Online exercise classes helping folks keep the blood pumping
Robb and Mary Beth Sackett loved their exercise.
Then the COVID-19 lockdown hit, pushing pause on fitness patterns the Glen Ellyn couple maintained for years.
Fortunately it was a brief postponement. One of their daughters, Maisie, told them about an online yoga class one of her friends teaches.
"It's fun. It's something to keep you moving. You can only go on so many walks or runs," Mary Beth Sackett said.
It turns out there's a galaxy of online exercise classes out there in the ether.
The Sacketts' choice was Core Power Yoga, which has a library of sessions available on YouTube. Thus far they have chosen the national feed, but since March 19 Core Power's Glen Ellyn branch has offered free, live training sessions on YouTube it later aggregates for watching any time.
"We clear out a couple tables in the living room, put down the yoga mats and off we go," said Robb Sackett. "I'm happy to do it, both as a distraction from the monotony of the days here, and it's a good workout."
Just a brief search of health facilities produces a variety of online offerings, from virtual workouts at Anytime Fitness in Arlington Heights to Fitness 19 in Algonquin.
Ryan Evans played hockey at Waubonsie Valley High School, Class of 2008. Now he's the regional director of fitness for Orangetheory Fitness' Illinois locations.
He said within days of closing its clubs in Illinois on March 17, the corporate office in Boca Raton, Florida, was producing home workouts for studio members and the public, via the Orangetheory application and YouTube. Individual studio coaches such as Marcy Karabin in Mt. Prospect film daily sessions live on Facebook and Instagram. Starting April 13 morning and evening sessions will be available.
"We're very happy that we're still seeing a tremendous amount of member engagement in the live workouts," Evans said.
Relationships between health clubs and members, even individual instructors, can extend decades. That's part of their draw. Within four days of its March 16 closing, the Wheaton Sport Center had a plan to provide online workouts, even crafts videos for children who use the 41-year-old club's child care.
On Wheaton Sport Center's YouTube channel, more than 100 videos and 32 instructors teach tennis, yoga, line dancing, meditation, high intensity workouts, and workouts done on a chair.
"Our goal is to try to hit every fitness level," general manager Dawn Szumski said.
Lorrie Biegalski is in her 21st year as a Wheaton Sport Center fitness trainer. She has gotten good feedback on the live YouTube classes she films alone at the club to keep members connected.
"The biggest thing I love that I've heard from more than one member, is that this makes me feel a little bit more normal," Biegalski said. "(They) keep doing a class that they love to do with an instructor they like to be with, and so it makes them have a little bit more control over a situation we don't have any control over."