With gyms and playgrounds closed around the D.C. region amid the coronavirus pandemic, and social distancing keeping people from getting too close to each other, it’s understandable that sales of home exercise equipment would be up. But personal trainers are also still kicking their clients’ butts.
Lorina Albarado, a personal trainer from Crofton, Maryland, was already motivated to start her own website and offer virtual training sessions so she could visit her first grandchild halfway across the country.
Then, the pandemic hit.
“I’ll do FaceTime with some clients, I’ll do Zoom with some clients,” said Albarado, who got the idea after attending a fitness expo in California, which she said is always on the forefront of fitness trends.
“I kind of make their workout according to the things that they have in their home,” she said. “A lot of people do not have dumbbells, the things that I have access to here in my home.”
So, she improvises.
For instance, for her older clients, soup cans become homemade dumbbells. Yoga can be done with the help of a chair.
“Everyone is a trooper,” Albarado said. “People use and adjust the things that they have in their home. I know all my clients’ injuries and I know what limitations they have, so I’m able to program their workout according to their needs.”
Another trainer who has been enjoying the versatility of virtual workouts is Kim Miller. She’s from Glen Burnie originally, and lives in Atlanta now, but has spent the past couple of weeks visiting her boyfriend in Maryland.
And her work hasn’t slowed down.
“Personal training does translate well into virtual training,” said Miller, who does sessions with her clients on Zoom. “Either I’m doing it with them or I’m showing them the moves and then timing them and saying ‘Here’s your bell, go!’ or something to that effect.”
It might not be the way she’d prefer to workout, but it’s still working.
“I’m kicking their tail and they’re coming back for more,” said Miller, who was already designing workout and meal programs for people in other states before the pandemic started.
For now she’s keeping these sessions at 30-45 minutes while experimenting with what types of classes to offer. Little details, like how to incorporate music, are part of the ups and downs of figuring out how to make it work.
“Music is the heartbeat of your workout sometimes for most people,” said Miller. “So I have to figure out how that works because if I have it on my side they can’t hear me, but if I have it on their side, do they mute it? Little things like that, or connection issues.
“There’s going to be little slip-ups you have to figure out along the way, but also ways you can make it better too,” she added.
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While she likes being able to lead workouts anywhere from her basement in Atlanta to her boyfriend’s yard in Maryland, she’d still rather be able to motivate her clients in person and use all the equipment that comes with a gym.
However, “What I do plan though is to offer virtual training like I’m doing now, the Zoom training, to people that are in different states,” Miller said. “I hadn’t branched out that way quite yet. I think that’s a better way to do a touchpoint and accountability mark versus just writing them a workout. Because then I know that they’re there.””
