Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
PERSONAL TRAINERS adapting to closed facilities.
Adapting when gyms are closed
The fourth in a series of stories by the staffs of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette focusing on those involved in sports who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Betsy Rawlings was like a lot of personal trainers when the coronavirus shuttered fitness gyms across the country.
She was at first shocked, then a little overwhelmed. As a full-time instructor, suddenly she was left wondering about loss of income and the loss of her connection with clients.
Rawlings, 38, is a group fitness instructor and personal trainer at Fayetteville Athletic Club. For more than 10 years she has spent 30 to 40 hours a week helping clients with their fitness goals. Within hours, that was gone as the pandemic swept the country in mid-March.
“It was a shock to my system,” Rawlings said. “Trying to navigate the first few days with so much still up in the air was a bit overwhelming.”
Once the realization hit that gyms were closing and would be for a while, Rawlings, like many fitness instructors across the country, took to social media platforms to try and stay connected with their clients through online workouts.
Virtual classes through Zoom, Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms have helped personal trainers maintain at least some sense of normalcy, Rawlings said. But even though clients can click on a virtual workout session, there are drawbacks.
“A sudden switch to virtual training is not easy and definitely not for everyone,”
Rawlings said. “I have many clients that only work out at the gym and have no equipment in their home. Some rely on the stability of selectorized equipment machines and spotting. They are not comfortable, nor would it be safe for them to do large parts of their workout at home. Not being able to truly see their form or read a client’s body language limits the ability to adjust exercises and workout tempo on the fly.
“Plus, personal training is just that … personal. Personal trainers are not prerecorded
workout clips placed into an algorithm that knows your name, nor are we just there to tell clients what to do. We build a personal relationship with clients.”
Melissa Hill has spent 20 years as a personal trainer including working with sports teams. Hill, 43, is an instructor at the Rogers Activity Center, which has embraced online training during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hill said she’s faced some unique challenges in trying to help clients through this time.
“I teach Silver Sneakers live and do online training through Zoom,” she said. “I’m trying to help people. The money will come. If a person wanted to do Google hangouts, I could also do that, too. When their computer messes up, I’ve even FaceTimed.”
On a warm spring afternoon, Ben Witcher was working on projects around his house. Without a team to train or clients to work with faceto-face, Witcher has tried to occupy his time taking care of a list that had been put on hold.
Before the pandemic, Witcher, 39, would start his day around 6:30 a.m. working with the Pea Ridge High School basketball teams and Rogers-based Providence Academy. His afternoons were spent on personal training at his own facility.
The order to close fitness gyms has meant a significant loss of income for Witcher and other personal trainers. They are trying to find alternative training methods, but those have been sporadic at best, he said.
“I started a YouTube channel and made up different home workouts for teams and individuals,” Witcher said. “It shows simple body-weight exercises, core exercises, things of that nature. But as far as me getting online and talking to them and going through it with them, I have not started that yet.
“You know, you can’t really plan for tomorrow. Because it’s like, is it going to be completely done? Are we going to have to go virtual for a couple of months? So I’m kinda like just one day at a time, trying to decide what I need to do.”
Witcher said he has seen a big increase in online sales of fitness equipment for people to use at home. He is hopeful that when people are allowed to meet in groups again, they will be anxious to get back into their previous workout regimen.
“As soon as this is over, what we’re hoping as trainers, is that people will be so sick and tired of being in the house, that this will be kind of like a new year’s resolution,” Witcher said. ” That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Rawlings has embraced virtual workouts as a way for her to stay connected to her clients. On the driveway of her Springdale home, she has set up a laptop computer as she goes through the paces of a circuit training workout, speaking to the camera the same as she would to a studio filled with people.
Still, in a live setting at home, there can be some surprises for her virtual classes. But she presses on in a format that is still a little scary.
“I enjoy learning what motivates my clients, what external factors might affect the session, and how to take their mind off the task at hand when needed,” she said. “You miss a good deal of that connection through a computer screen. Not to mention we are home with the rest of our family. You never know when one of my five kids or puppy might pop into the screen.”
Hill said the most important thing trainers need right now is confidence in what they are doing, even though they are on a computer screen miles away from the people they are training.
“Their gym may be closed, but people still need to be inspired,” Hill said. “Personal trainers who love and live for what they do, they bring that inspiration to the table. The world could use some of that right now.”