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RETURNING TO WORK AS A PT
AFTER TIME AWAY
With every challenge comes at least some element of opportunity. PT and exercise scientist
Brooke Turner looks at how to be adaptive and use time away from exercise due to COVID-19,
injury, illness or maternity leave, to your professional advantage.
2 020 has been the most testing
year the fitness industry has ever
faced. As an industry that thrives
off personal face-to-face, small
and large group classes and connection, we
have had to accept, adapt, and make the
most of the unchartered territory.
From shifting to virtual or outdoor training,
to losing clients, income and in some cases
businesses, it has been an incredibly trying
time. However, it has also provided an
experience for growth and development. A
chance to sit back and re-think your ‘why’.
Opportunities to innovate and adapt. If we
fail to adapt, we fail to move forward – and it
is this adaptability that makes for a fantastic
fitness professional.
As gyms, studios and fitness businesses
begin to gradually re-open, and you begin
seeing your old clients and members (and
hopefully some new ones too), it is important
to consider how the period of downtime and,
for many, de-training has affected everyone.
Not only have our clients and members
likely had time off of training or at least
experienced a general decrease in
physical activity due to social isolation
measures, but so have many of us – their
trainers and instructors.
It may sound a little crazy, but returning
to exercise following time off of training
can actually be a positive thing for fitness
professionals to experience. Most personal
trainers and group fitness instructors lead
by example and have a higher level of fitness
and strength than our non-trainer peers, yet
we can take our health and physical fitness
for granted, not realising how great fit feels
until that base level of fitness has been lost.
There really is no better feeling than that of
being fit, strong and healthy.
In addition to the extraordinary
circumstances we find ourselves in due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of other
We can take our
health and physical
fitness for granted,
not realising how
great fit feels until
that base level of
fitness has been lost
NETWORK WINTER 2020 | 37