Gyms are closing again... now what?
By Katie Benzan
December 16, 2020
Image Credit: Andrew Dinh for Unsplash.
With cold temperatures and shorter days, it is difficult for University of Maryland students to exercise, while staying safe and healthy.
COVID-19 numbers are increasing again as the holiday season comes around. City regulations are becoming stricter, and in response to this gyms are closing again.
On the University of Maryland campus, Ritchie Coliseum and Reckord Armory are closed. Eppley Recreation Center is open with limited hours again. It is starting to feel a lot like the beginning of quarantine, when the campus was shut down.
Students are instead turning to online workouts that they are able to do at home. YouTube and fitness apps are useful resources to locate online workout videos.
“Orange Theory has videos on YouTube, and I’ve just been using my friend’s Peloton account to do Peloton video workouts,” said Sara Cohn, a junior studying psychology and family science.
Access to gyms through technology has helped students to stay fit amidst the persistent pandemic. Orange Theory and Peloton are two examples of fitness companies providing workouts for customers to exercise safely at home.
Before the pandemic, Cohn frequented Orange Theory in-person at its Baltimore Ave. location, but now she does not feel comfortable exercising in public spaces during the pandemic.
Ally Gloeckler, a UMD senior also studying psychology and family science, went even further to exercise during the pandemic. “My roommates and I bought an exercise bike and got the Peloton app,” she said.
Gloeckler feels as though the risk of exercising at the gym in-person is not worth the potential benefits. She added, “I usually feel more motivated when I have to actually leave the apartment to workout but I’ve been forcing myself to workout a few times a week.”
Cohn enjoys that she does not have to wear a mask when she’s working out at home, though she would much rather run outside or work out in the gym without a mask. She said exercising at home “makes [her] feel trapped because the gym got [her] up and out of the house in the morning but now [she] just rolls out of bed and goes to [her] living room.”
Aaron Lancaster, a UMD graduate student studying business, had to change his workout routine due to the pandemic. “Before COVID-19 I had a workout schedule, but because of the pandemic, there are a lot of gym restrictions, such as the number of people that can use it at a given time. Therefore I don’t go as often and I can’t go at consistent days and times,” he said.
Lancaster’s workout routine used to consist of a two-mile run outside at 6:30 a.m., lifting weights at 8 a.m., and then in the evening either a bike or high intensity interval training workout.
The pandemic has forced UMD students to adjust, especially as winter approaches. The value of staying safe is worth any downfalls of home workouts, such as lack of motivation, the infrequency or the inconsistency of workouts.