We are still locked down as of the date of this post. I hear stories that this is going to change any day now, but I stopped listening to all of the experts. Why? Because no one really knows. It is better to accept that we will be learning about our pandemic for years to come. Committees will be formed, people will be scrutinized for what they did/did not do during the crisis. But what is being left out:: a renewed responsibility for us to take control of our health. We can’t blame our governor for this, we can’t blame our POTUS and his committees for it either. In a way, we can turn to Ayn Rand for her writing on personal responsibility (although an abstract in. our current situaiton). Simply put, it is our own doing if we are not taking the warnings to improve our health. Second wave? No problem. Said no one, ever. Not even a fitness giant. No one is immune from COVID19, but we do have enough data right now to explore trends.
Coming out of it
People who work out and the trainers that inspire them are unique. Unless you are in this relatively small group, you likely don’t understand or ‘get’ the passion needed to make it to the gym every day just as you would shower or go to work. So when the lockdown of gyms became a reality, Before I knew differently, I would wager a guess that there were very few in the industry who actually stopped working out. I also felt for the people who started their New Year’s resolutions, only to have them put on PAUSE while we all make room to welcome a particularly nasty virus. But as I reached out to more and more colleagues and professionals, I was hearing a different message. Some were liking the lockdown, enjoying family time and reconnecting with loved ones. I then realized how situational fitness and wellness are.
Fitness professionals have a tremendous influence on where we go from here. We can really lean into this and look for ways to better serve our clients, we can collaborate with other allied fields to have heightened skills and we can make our population more resistant (and less fearful) of the devastating effects of contracting a virus like COVID19. We are fortunate for the most part, to not be at elevated risk; but we know this, we have enjoyed this fact for decades. Now our mission is to get the message to the masses so that we don’t have such a drastic panic when history repeats this awful time.