5 Ways the Coronavirus has Questioned Your Fitness Life

The lives that we once knew have changed irrevocably. Our social, professional and fitness lives have adjusted to a new way of living that has become a necessity. Change is often uncomfortable, but it can also help you to challenge you like never before. Coronavirus and the lifestyle it has created and dictated will never ask more questions about your fitness life. Here we delve into different aspects of our fitness lifestyles and how the Coronavirus has changed the game.

Your Workout Hygiene

For the majority of us, basic hygiene is a pre-requisite of our workout regime, but now we are living in a completely different world. The Coronavirus thrives on communal surfaces, so it has forced us to be more rigorous than ever with our hygiene routine. A cursory wipe of a bench with a towel is no longer enough; we need to be vigilant and cautious not only for ourselves but for the health and safety of other members.

If you are lucky enough to get back into the gym, have you assessed whether the cleaning procedures are ample for the number of members there? What are your personally going to do to ensure that you are leaving and approaching each workout, ensuring that the necessary hygienic processes are followed?

Gyms, like their members, have had to adapt rapidly to a new life under Coronavirus. Ensure that you speak to staff about how to maintain the best possible workout hygiene for you and other users of gym equipment.

Your Inner Drive

For anyone striving to get fitter or stronger, one of the biggest adversaries they will face is their own. There are always excuses; whether it is feeling tired due to a stressful few days at work, or the weather outside presenting challenges. Sometimes, on the good days, we succeed in shutting out the inner voice that comes up with tempting excuses, but Coronavirus has made it that bit louder.

In many cases, your regular workout routine has been totally dismantled. You are unable to see your friends from the gym, you are unable to utilize your usual equipment, and you might even miss the accountability that a social workout gives you.

The Coronavirus questions our inner drive to train in isolation in an unfamiliar environment. Are we able to push through the excuses, or which there are ample, and still work towards our long-held goals? Are we ready to achieve our fitness challenges when we don’t have friends and work out partners pushing us onwards? Do we even see a point in continuing the early morning and late-night fitness grind when our social lives have been severely curtailed?

The boxer Muhammad Ali understood the difficulties of being isolated in his sport better than most. Locked away in grueling and brutal training camps in the mountains, he talked of the importance of training hard in isolation far from the thousands who would eventually watch him. “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses-behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

Ultimately, we are left to question precisely why do we work out, is it for physical health, routine, feel-good factor, mental health or a desire to look a certain way? By training in isolation, the answer may well have become clearer quickly, and if it hasn’t keep digging to find the answer. Once you find that answer, it may unlock the key to your inner drive.

Your Tech Savviness

Few industries are exempt from the technology boom, and for those in the fitness world, tech and fitness are symbiotic. Whether you be a trainer or a client, a regular gym-goer or yoga enthusiast, we all question how technology can enhance our goals and hold us accountable.

Overnight, Coronavirus forced formerly dated agencies to utilize a digital working environment. If companies didn’t adapt to use video technology and remote working software, they would be quickly redundant as the Coronavirus took hold.

Similarly, the fitness industry has needed to adapt and fast. You may have used a fitness watch to achieve a daily goal, but have you used your available technology to its full potential? Coronavirus has forced us to do things we would never have previously considered digitally, whether that is sharing yoga classes remotely in front of a screen in our living rooms via Zoom, or doing personal training sessions via smartphones.

For many of us working out in isolation, we miss the accountability that our fitness tribe at the gym give us every day. Utilize apps such as Strava to push each other to the next level during this period of reduced social contact. Do not let technology dictate your life, dictate the technology to drive your fitness goals to the next level.

Ask yourself the question during this period, are you fully utilizing the technology available at your disposal to achieve your fitness goals, if not, why not?

Your Ability to Make Good Choices

We are lucky enough to live in a world where we have ample choice, but in this period how much information is too much for our brains to digest? Every day, either passively or deliberately through our smartphones, we digest work out plans, healthy meals and new hygiene procedures during Coronavirus.

This period has gifted us with more time than we have ever had before, and that has allowed us to digest more information. Can you deduce what is helpful and what isn’t? We have never been more anxious for information during the Coronavirus, whether that is uplifting health news or a transformative workout. Are we simply digesting the information and sharing it without slowly digesting its efficacy?

Everybody has different fitness goals and ambitions, and that is perfect. Unfortunately, there is never going to be a silver bullet in fitness that can solve all of your issues and make your goals instantly achievable. In a world where we struggle to filter fake news daily, ensure that you are rigorous in what you choose to digest on fitness.

Take a strategic approach to information on fitness during this period. Ensure that you are not aimlessly scrolling your WhatsApp groups or Instagram influencers of choice for inspiration, add rigor to your research. Information is power, but only if it used effectively.

Your Adaptability

Most people enjoy an element of routine in their lives. Routine brings structure and order in an often chaotic world. Coronavirus turned our lives and plans upside down and tore them up in shreds. We had to adapt to a new world that many of us are finding uncomfortable.

Did we spend too much time complaining about the unfairness of it, or did we adapt quickly and seek out the positives? Did we mourn missing the sanctuary of the gym, or did we enjoy the precious time that we had to work out away from the sedentary lifestyles in the office?

Did we utilize lockdown as an excuse to eat poorly and not workout due to the isolation, or instead did we adapt and thrive in our new environment? In many cases, this question is still unanswered, and there is still time to change. Can we keep striving to find positives in a challenging situation?

Many of us are spending more time than ever at home with children. Can we include our children in our daily workout plans safely and effectively? Can we adapt to utilize equipment that is readily on hand at home to ensure that we can still have an effective workout? Can you work on different body parts that you have paid enough attention to previously due to a lack of time or focus?

There has never been a better time to innovate your fitness lifestyle than now. One day this period of Coronavirus will be over, and you will look back and question how you responded to it. Did you make the most of every day and drive your body and mind to new levels? The opportunity is available, and it is up to you to take it.

The Final Word

We are living through a significant part of the world’s history, how many lessons positive and negative will we learn? The history books are still being written, and there is still ample opportunity to redefine how you can achieve your fitness goals in a different environment. Almost overnight, our world changed irrevocably and changed how we approach fitness. Will you blend back into your old routine at the gym, or will you utilize prized lessons from this period to achieve your fitness goals?

Are you thinking about being better prepared after lockdown? Or would you like to be better prepared if you are faced with a similar lockdown again for your workout environment? Rubcorp’s Performance Line has been specifically designed to take your gym surfacing to the next level, ensuring that you can always be ready to achieve your fitness goals. We will be delighted to speak with you to ensure that you are ready for anything the world throws at you.