I’ve worked as a personal trainer for over 20 years. While I
am training, I give 100% of my focus to my client. For years I’ve been
irritated when someone tries to talk with me while I am working. How can I
talk? I am watching every joint in the body moving, reading exertion levels,
chatting with my client and counting repetitions. On March 16th, when
one of my fellow trainers nudged me during my training session, I knew it had
to be critical. It was. The governor had issued an executive order that would
shut us down at 3pm.
One thing I’ve learned from personality testing, it is that
I do not change direction well. As a small-business owner, I’ve had to change
direction a lot since mid-March. It helped to realize that all decisions came
from three immediate priorities: 1. Keep our clients strong and healthy. 2.
Keep our business afloat and our staff employed. 3. Prevent a single staff
member or client from getting the Covid-19 virus.
Many of our clients are baby boomers and older. We help them
keep their backs, spines and legs strong. Our strength training helps our
elderly clients remain independent in their own homes. Many are saying now,
“Thank God I’m not in a nursing home; that’s because of you!”. My team and I
dropped off sanitized dumbbells and exercise bands to our client’s porches to
ensure they could keep lifting weights during the stay-at-home period.
While staying at home is keeping us safe from the virus, it is also cutting us off from our community and our support resources.
April was a scary time for Better Living. Even so, I was encouraged by the
local, state and federal responses to help small businesses get through this. So many businesses were suffering as people went into lock down. On Monday, April 13th, I called the Small Business Association to check our SBA loan status. I was caller 1,526 in cue. It was time to ramp up our efforts to keep people healthy and survive on our own.
The Better Living team and I started offering Zoom and FaceTime-based training sessions. They were immediately popular. As people lost their access to gyms, fitness classes and other exercise outlets, our exercise training became even more valuable. Clients told us that the sessions worked surprisingly well - "We can train on Zoom the next time there is snow." We had found a new way to help people!
Over the past 3 months, we have continued to offer our entire staff full-time hours. We continue to listen to our clients for what they need and we seek to pivot our company to serve the community. So far, we have not had a single 'known" case of Covid-19 among our staff or clients.
The isolation of staying-at-home,
while necessary, leads to muscle loss, joint deterioration and depression. I
believe we all need to take care of each other right now. It is a depressing time so we need to “Focus on what you CAN do, versus what you can’t”. What Better Living can
do is keep people strong, so that’s what we are doing.
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Let us help you:
Try a FREE Zoom Full-Body FIT strength class. Use Promo Code: StayAtHome
Or try a COMPLIMENTARY On-line Mobility class with the Promo Code: GetMobile
You don't need any exercise equipment to do these classes, though light dumbbells and/or bands make for an even better workout.
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