TEMPLE, Texas — The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to many people's wellness routines when it shut down gyms across the country. Now that they're back open, many people have tried to get back to normal. In this week’s “Your Best Life”, 6 News Anchor Leslie Draffin spoke with a fitness instructor about ways to ease this transition.
"Well, for me, personally, I had to go through a grieving process. You know the gym was immediately shut down we didn't really know what was happening we knew it was unprecedented," Temple fitness instructor Susan Cornette said.
Cornette helps people get fit for a living. But when COVID-19 shut down gyms, even she took a break from working out.
"I did not work out for probably three weeks straight. I think we were all just sort of in shock," Cornette said.
During the shelter in place order, gyms like Truecore, where Cornette works, went virtual to help their clients stay active.
"It was great to be able to keep in touch with my clients my personal training clients and a few friends of mine from the gym," Cornette said.
But, Cornette admits it was hard getting motivated to workout online.
“It was very hard. I couldn't see their positions. I wasn't there to truly motivate, I was but I wasn't. We ended up doing a lot of chit-chat, and not a lot of working out," she said.
So, when Truecore and other Central Texas gyms reopened two weeks ago, Cornette said, "The people who've decided to jump back in, they are jumping back in with a vengeance. They're here every day."
In this new age of wellness, Cornette has learned a whole new routine, and it has a lot to do with cleaning.
"It's becoming second nature for me to stay six feet apart. It's becoming second nature for me to go back behind everyone and clean the equipment which I never did. I cleaned my equipment, and I asked them to clean theirs. But I never went behind them to do it," Cornette said.
She has also filled her schedule with small group personal training where two to four people split the cost of a session and can still stay socially distant while getting more attention than in a class setting.
"There can also be encouragement from one another that really feeds off each other and motivate the whole group at one time, they can get a little competitive which can be really good," she said.
But if you aren't ready to hit the gym again, or if you're back to working out but aren't feeling like yourself, Cornette said that's okay.
"There seems to be a lot of guilt. They're bringing in the door with them because they haven't worked out in two months and they ate all the banana bread, and they did all the things and they feel bad about themselves. And so, I am having to cheerlead them out of their rut and kind of prove to them this that they didn't lose too much of the strength they had built up when we got shut down like we are right back in it. It may take a couple weeks, but give yourself some grace. We're back at it now and we're all kind of in the same boat. We're all super sore this week. It's going to be fine. It'll be fine," Cornette said
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