Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, can I say how excited I am to return to the gym on Monday? And how NOT excited I am?
How can one little fitness fanatic possibly contain all these pent-up emotions without bursting?
Monday, May 18th, 2020 will mark the reopening of Texas gyms according to the latest orders from Governor Greg Abbott.
As a fitness professional, losing the gym to closure was something of a grief-like process for me. For me, the gym is not just a place for exercise. Instead, it is a second home to me and an outlet for life’s ups and downs. Not only did I lose the routine I had carefully built into my daily life, my business, newly feathered, was essentially kicked out of the nest, forced to fly in ways I hadn’t expected. I had to adapt quickly, grief or no.
Since mid-March, I have trained clients via Zoom from my home office. Funnily enough, this was always a training option for me, just never one anyone had taken me up on. Now, I am a skilled techno-trainer with the quick-thinking savvy to use all sorts of household objects in lieu of weights. I have evolved.
We have all seen “survival of the fittest” taking place. This virus has touched everyone.
All of my clients (who include the immunocompromised and at-risk population) have been preoccupied with the latest COVID-19 numbers in the community, their chance of exposure, and hope that their lives will return to “normal” soon. Despite their desire for normalcy, they also fear a resurgence of the virus (which does not seem to be slowing to begin with). Even the most social of my clients is skeptical of leaving their homes.
And what of gyms? Even the most clean are still houses of sweat, shared equipment, and steamy locker rooms. Regulations for the upcoming reopening specify 25% capacity and extra sanitization measures. But will this be enough?
I personally fear gyms will be a hotspot for further cases of the virus.
In another gym, in another time, many years ago, I remember my husband complaining of a painful spot on his leg. Later, at the doctor, he was diagnosed with a staph infection. It was lanced, packed, and he was sent home with the admonition to avoid exercise and getting sweaty. The doctor advised him that the gym was a breeding ground for such things and that staph infections were highly contagious. The next morning, I woke up with one of my own. It was as easy as that.
Looking back on that incident, I can’t help but draw comparisons. No matter how hygienic you might be in your gym etiquette, it only takes a single droplet to become infected.
Personally, I will continue to limit my outings into the community and my own workouts will primarily be conducted at home, no matter how much I miss my second home. Clients who insist on the gym for training will be accommodated, but I will not judge those who find it prudent to remain at home with the option of online training. With my clients, I’m the mama bear and I take responsibility for their safety.
In the same way we try to be accommodating and courteous of others at the gym, we must keep our distance and take extra precautions while there. This is imperative. Your gym will be
following cleanliness guidelines, so step up and do your part. Always, always, always remember to:
â—Ź Wash your hands before and after workouts.
â—Ź Wipe all of the equipment before and after use.
â—Ź Maintain social distancing.
â—Ź Consider wearing a face mask.
â—Ź Use hand sanitizer.
â—Ź Limit personal items brought into the gym.
In closing, I want to share an analogy from ​The Winner’s Bible​, a book I recently consumed. The writer illustrated the difference between an optimist and a realist. Climbing a mountain, an optimist discovers a rock in their shoe. The optimist decides to continue to the mountaintop, rock painfully in shoe, because they will get to the top no matter what. Their positive thinking will not allow them to be derailed. The realist, on the other hand, upon discovery of the same rock, will stop to remove the rock before continuing upward. The rock is painful. The point? Though the realist’s journey will take longer than initially planned, the realist understands that removing the rock will make the journey to the mountaintop easier. Parable for the times?
Brittany Hall is the owner of Brittany Hall Certified Personal Training and Health Coaching LLC. She is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer (ACE-CPT), ACE Certified Health Coach (ACE-CHC), and ACE Mind Body Specialist, all earned with the American Council on Exercise (ACE). She also holds an advanced certification with the Cancer Exercise Training Institute (CETI) as a Cancer Exercise Specialist (CES). She was an attendee at the Active Lives: Transforming Our Patients and Ourselves conference presented by The Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as the IDEA World Fitness Convention presented by the IDEA Health and Fitness Association. Her latest venture is as a POP Pilates instructor.
