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WILL THE REVIVAL OF AT-HOME EXERCISE PROGRAMS SEE AN END TO THE ASPIRATIONAL GYM MEMBERSHIP?

There’s never been a better time to turn your living room into a workout space.

remember when Instagram felt like a veritable breeding ground for boutique fitness establishments? If you weren’t posting about your HIIT sessions at a cult health and fitness studio, a large portion of your virtual constituents likely were. Over the years, a membership to a stylish gym has become somewhat of a status symbol – a signifier to the digital world that not only do you have your life together enough to take top-notch care of yourself, but you are able to do so in the most desirable of surrounds.

Many of us bought into it – exxy direct debits decimating our bank accounts even though we couldn’t really afford it. But they were a symbol of membership to a different kind of club – one where an automated weekly investment in a popular Pilates studio could transform our bodies and our social standing in equal measure. Free forms of exercise were, of course, at our fingertips — old workout programs stashed away in the far recesses of a desktop, thanks to the fitness ebook craze of 2014. There’s always been running or community classes. But none of these things quite felt like they carried the same social cachet as those slick studios.

When COVID-19 began to close gym doors in March, we were left all dressed up in Nagnata separates with nowhere to go. At-home exercise, while readily available, hadn’t been conducive to an enviable active lifestyle since the VHS workouts of the ’80s and ’90s, when getting in shape from your lounge room was made cool by the likes of Jane Fonda and Cindy Crawford. The celebrity workout trend continued into the 2000s (anyone else remember Carmen Electra’s 2003 Aerobic

Striptease series?), but as social media came into the equation, home fitness began to lose its appeal. If a workout took place, but it wasn’t in a well-styled space that we could share on Instagram, did it even count?

For those of us who have found ourselves spending our days at home over the past few months, exercise seemed to be viewed in a few different ways. Some saw it as an

opportunity to accelerate their efforts, setting health and fitness goals and putting a stringent routine in place to add structure to long days and optimise the extra time (those are the ones you’ll still see on social media). Others are taking a step back from exercise obligations, while another set are pursuing something else entirely – finding individual enjoyment in fitness again.

It’s almost ironic, then, that during this time, social media has been the cure for, rather than the cause of, our fitness fixations. Fonda’s iconic ’80s workouts have been resurrected on Youtube to great acclaim, before Fonda herself joined Tiktok and hosted a workout, bringing it to a new gen Z audience. It’s also allowed small businesses to stay connected with their clients. Sydney’s Scout Pilates, for example, offers free workouts on Instagram and paid streaming classes on Zoom.

Keep It Cleaner (KIC) co-founders Laura Henshaw and Stephanie Miller (née Steph Claire Smith) decided early on to offer free workouts to their followers on Facebook and Instagram, hoping to help women stay happy, healthy and connected amid isolation. But home workouts are nothing new for KIC: the platform’s health and fitness app – which recently introduced an equipment-free workout section — has always championed the idea. “Gyms can be intimidating,” says Henshaw. “We wanted to remove that barrier so our community can feel more comfortable.” Miller agrees: “There’s a lot of strong messaging in the fitness industry that leads people to think that to be fit, you have to have a gym membership or work out a certain way. But we have always just wanted to promote exercise as a way to celebrate your body.”

When I started working out at home during isolation, I was surprised by how much my mindset shifted. I didn’t have to look good or be “on”, I didn’t have to feel ashamed when I worked my muscles to failure during an exercise, and I didn’t feel too embarrassed about my body to wear a crop top to class. Throughout my KIC sessions, I would hear the encouragement from Henshaw and Miller as they worked out with me on screen and, for the first time, I didn’t feel like it was a push to do better; I knew we were just getting through the routine together. During a particularly tricky Pilates class on Zoom, I smiled up at the grainy feed, filled with pride at having just had the courage to try an advanced move – something I never would have attempted with an audience. I wonder whether we had it right in the days of aerobics and jazzercise: maybe at-home exercise affords us the ultimate freedom, where social pressure doesn’t dictate how we move our bodies or why.

Elsewhere in isolation, others have experienced a similar revolution. Ava Matthews, co-founder of popular sunscreen brand Ultra Violette, has loved tuning in to free Instagram Live dance sessions with choreographer Ryan Heffington. He runs fun workouts that are less an instructive dance class and more a communal celebration of movement. “Not only is it a good workout, but it is so fun and such a good release. I usually cry at some point throughout,” says Matthews. “I get to shake my butt and use the remote as a microphone to sing along to Carly Rae Jepsen, then it ends with a beautiful meditation.”

It’s hard to imagine at-home exercise will fall out of favour again. In addition to the reduced costs and convenience, Henshaw says it’s the unexpected benefits of exercise that make the biggest difference. “You can wear whatever you like and get everyone at home involved,” she says. “We have members of our community doing our workouts in their pyjamas, or with their kids. A lot of parents don’t have the luxury of 20 to 30 minutes alone to work out, so we love that they can turn on a KIC workout in the living room and their kids can play or join in.”

There are countless ways to hold onto that newfound feeling of satisfaction that comes from a workout catered just for you. Set up a dedicated space for exercise, try things you wouldn’t normally attend, such as cult overseas classes you can now virtually join. Instead of seeing your workouts as an extension of your own personal brand, do them when and how you feel like it. Eradicate guilt by knowing you can simply roll out the mat and hit play whenever it suits. For me, social media doesn’t create fitness FOMO anymore, and when I do feel the comparative thoughts begin to creep in, I click on Heffington’s latest Live and dance them off – no selfies, memberships or inhibitions required.