The Lockdown Survival Kit: Staying Fit In Isolation

With gyms closed for the foreseeable future we’re all looking for ways to stay fit and healthy. While we could go for a simple walk alone that could quickly become monotonous, boring and quite frankly not as fulling a full body gym session. Luckily fitness instructors are finding innovative ways to deliver their classes, not only to their regular clients but also a whole new audience online.

One such practitioner is Courtney Mills, a touring DJ and pilates instructor. Mills has been teaching pilates for the past six months, but was hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak when an opportunity to begin working at a new gym was instantly ripped away by the imposed closure of gyms. Rather than letting this get her down though Mills saw the virus outbreak as an opportunity to expand the reach of her pilates classes.

“There’s really nothing else I can do at the moment, so I thought what better way to give back the community than by helping people stay active with classed streamed online.”

The response to the announcement that she would be taking her classes online has blown Mills away, “I wasn’t even sure if people would actually want to join in but there has been more people interested than I ever would have thought, so I’m excited to get started.”

Pilates is a perfect training program to implement at home via online learning because the only requirement is a flat open space, and perhaps “a water bottle and some active wear.” Pilates also has both physical and mental health benefits according to Mills.

“The major benefits are core strength and flexibility. In my classes I also practice a lot of breathing as well, which can be good for anxiety and stress.”

Even if you’ve never tried pilates before Mills stressed that these classes will be for everyone, “I’m going to do a program which is a pretty standard beginner class with a little bit of  intermediate. I’m going to break it all down so that if someone hasn’t done pilates before that’s perfectly fine, but if people are little bit more experienced they’ll have an option to do slightly harder exercises.”

Despite the classes being designed for beginners it is still going to be a great daily workout, which Mills said her partner can attest to.

“I got my partner do pilates for the first time in his life and he was sore in so many places that he didn’t even realise he had muscles, because you’re working muscles you’ve probably never worked before.”

To participate in Mills’ classes head to her Instagram: www.instagram.com/djcourtneymills