Advertisement

Coronavirus: how online fitness training can help you stay healthy and lose weight during home quarantine

  • Gyms are using apps and conferencing platforms such as Zoom to offer real-time group or individual workouts for their members
  • The service includes a weekly chat with trainers to check programmes and weight loss, and video libraries for demonstrations of exercises

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Keeping fit online is proving an important way for gyms to keep their members exercising during the coronavirus home quarantine. Photo: Shutterstock

The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic isn’t stopping Gayle Higginbotham from exercising with her personal trainer as the formerly overweight Briton pursues her goal of trimming down to 57kg from her original weight of 105kg in 2018. She was down to 64kg when we spoke early in March.

Advertisement

The sales rep in the entertainment industry was homebound for work while in Hong Kong but continued to visit the gym at Joint Dynamics before she started using the organisation’s remote training service – Intelligent Movement On Demand (IMOD).

The online platform works with its TrueCoach app – to allow her to do workouts at home in Hong Kong or abroad. “Having exercise as an outlet gives me a break from being stir crazy at home,” says the 44-year-old.

Higginbotham recently spent two weeks working in London, where she continued to log in for her online sessions. “It’s a mental health saver,” she says. “My training supports me mentally to manage stress including the additional stress of the virus,” she says.

Gayle Higginbotham (left) in May, 2018 when she weighed 105kg, and Higginbotham at 76kg after a year training with Joint Dynamics in Hong Kong. Photo: Gayle Higginbotham
Gayle Higginbotham (left) in May, 2018 when she weighed 105kg, and Higginbotham at 76kg after a year training with Joint Dynamics in Hong Kong. Photo: Gayle Higginbotham
Advertisement

In the past, Higginbotham struggled to exercise and shed the weight due to back troubles. However, experts from Joint Dynamics, a fitness practice that provides personal training, sports therapy, physiotherapy and more, helped address her back issues first to get her in shape before starting an exercise regime to help her reach her goals.

Advertisement