5 /5 Karen Silvernail: Last February, I was invited to take advantage of the new Online Zoom Fitness program that Ladies First Fitness was rolling out as a way to continue serving their clients during the lockdown time period.
.
As an American, I had to work around the 5 hour time zone difference, which put me at 8 a.m. during the local 1p.m. session.
.
I had never held a gym membership before, but for a time had followed the Callanetics routine from a book I had come across in college, & later obtained a VHS video of. I appreciated Callan Pinckney’s philosophy and was delighted to learn that Fran had also been influenced by her. As a gesture of friendship, I took on the challenge and was hooked!
.
A live interaction online blends the best of both worlds! (and spares the drawbacks!)
.
A drawback of using a gym is the time investment of traveling to & from the location, beyond the actual time spent exercising. In contrast, taking part from the comfort of your home allows you to maintain the flow of your current activity and then change into your exercise outfit just moments before the scheduled time.
.
Some drawbacks of exercising at home with a video is the tendency toward boredom of having the same routine over and over again, and a sense of isolation. Having a live Zoom experience allows the opposite experience. You can have a sense of joy and expectancy of seeing the ladies you are becoming acquainted with. There is a sense of presence in seeing the others in the gallery doing the same thing you are in “real time”. Fran has it set up that there are 5 videos in the approximately 35-minute session: A warm-up, 2 10-minute sessions, a cool-down and then a stretch routine. The beginning & endings are the same, but there is a library of 10-minute workouts that get rotated through. Also, with a live coach doing the session along with the other participants, sometimes she will do alternate moves than the ones on the video for variety and we can follow her lead.
.
The workout at the gym involves large machinery, but online, the same physical effort is put forth in the substitution of “body weight exercises” and the use of a pair of hand weights (or water bottles/food tins), which the coach cycles through to involve all muscle groups in turn, using a chair, stool, wall, and “free standing”. (One day, there was a routine that included exercises done on the floor, but the majority of us were not up to that, so it was quietly removed from the rotation, lol!) The “background ambience” is the same recorded music as in the gym (because it was recorded in the gym!), with a voice every 30 seconds that tells you to “change stations”, with occasional heart rate checks.
.
A similarity is having a sense of accountability, and pressure to “get your money’s worth” because of having purchased a membership!
.
A sense of “locker-room camaraderie” has been made possible by the zoom room being left open after the routine for those who are interested to chat together, or as I have been educated in UK culture, to “natter”! I personally have taken great pleasure in the cross-cultural exchange & getting to know people who I would otherwise have had no exposure to! It has been a comfort of “bonding” in sharing and inquiring after each other’s concerns and adventures three times a week.
.
Apart from the social benefits, I am pleased to report the personal physical benefits which I have experienced in culmination of a year of faithful participation. I have only missed during vacation and illness.
.
For the past few months I have been eating mindfully, and my excess weight is beginning to melt off, revealing the nicely toned body hidden underneath, giving great motivation to continue both efforts.
.
I highly recommend LFF for the results that can be achieved over time!
