5k runs, countless sea swims, and rollerbladers everywhere you looked — but were people really more active during the pandemic? We spoke to fitness coach and host of the Higher Training podcast, Darren McGuinness to see what he thought.
The coronavirus pandemic brought many things, but one surprising upside was the readiness people seemed to take to exercise. Was social media all smoke and mirrors? — were people really being more active during the lockdown?. On the face of it, it did seem like people were in fact getting out more. Swapping pubs for sunset cliff walks and dodging house parties for morning sea swims, everywhere you turned online it looked like people were indeed reconnecting with nature through exercise.
So could social media be trusted? did people really get out and exercise more?. One Irish report seems to say yes, finding that almost half of the 1,500 people surveyed said they were exercising more often than they would have before the pandemic.
Asking Darren McGuinness — Irish fitness coach and host of the Higher Training Podcast — he also seemed to agree.
“I think people had a bit more free time and those things that they said they would like to do or didn’t have time to do — their hand was kind of forced because they were given all this time. I reckon it was more positive than negative in that front — with people getting out and about a bit more. You would see people going out for sea swims, people hiking, people out walking a lot more — and running as well!, everyone was flat out with the 5ks”, he says.
However, Darren, who’s been coaching everyone from professional athletes to part-time gym-goers for the better part of 5 years, did acknowledge that the rise of people taking to outdoor activities might have spoken to a wider issue of escalated feelings of isolation — something he was not immune to.
“The first six months of lockdown I went on to Zoom and it was nearly as much for my own sanity. I was well fed up after a few weeks of it so that’s why I was like, ‘hop on these Zoom sessions with me quick till we jump around the room’” he laughs.
But on a serious note, he adds, “It was a tough time, you know? It’s not easy being out of your routine and isolated” — and when then the whole world seemed like it had been placed on pause, he quickly reminded his clients that it was okay to take their foot off the gas.
“One of the first things I said to all of them was ‘I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t stay inside and watch Netflix', because sometimes that’s needed. I said ‘you’re going to get bouts of feeling like doing nothing and if you even get to do anything on those days that’s a positive’. A lot of it was just about lowering expectations of themselves.” Darren McGuinness
Although there may have been a spike in interest in exercising and getting active, without access to gyms and social distancing measures in place — exercising and coaching looked a little bit different. Already having established a base in online and in-person coaching, doing roughly three to four days a week in the gym, the lockdown presented an opportunity but also some new challenges for his practice.
He quickly figured that Zoom classes weren’t his thing. “Zoom classes aren’t for me. I don’t think I can coach people as well across it and I don’t like taking money off people if I’m not 100 per cent happy with the product I’m putting out there.” However, online coaching had been something he was doing long before the pandemic hit.
“I use an app called TrueCoach and on that app, the programme is up there — so your sets, reps, there’s a video for every exercise, and you can post videos. I’m big on giving feedback on technique, I’m not a stickler for technique, everybody moves a bit differently, but I’m big on getting movement to be better because you’ll be more efficient, less fatigued, and you’re going to make more progress”.
As everyone around the country remained isolated and socially distanced from each other, minding your mental health became a top priority — something Darren takes very seriously in his job.
“What I try to do is promote the outcomes that people want, whether that be changing appearance, getting stronger, being a better athlete — I try and do that without the major sacrifice of mental health”. Darren McGuinness
Each client presents a new challenge for Darren to familiarise himself with and produce a custom-fitted work routine to meet their individual needs. A lot of it, he says, just involves communicating with the clients.
“You need to meet them where they are at and you do that by talking to them about things we talk about in everyday life — not just talking about nutrition or training. They might care about it but to be honest, they don’t want to have a chat about it for more than five or ten minutes everyweek. You have to be able to talk about regular things”.
Online coaching, says Darren, encompasses much more than just training and nutrition. “There’s a lot of time management and accountability for basic habits. I’m big on reflection. So every week I’ll have somebody reflect on the week — what went well? what challenges did you face? what are you proud of? — and a lot of that is to try to help them to think about their own behaviour a little bit more. It’s a little bit of self-monitoring and it’s also giving me a chance to have some input”.
“One of the downfalls with PT’s and coaches”, says Darren, “is that they try and be a dictator. They try to put across ideals and say ‘this is what you have to do and if you don’t do it then it’s your fault’. The problem with doing that is there’s so many people that are going to fall through the cracks. We all know the answers, we usually know what we need to do, sometimes you just need it brought out of you or somebody to, not be on your case, but just to hold you accountable”.
Although lockdown may have provided time for people to slow down, reflect, pick up new positive habits or re-kindle with lost hobbies, it wasn’t without its difficult moments. It was a time where many people may have been feeling increased levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness and bouts of depression — something Darren was well aware of and adjusted his practices to help alleviate the cabin fever-like symptoms.
“It was about managing expectations, incorporating the tools that help their mental health and just being patient, and just trying to have as much craic with people as I could — firing them memes, movie suggestions, Netflix suggestions. The Zoom sessions as well! —I wasn’t doing that for money, I was doing that for a bit of craic and to keep people entertained. Man, seeing me jumping around in my tiny living room — I still have some recordings from it — it’s was a fucking laugh”.
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