The picture of health
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fittest of them all?”
It’s not about “who’s the fairest” in this modern-day fractured fairytale that we’re all living in during the age of the coronavirus. Today’s technology has brought to the home gymor fitness rooman interactivemirror that serves as a monitor and a television.
One suchmirror is called just that: Mirror, and its website says, “This isn’t just a mirror. It’s a cardio class, it’s a yoga studio, it’s a boxing ring, it’s your new personal trainer, and it’s so muchmore.” This latest tool in the home gymprovides expert instruction and live feedback, it can measure a person’s heart rate in real time through Bluetooth or AppleWatch and, it can “turn less than two feet ofwall space into a personal fitness studio,” the website says.
That’s only one of the high-tech gadgets outfitting home gyms, which are in high demand nowbecause of the closures in, and fears of, the commercial gym market. Many of the big box gyms have been closed formonths, since COVID-19 forced people to hunker down at home beginning inmid-March. They have slowly reopened in phases following strict national and state guidelines, but evenwith rigorous sanitizing routines and social distancingmandates, some people are just not comfortable returning to a workout session in a public setting.
“There’s no comparison to being in a spacewith other people exercising and the energy that that creates,” said Rachel Duffy, of Duffy Home Solutions in Greenwich. But until a vaccine is developed, the safest place to exercise is in one’s own home. Duffy said people want all the “bells and whistles” at their disposal in their own home gyms should they not be able to leave home again because of another quarantine.
Duffy Home Solutions designs and builds fully equipped home gyms that could compete with any commercial gym, she said. Affluent homes in Fairfield County often have a designated exercise space, fitness or yoga room, or a wellequipped home gym to accommodate the residents’ cardio workouts, strength-training, yoga, boxing, cross-training Pilates, or barre classes. If no such room exists, DuffyHome Solutions can help clients determine a room or space that could be converted.
Whether the exercise area is spacious enough to house large equipment or only big enough to accommodate a yoga mat, Duffy said the designated exercise room can be aesthetically pleasing and motivating.
Several things should be taken into consideration, including appropriate flooring, soundproofing, and air purification system. Don’t overlook the need forWi-Fi and related equipment because most people have virtual trainers now by necessity. Duffy said for Zoom sessions, clients will need a big screen TV ormonitorwith a camera so the trainer can instruct the workout.
The home gym should also have its own zone for heating and cooling, Duffy said. When doing hot yoga, you don’t want thewhole house to be 102-degrees, she said.
Conversely, the space should be cooler when engaging in a high-impact workout.
Tony Antunes, director of sales for Fitness Showrooms of
Connecticut in Norwalk, said there is definitely a higherdemand for in-home gyms. Fitness
Showrooms sells commercial and residential fitness equipment, andits staff also creates a room design and setup including the flooring installation, mirrors, supplies, and equipment, andthe company alsodoes the layout of the equipment.
“When a client comes in andwants to convert an extra bedroomor a spare roomin the house, wewould do thewhole design and outfit it. We format it on a 3-Dprogram,” Antunes
The flooring cushions the sound of dumbbells and minimizes stress on joints and muscles,” he said.
Fitness Showrooms carries several brands of fitness equipment, including its own private label brand called Hudson Steel Co. It sells benches, dumbbells, kettlebells, racks, power racks, bars, and other equipment. “Because of the high demand, products aren’t always available,” Antunes said. So in demand are home gyms and equipment that Antunes said there is a six- to eight-week waiting list industrywide. In other words, gym equipment has become the new toilet paper.
Currently, Antunes said, people have been gravitating toward the equipment they used at their local commercial gym. Themost popular products right nowinclude the Peloton bike, spin bikes, and the elliptical cross trainer. “The traditional treadmill is also still popular,” he said.
Fitness Showrooms also offers an in-house service contract for equipmentmaintenance to keep it in optimum working order.
Whether the exercise area is spacious enough to house large equipment or only big enough to accommodate a yoga mat, Duffy said the designated exercise room can be aesthetically pleasing and motivating.