one day to the next, all rituals were abandoned, that means losing vital reference points, running out of anchors and entering a feeling of loss of control," says Carlos María Alcover, professor of Social Psychology at the Rey Juan Carlos University. ,And remember that there is a direct relationship between anxiety states and compulsive eating.
Those who tried to play sports at home are not spared. Experts say that even those who never get injured have been injured. "Sports people who improvised the gym at home suffered a significant impact on their body by training on non-technical floors, there were also many beginners who decided to start doing sports through screens without the supervision of a specialist", says Sara Álvarez, founder of the Reto 48 gym, and adds: “There have been sudden changes in the body: we lost some muscle along the way and we gained a couple of kilos. Or more".
A study from the University of San Francisco has put figures on those extra kilos.
According to a measurement carried out among US citizens between February and June 2020, for each month of confinement, 0.70 kilograms of weight were gained.
The researchers identified three causes: a significant reduction in daily steps, drastic changes in life patterns, and an increase in snacking and eating of all kinds.
"Weight gain has caused devastation for many people," observes Sara Álvarez.
“It is the proof of the claudication, that the will has been lost, in addition to the strength and lung capacity.
Every physical change has mental consequences, and that has been hard.
The good news is that the body has a memory, and with perseverance and effort it is possible to return to the point where we were before the pandemic ”.
In a year subjected to the cruelty of a poorly lit front camera during long Zoom sessions, we have scrutinized our faces like never before and discovered things that we did not know were there. Paz Torralba, director of The Beauty Concept, clarifies that the confinement has also taken its toll. "Greater flaccidity in the face, premature aging, dark circles and marked wrinkles, fluid retention and fat deposited in places where there was not before."
The mask has placed the focus of attention on the look, and right there are the prayers of the clients of the beauty centers' consultations.
“Now more attention is paid to the face than to the body, specifically the crow's feet and the wrinkles on the forehead.
Treatments with immediate results are requested.
For example, dermal fillers, botulinum toxin, anti-blemishes, and photorejuvenation.
And although women are in the majority, one in five men has also sought cosmetic enhancements.
Alopecia is its drama.
The Economist
magazine
talks about the Zoom boom of the industry and refers to a 10% increase in cosmetic procedures in the United States, 20% in France.
The SECPRE (Spanish Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) speaks of a growth of between 25% and 30% in some centers.
Our new self is a kamikaze, makes worse decisions and has a thirst for revenge.
These are the conclusions of a study by the Open Evidence group of the Open University of Catalonia, which states that after two months of confinement, cognitive abilities had been damaged in the 5,000 citizens of Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom studied.
“During the first wave, the debate between health and the economy was on the rise”, recalls Francisco Lupiáñez, professor at the UOC, “and what we managed to demonstrate was that the confinement was not free either”.
If in the last year you feel like you've aged a decade at a stroke, you're not alone.
Some 2,900 million people, more than a third of the world's population, accompany him.