The longer we are indoors, social distancing, wearing masks in public, and adjusting to COVID-19, the more I find myself thinking about what the future of personal fitness is going to look like.
Originally when stay-at-home orders we enforced, my focus was on the short-term. I mapped out tons of at-home workout ideas for myself and all of you so that we could stay active during a crazy set of circumstances.
Over time, though, my view has shifted from evaluating the short-term to realizing this is truly going to impact our long-term ability to hit the weights, pursue our goals, stay active, and live a health lifestyle.
Recently, I’ve been wondering how many people are actually going to head back into the gym once businesses open back up and normalcy slowly starts to return in our society.
To be honest, I didn’t know what to think. Personally, I’m a gym rat. I live for those 60-90 minutes a day where I can get in the weight room and push myself, but I understand that that attitude is shared by 10 — maybe 15? — percent of the population. All I know is it’s not the majority.
The majority of people in our society want to be healthy, but things need to be convenient. For you and most other people, daily training sessions are not a priority over family, work, school, and other demands. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But knowing that’s the case for you, and most people, it makes me realize that you (and most people) aren’t going to flock back to the gym — a breeding ground for germs and people in close contact with one another — when preventing infection is paramount so that you can continue to provide for your family, work and earn a living, study and succeed in your education, and so much more.
I really believe the effects of COVID-19 have the potential to change personal fitness for a generation of people.
It probably means many gyms will close. It probably means it will be harder to get into other gyms, because we’ll be looking at occupancy restrictions. Same goes for attending group fitness classes, which will be more strictly limited to the amount of people who can attend and participate.
And that’s all for people who are feeling confident or brave enough to head back into the gym. I think many people’s attitudes towards training in public gyms will change, and we’ll see massive amounts of canceled memberships in the short term. I think it will be a while until new members start signing up at gyms.
I don’t think this attitude and trend will last forever. Eventually we’ll have excellent treatment methods and a vaccine. Over time the virus will no longer be a threat to our health. Time heals all wounds, and people will get to a point where we don’t think about COVID-19 or any of the fears that we currently share.
But I think that point is a long way off. Even when a vaccine is developed and widely available, I think there will still be an extended amount of time that people need to heal from all of this and feel 100 confident in heading out into crowded public spaces without worry.
So like I said at the start of this article… I think we need to shift our focus from “just staying active right now” and take a longer-term approach. In order to prioritize your health, it’s important to plan for something that works right now and assume that’s going to be your normal for a long time.
Here are my suggestions:
1) Find quality sources of information
So much of the training advice and information we receive come straight from the source — the gym.
Your personal trainer provides you with guidance. You’re able to ask questions and connect with other like-minded people about your goals in the gym. Oftentimes the gym you attend will have social media accounts, a website, and/or articles that provide quality information as well.
Some, or all, of those may be gone right now. It’s important that you invest time in finding quality sources of information.
I’d love to be one of those sources for you. All of the information on my website is free. Please take this opportunity to browse hundreds of articles on training, nutrition, mindset, and more on my site.
Additionally, there are tremendous resources like the MASS Research Review and/or people like Jeff Nippard on YouTube that provide reliable, evidence-based information on a regular basis.
Invest time into learning about how to accomplish your goals, and do that via quality sources of information.
2) Invest in equipment for your home
This one doesn’t mean you need to invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars. A little can go a long way. Invest a reasonable amount of money on things like a pair of dumbbells or a set of resistance bands.
I won’t deny that you can do tremendous workouts at home with just your bodyweight, or by getting creative with household items. However, as I look at the long-term view on COVID-19, I see more and more value in investing in some equipment.
Check out my list of at-home workouts for some great low/no-budget workout routines. I’ve also got a list of home-gym equipment I own available on Amazon as well — these serve as good recommendations for low budget solutions all the way up to building your own home gym.
In order to continually be able to challenge yourself and progress with your training over the long term, you’re likely going to need some type of equipment.
3) Hire an online coach
I try my best not to be overly “sales-y” in my articles or on social media. My goal is to communicate quality information. Plain and simple.
You can use that information to build your own plan and formulate a strategy to work you towards your goals. If you need guidance, you can hire me as your coach and we can work together to truly personalize a fitness program for you.
As I mentioned earlier, I think personal training sessions and access to the gym are going to be reduced for a while. Don’t let the days, weeks, and months go by without putting together a strategy for yourself.
The time to plan is now, and you need to think larger than just a few home workouts that keep you active. You need to be prioritizing your health and fitness goals with an understanding that for the foreseeable future you’ll be working towards those goals from home.
The beauty of the type of coaching/personal training that I offer is it’s online. We can maximize your ability to work out and eat right from legitimately any situation.
You can train from anywhere. You can train whenever you’d like.
I’ll work with you to customize a program tailored to your goals, and I’ll be available whenever you have questions or need support.
I have a monthly coaching option that is a great place to start. For an entire month, you get a customized program and 24/7 email support from me for just $50. That’s the average cost of on (1) in-person personal training session, but you get a month’s worth of guidance and support.
Take time now to prepare for what’s likely to be a long period of training from home, and think about hiring a coach to guide you through the process so you can make the best out of this challenging situation.
—
I hope you enjoyed this article! I can’t stress it enough — if you’ve ever been interested in trying online coaching, now would be a great time. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to talk about your goals and how we can work together to put a killer program in action.
Thanks for reading!
CGF