With many habits and routines — including exercise and visits to the gym — disrupted during the coronavirus pandemic, some local fitness instructors and personal trainers have responded by offering virtual instruction online.
Just as it has become an indispensable tool for businesses and schools during the pandemic, the video conferencing tool Zoom is keeping some fitness experts connected with their clients to help keep them in shape.
Tanja Cole, a licensed Zumba instructor, hasn’t missed a beat. Operating out of her Siler City home, Cole took her instruction on-line with Zoom.
“Zumba is dance movements set to Latin and international music and rhythms where the instructor leads you in each step,” Cole said. “It’s dance movements set to very fun music.”
It’s almost like a workout in disguise, she said.
“Your heart rate goes up,” she explained, “you get sweaty, but you don’t really know you’re getting a great workout because you are so filled with music and the desire to follow the instructor’s fast changing moves.”
Cole has created a Zumba gym in her home and the virtual instruction she’s offering to her on-line audience is reaching a lot of folks — including not only her own loyal clientele but also new folks tuning in from outside the United States — and keeping them moving while they stay at home.
Contact Cole via email at zumbawithme.tanja@gmail.com for more information about when her Zumba Zoom classes are offered.
Cole isn’t the only Chatham County-based instructor forging forward while maintaining social distancing.
Lexie Wolf, proprietor of Yoga Garden in Pittsboro, closed the business temporarily on March 15.
“Our teachers wisely felt — pretty much unanimously — that as an organization devoted to wellness, the best thing we could do to fulfill our mission would be to close,” Wolf explained.
But following the decision, Wolf experienced some after-shocks.
“For about the first week after we closed, I felt immobilized by shock and fear and sadness,” she said. “I saw a few studios starting to offer on-line classes and I thought, ‘Well that seems silly. There’s so much already out there on YouTube, and we can’t compete with that; they have lights, and cameras and they know what they’re doing.’”
She emailed her instructors, noting her uncertainty about attempting something similar, and received positive responses.
“A couple of our teachers and yoga students reached out and were really encouraging about trying it,” she said. “I’m happy to say that my early misgivings were completely wrong. We’re now offering seven livestreamed classes a week and may add a few more. We’ve gotten wonderful feedback and support so far.”
There has been, understandably, a learning curve associated with the distance instruction, but the virtual classes are proving effective.
“You really do get a feeling of coming together and practicing in community from the classes,” Wolf said. “Everyone has been patient and kind because we’re all learning how to do this as we go. It’s different than the magic that happens when we are all physically in the studio together, but it does offer some of that feeling of togetherness which we all need so badly right now. It’s been a really fun silver lining when friends and family from all over are able to practice with us.”
Wolf said she is “humbled by the support that our students and teachers have shown the studio and each other during this time by showing up, diving in, and adapting to a new way of being.”
Wolf said the classes are available for anyone, though donations are encouraged.
“We want anyone who is experiencing economic hardship right now to be able to practice with us for free if they’d like,” Wolf said. “We welcome you. And I want to say thank you to those who are able to make donations for the classes. These donations are keeping us afloat right now. They are a lifeboat for the studio. So thank you so much.”
Wolf asks that those interested in receiving the Yoga Garden’s on-line classes create an account in the business’ MindBody online scheduling system and sign up on-line to receive Zoom links. Visit yogagardenpbo.com/scheduleandinfo for the schedule and to sign up.
In addition, Wolf said one of the Yoga Garden’s teachers, Christine Sicinski, is offering private lessons via “pretty much any on-line platform.”
Sicinski’s lessons are free for members or by donation for others.
“She is donating her time to the studio,” Wolf said. “This is so generous! And it’s a great opportunity for anyone out there who has a little extra time and would like to learn yoga. People can email the studio at yogagardenpbo@gmail.com and we’ll put them in touch with Christine.”
O2 Fitness, a fitness club chain with a location in north Chatham County, is also offering a wide variety of on-line streaming exercise videos for members at Go2 Fitness, available at go2.o2fitnessclubs.com/library
And YMCA also has available on-line (ymca360.org) a diverse selection of exercise instruction videos created by the Charlotte YMCA.
Randall Rigsbee contributed to this story.