An Atrophied Global Economy has Changed Exercise Habits

Aimée Look, Investigative Journalist

March 18, 2022

The fitness industry has been hit with all sorts of changes over the past two years; from at-home fitness during quarantine to masking up and wiping down equipment after finishing a workout at the gym. As COVID-19 related restrictions ease up again, gym-goers and athletes have eagerly returned to their routines. 

Most countries have ebbed and flowed in and out of lockdowns, forcing individuals to adjust their exercise routines severely or lose motivation to workout. Although stories of celebrities getting into shape over quarantine headline tabloid magazines, fitness levels have decreased over lockdowns as the industry is hit with low engagement and has played a major role in a mental health crisis among adolescents.

There is consensus among coaches, athletes, and students around the world that the “exercise lockdown” had a negative impact on activity levels, and it's happening among Queen’s students as well. 43% of students found that COVID-19 negatively impacted their ability to exercise due to gym closures, according to a 2020 U-Flourish survey. As we move into a “new normal”, the reversal of these trends will be difficult, yet not impossible, to achieve. 

Despite drastically different timelines and health policies around the world (namely Canada and the United Kingdom), the impact of post-pandemic inflation, diminishing motivation, and stagnant gym routines on individuals has been the same.

Liz Huntly, owner of a yoga studio, Studio 330 in downtown Kingston and Rupert Quinley, the owner of the Train BodySmart Personal Training studio in the UK had very similar speculations about the cause of decreased engagement in virtual and in-person fitness activities.

Participation and engagement also tend to be lower in live online fitness classes than during pre-pandemic in-person classes. Huntly explains that despite the studio’s ability to “build up a community of consistent online participants over the past two years”, there is still a large difference between remote and in-person class sizes. 

Huntly noticed that the studio hasn’t seen its usual “swell” of demand for classes this January, and that people are not “comfortable with the technology, or they're simply Zoomed out.”

The process of moving online for a personal training studio was similar. Rupert Quinley’s biggest challenge was encouraging athletes and clients that want in-person services to transition to remote work. 

He says that “the transition is a bit like having a weekly cleaner to come and mop floors at your house, but suddenly when that service is unavailable, the cleaner is on Zoom telling you how to clean your own floors. It’s a very different service when in-person coaching is unavailable”.

Quinley, in the UK, identified that the industry is now seeing the long-term effects of COVID by having “far fewer inquiries for gym memberships and coaching services” in January 2022 than his company has seen in previous years. He suggests that the decrease in gym memberships is a result of skyrocketing costs of living. His theory is that many people “are bracing for an upcoming recession”, eliciting lower demand for in-person personal training programs and gym memberships.

The most recent lockdown has had a devastating emotional impact on athletes and companies. Quinley noticed that athletes “struggled psychologically when they couldn’t play their sport, much like us coaches that suddenly couldn’t coach, and many of the greater population that had to make dramatic changes to their lifestyle”.

Studio 330 also noticed the emotional impact lockdowns have had on active participants at the studio. Huntly explained that the emotional distress is most likely because most of her students and staff thought that lockdowns would be over by now. 

Outdoor and at-home exercise may have increased during the stay-at-home order, but this did not increase overall physical activity. The experience and knowledge required to start a new type of exercise routine at home was overwhelming for some students and hindered the maintenance of physical activity levels.

As a certified personal trainer, I’ve compiled a few recommendations that have helped me and others in getting back to the gym.

Start slower than you think you need to. Accept that your level of fitness or strength may have waned from time away from the gym and that your eagerness to get back to your old routine may cause you to jump in too quickly. To avoid injury, be disciplined and begin by shortening sessions and lengthening rest times between sets or intervals. Take it back to the basics, and focus on technique rather than returning to your previous fitness levels as quickly as possible. Over time, shorten rest times and lengthen sessions, stretch, recover, fuel up properly, and you’ll be back at your pre-pandemic fitness levels within a few months.

The pandemic has led to decreased interest in gym memberships coupled with a diminishing interest in digital exercise, indicating an overall decline in the quality and quantity of physical activity. If all individuals take small steps towards getting back to activity, the benefits will echo into the rest of our personal lives, community, and the industry as a whole.