I have to say, I’ve been really proud of my fitness journey. I haven’t always loved going to the gym or working out, but in the last 4 years or so, I’ve really found my groove. Well, for myself and many others, any fitness groove I had found risked coming to a screeching halt when Corona hit this past March and gyms began closing down. My initial reaction was mild panic. How was I going to keep up with the activity that was keeping me the most sane, when I couldn’t leave the house?
Fortunately, instead of throwing in the towel, almost every studio and trainer world wide took action. Live Instagram workouts became a daily occurrence, trainers began offering personal training and paid classes through Zoom, and gyms started to hustle to create online fitness streaming platforms.
Truthfully, this online fitness community has been my saving grace over the last few months. With all of the changes to our normal routines, being able to keep up with workouts has been a breath of fresh air. It’s also allowed me to try connect with people and trainers in other cities in a way I wouldn’t have been able to pre-COVID.
If you’re anything like me, and the gym has been your “happy place” for as long as you can remember, here are some of the classes, platforms, trainers and studios that I have tried and highly recommend if you want to keep active in quarantine! This list is not all inclusive, there are many more studios offering these features, these are just ones I have personally tried (either the trainer or the gym) or that have come highly recommended to me.
Barre & Pilates
- staceylelfitness Daily live workouts at 9 am on her instagram live. Her classes are pilates on “crack”. Get ready to sweat and for your muscles to burn! (@staceylelfitness)
- MoveBarre: Sign up on Mind Body for live Zoom barre workouts with MoveBarre
- VicPark: VicPark has barre and pilates classes saved on their IGTV. If you don’t want to do a live, this a a great way to choose the length of your workout as well as when to do it!
- burnbylyd: Single, weekly and monthly class subscriptions for barre & pilates classes. Reserve through @lifebylyd
Personal Training/Zoom classes
- Troy Perrin: Daily Zoom group classes or personal one on one trainings available. Get ready to SWEAT in these workours. @fitbytroy
- Crystal Kazanofski : Instagram live workouts or personal training available. HITT and circuit style workouts @ckazfit
- Drea Wheeler: Zoom group Bodylicious classes. Cardio and sculpt workouts, with some booty shaking in between! @bodyliciousbydrea
- Heather Mccurdy: Live Zoom Circuit classes! HITT style, high intensity, tons of fun and get ready to sweat and feel the burn! @mccurdy86
Fitness Studios with Daily Live Workouts
- VicPark @victoriaparkmtl
- B52 @b52fit
- Elle Fitness TO @ellefitnessto
- Sweat and Tonic @sweatandtonic
- Barry’s Canada @barryscanada
Online Platforms
- AScultpBody: www.asculptbody.com – Check out Alessia’s online platform for amazing low impact, body weight workouts
- fitfomo: www.fitfomo.com– Check out on demand workouts from some of my favourite Montreal based trainers
- BarreworksTO: https://www.barreworks.ca/online-studio
- b.cycle: https://bhome.bcyclespin.com/
- Enso Yoga: https://ensoyogalive.com/
- elmnt stuios: https://www.elmnt.studio/home
- Studio House of Bounce (you do need a mini trampoline for these classes) https://www.studiohouseofbounce.com/
Spin (you do need to have or rent a spin bike for these workouts though)
- @realspin.live
- @cadencecycle
- @b.cyclespin
- @amandazweig (via Fitfomo)
- @lbfitness (via Fitfomo)
- @lespinmontreal
