Friday with Heidi: The Great Outdoors…

If you had to sum up the last 16 weeks in some form of lockdown in one word it would, for me, be unknown.

Everything we’ve had to experience in these months has been brand new, a complete unknown to all of us in how it looks, how it feels, how we react to it and how our lives will change as a result. 

This week is a prime example.

A week ago the Government announced that from 25 July gyms and outdoor pools could open again. This has been much discussed within our industry and gym owners have been very vocal about helping the public get back to working out to be fit and well again.

Alongside that same announcements were release dates for sports, teams and outdoor events. I’ll be honest I thought it meant that Fit Camp was back with the rest of them. 

After a closer look at the small print, I realised that we weren’t part of this wave and were still limited to groups of 5 people outside as a maximum. 

It was with some relief then that I saw an advisory on Tuesday that confirmed that outdoor group fitness and personal trainers can now train groups outside, to a maximum of 30 people (including instructors) with social distancing. That’s more like it!

My initial feelings of excitement however have been tempered with the realisation that we don’t just slide back to what we were doing in March. There are many unknowns and to coin a great quotation “you don’t know what you don’t know“. 

It was easy to go into lockdown. It was very black and white.

Shut your doors and stay home.

Now it’s a little more grey and finding our way amongst this maze of uncertainty is going to feel more wobbly for some people and businesses. 

• In our case we need to ensure that our insurers will cover us to run our sessions outside again.
• We’ve started asking our Fit Camp venues if we’re able to come back and if so when and under what regulations. We already know that some of them don’t know, have said no or have said not yet.
• It’s time to see how our instructor team want to be involved. 
• And there will be an opportunity for our members to complete a questionnaire about post COVID-19 Fit Camp. 

And even with all that information there are still big unknowns.

Why talk about this today?

Because it’s the same for all of us whatever our situation. 

• If you have children no doubt school life will be different. 
• If you’ve been working from home but need to go back in to the office, it will be different.
• Getting your hair cut is different.
• Going into a shop from next Friday will be different when you need to wear a mask.
• Being told to avoid public transport is different!

These series of unknowns are not just keeping us on our toes, but they are challenging our sense of balance and certainty.

For some they may be making us anxious or uncertain, reclusive or angry. I’ve certainly been prone to crying more because of feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all at times. 

So this week my little message is to take it easy on yourself, easy on your family and easy on others as we all navigate this big wide outdoors world which is currently, still, quite unknown. 

Keep your basic needs met.

Whether that’s what you eat, what you drink, how much you sleep, how much alone time you get, how much social time you get, how much exercise and movement you get. And it will keep you stable enough to withstand this next phase of our unknown year. 

2020 has been quite a ride!

FastTrack Fit Camp is an outdoor fitness business with the focus on improving people on the inside so they feel good on the outside. In 2019 FastTrack Fit Camp became a Social Enterprise and committed to distribute a minimum of 50% of profits back to community environmental projects each year with the goal of helping our local citizens feel good whilst being outside too.