The months of confinement have been enough to turn, especially many intimates of the sofa, into experts in abs, squats, planks (those of exercise) and skipping, a much more attractive term than “running on the spot lifting your knees”. Without setting foot on the street or paying a single euro. The sessions of fitness professionals (and not so much), live or on recordings, have taken over social networks, transforming them overnight, among many other things, into a macro gym virtual without quota for those who felt orphaned from their center of activity – blessed YouTube and Instagram. But also for those who have never wanted to acquire the economic and social commitment to their health that involves doing sports while paying and with people watching (and trying). The latter, in addition, could have found in this new situation the justification for never doing so. What a need …!
“In these weeks there has been a torrent of information originating from influencers unskilled, but also by professionals who have been forced to give advice, tutorials or make free access videos to give value to rigorous knowledge and not lose our place. By being skilled at discriminating, anyone has been able to follow serious training guidelines without spending. And here we have the following problem ”, anticipates Jaime Menéndez de Luarca, senior triathlon coach. “We Spaniards are very friends of what is free. The live Instagram accounts are short-lived and many YouTube accounts will soon be paid subscription access again. When that happens, how many will continue to sweat in your classroom? ”He wonders. In the new normality, sports centers reopen their doors and reinvent themselves to adapt to an anomalous situation and to a user (real and potential) that has been greatly changed. In addition to fighting occasional laziness, now it’s time to do it against horizontal inertia, hygiene, the “free everything” and the new competition of smart guys healthy.
Don’t they pay you for your work?
Physical activity is like restaurants: there are buffets where you can eat your fill of products of dubious quality and places with a truly rich menu. Professionalism comes at a price. “Not everything that swarms on the Internet is worth, nor is everyone ready for movements of all kinds and levels. Must individualize it to gradually achieve goals without risk of injury. Having many followers is not a guarantee of good for the user, “emphasizes Isabel del Barrio, youtuber and a trainer with a university degree in Personal Training and the international certification of personal trainer NSCA Certified Personal Trainer. But what if the crux of the question is in the connection with the monitor? That is the key to the new rebound of Patry Jordan, monitor of fitness and reigns absolute among fitstagrammers (It has 9.16 million subscribers on its YouTube channel and videos that account for almost 5 million views).
Its secret is an overwhelming ability to empathize with those who have not exercised in their life and are doing it for the first time, or suffer from an inferiority complex (a negative vibration that leads many users each year to defect from gyms because they feel fat or unsuitable for sports). Del Barrio and many graduates in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences address an audience with some knowledge (terms such as hamstrings, torsions or extensions are frequent) and pound for the correct execution of each exercise. Jordan only needs people to move and follow her: there will be time to improve or hire her (paid) services when the free videos run out.
Gym Time 2.0
Sports centers know that the fitness Online is here to stay and you don’t want to miss a piece of the cake. “We were already shuffling to enter on-line. Now we know that it is a necessity. We work on a digital platform with new weekly content (training, advice …) at no additional cost to the member. Also in a service with a cheaper monthly payment for those who prefer not to come to the center in the first post-pandemic months ”, declares Óscar Peiró, director of the Smart Club center in Madrid.
High technology is a common element in their gyms, they offer spinning immersive with The Trip (a room with a giant screen and surround sound, where one seems to be pedaling on real hills and curves), and virtual sessions with the best coaches from Les Mills, a very popular training system in the United States. There are no shortcomings among the participants of the same class, who are monitored with an activity bracelet that subjects everyone’s effort to public scorn. Something similar works at OrangeTheory, with its heart rate monitors. One, when they look at him, tries harder.
Measuring yourself against those who train at another time is also possible. Some of the Dreamfit gyms incorporate competition bubbles and gaming (video games) with racing bikes, ellipticals, paddles and virtual classes. Every week a challenge is established and clients compete with each other, or as a team, to climb the Tourmalet or the rowing channel of Barcelona 92. The rankings are displayed on a panel and it is an incentive that encourages the most competitive to give their all .
It remained to connect that group and immediate atmosphere of the centers with an increasingly delocalized life. Many large chains had already made their first steps with digital applications that allow the reservation and monitoring of their exercises from home. For example, GHome, from Altafit. “In quarantine we have retrofitted the program to offer a combination of recorded group classes and a weekly tiered training program, updated every Sunday. In addition, we implemented the live sessions through Instragram and the repository on IGTV. And we have a chat for doubts on our website, attended by graduates in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences ”, states its director, José Antonio Sevilla. “We are clear that the immediate future of gyms is omnichannel: face-to-face and on-line”. Seville may be wrong, but VivaGym has tripled its followers on social networks during the state of alarm …
Read this and other reports in the new number of BUENAVIDA, which returns tomorrow to the kiosk, free, with EL PAÍS.
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