I am often asked, how good can an online fitness class using barely no gym equipment help me build strength, endurance, stability and flexibility?
Don’t you really need to go to a gym to get a real workout with real equipment?
The answer is, Yes and No.
Question
What motivates you to go the gym? Is it to:
- Feel better
- Lose weight
- Visit or workout with your friends
- Something to do during the day
- Reach your fitness or athletic goal (strength and endurance training for sports, etc.)
Benefits of going to the gym
- You love having lots of people around you sweating, grunting and spewing while they are lifting weight. If you love this, you certainly must go to a gym.
- The ability to walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes and say you did your workout, then the answer is yes for those bragging rights that you went to the gym. Did you know that a 45 minute brisk treadmill walk would give you the ability to drink a Starbucks Grande Café Latte. You burn 243 calories at best on the treadmill and the latte is 190 calories. Wow!
- Gym equipment
- Socialization (and yes, we are desperately missing that now) and visits with your friends
What can an online fitness class do for you?
Improve strength
One of my clients, E.D. improved her lower body strength by 44% in 3 months. This was measured by a chair sit to stand assessment. In addition to this improvement, she is now able to do 2 ½ minutes of wall squats without difficulty, that was not the case three months ago, it was a struggle to get to 30 seconds.
She has made these improvements by attending two 30-minute strength classes and three 45-minute total fitness classes with me on zoom. All done with light weights and resistance bands. CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CLASSES
Ability to perform activities of daily living
I wanted you to know that I did some gardening last week and I could tell my balance improved. Especially stepping over plants to another and leaning over to trim. I still have a long way to go but improving! Client A.S. (after a few months online classes)
What goals do you have for performing your activities of daily living:
- Going up and down stairs without pain or shortness of breath
- Squat down to lift a 20-pound bag of dog or cat food, or a 20-pound dog or child
- Bending and reaching to pick your lettuce or other vegetable from your garden
- Kneeling down to weed or pick something up from the floor AND the ability to get UP.
Yes, you can achieve these goals by taking my online classes. Did I mention that my client are predominantly in their 60s and 70s. If you want to join them and get stronger and have better balance Click Here
These activities of daily living are some of the things that are important to us as we age and this is why I am dedicated and enthusiastic about getting people moving better. It’s about doing ordinary activities, not about being Mr. or Ms. Olympus. Exercise has proven to improve our healthspan and at the end of the day, we want our end of the day to be as healthy as possible.
My favorite equipment
One of my favorite pieces of gym equipment is the resistance band. Yep, like the ones they give you when you come home from physical therapy. You can build muscle, improve flexibility, and even balance. I love resistance bands because you can vary the resistance, you can use them in multiple planes, and they’re CHEAP! They also are great for flexibility.
I love resistance bands
Below are many of the muscle groups you can work with resistance bands.
Quads, hamstrings, glutes, shoulders, chest, lats, biceps, triceps, abs, calves.
So I will ask you once again. Do you need that gym, or do you want to get a great workout in the comfort of your home using minimal equipment (you are also welcome to have alot of equipment, and that’s fun too)?
If you want to join me for a complimentary week, please go HERE and check out the times and classes at the bottom of the page and click on the T60Fit button to get the zoom link. I’ll even send you a resistance band to get you started. You know those New Year’s resolutions are now in the rear view mirror. What are you waiting for?
Spring is almost here so spring into action and get moving! You can do it! What are you waiting for?
