Staying Active During a Fitness Shift

By Darren Floro-Bryant

How do you stay active when gyms, fitness studios, and group fitness facilities are closed? And social distancing is now what we have to factor into our fitness lifestyles/plans? No matter what your past choice to stay active was, it most likely needs to be re-examined and re-engineered.

Here are a few solutions to some current scenarios that may help you with the present restrictions. Regardless of the activity, self-motivation will be a significant factor in your progress.

Running

If you’re a runner that is used to running with groups to stay motivated, you will now have to choose to run on your own for a bit and find alternate ways to connect with your running group. 

Many running apps track your runs and allow you to share your progress with others. Or you can simply set times with members of your group and check in before and after your run for accountability and motivation.

Group Fitness

Whether it be HIIT classes, Yoga, Bootcamp, Spin….or whatever you’ve regularly participated in, how you participate will have to change. A lot of studios and instructors have adapted to doing classes online, making it possible to participate in your living room. Depending on the type of group fitness you are currently doing, the classes with limited to zero equipment will be easier to adapt to for at-home participation.

A Spin or Cycle class, on the other hand, will be harder to accommodate at home, if you don’t already have the equipment. But this may be the perfect opportunity to take up cycling outside, or investing in a stationary bike with video capabilities.

Weight Training

Working out in the traditional sense in a weight-lifting gym or even a Cross-Fit facility will quite possibly pose the biggest change in approach. With these facilities closed, you want to keep up with your training, but won’t have access to all of the equipment!

One option is ordering equipment online and having it sent to your house. This is generally not possible from a money or space perspective. Another option is by changing the way you approach your workouts and your results. You will need to adopt other forms of resistance training, which can easily be incorporated into your traditional training when things return back to normal.

Options for resistance training

  • Bodyweight (changing up tempo and body positioning)
  • Weighted Vests, weighted ankle/wrist wraps
  • Resistance tubing or straps
  • Stability ball
  • BOSU™️ ball

Not all of us have access to exercise equipment at our homes, so we are learning to approach fitness from a new perspective with non-traditional methods (for many of us). We are learning to adapt and evolve and redefine what fitness means to each of us individually. And we are being forced to do it rapidly.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of great apps out there that can help keep you motivated. Another great option is contacting a personal trainer and having them create programs that are tailored to you. They can even sometimes be linked to the apps that you have for certain activities allowing them to check in on you and help keep you motivated. But they can also see where you are struggling and make minor adjustments to help maximize your results.

When it comes to weight training, trainers can design programs based on what you have access to and assist in maximizing efficiency and results. They can come up with alternative exercises or find substitutions for equipment and exercises.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Darren is an ACE certified Atlanta-based trainer. He has worked for more than 25 years in the fitness industry and is currently the owner of DFB Fitness and Foundation Fitness. Find him on social @dfloro and @foundationfitnessdfb (IG) and foundationfitness.co.

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