Korean Personal Trainer and their stories to Maintain Health and Body Fitness in the Middle Covid-19
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the top priority of our life is health and fitness. Health and fitness is determined by what we do every day. Therefore, doing activities that are in accordance with the portion will help our body to stay healthy and fit.
On this warm occasion, I interviewed 3 personal trainers who work in a gym in South Korea. What is their opinion about maintaining fitness in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic? Before we go, let‘s get acquainted first with each speaker.
Mr. Sung Dae Moon (25 years old). He is a Personal Trainer who has worked for 2 years. He liked sports from a young age, based on his hobby, he entered the college of physical education. He was inspired by his seniors, he saw that the seniors who exercise are cool and then he try to imitate likes them.
Mr. Jiwon Park (25 years old). He is a Personal Trainer who has worked for 2 years. The reason for him to starting a personal trainer is that he has been exercising as an elite athlete for more than 10 years since has was a child.
Mr. Jeong Dauni (30 years old). He is a Personal Trainer who has worked for 2 years. During his working life, he was very interested in health and exercise, and in order to continue a healthy life in the future, he started learning professionally to teach people around me to eat and exercise properly.
Gym Experiences
1. What kind of exercise are usually you offered in Gym?
At the gym, weight training is mainly performed. Especially for those who want to exercise and strengthen their muscles in preparation for competition. (Mr. Sung Dae)
At the gym, those who receive personal training mainly carry out body-correcting exercises or stretching weight training suitable for their body type. I do various exercises such as yoga, Zumba and Pilates spinning in class. (Mr. Jiwon)
In addition to weight training and aerobic exercise, I tend to do a lot of exercise (rehabilitation, etc.) for each purpose tailored to the individual. (Mr. Jeong Dauni)
2. Have you had any unique experiences while working as a personal trainer?
I think, every moment with members is a special experience. You bring up various news and talk every day and tell to them a funny stories. (Mr. Sung Dae)
A special experience while working as a personal trainer is that I studied rehabilitation exercises and corrective exercises, so many older members are also taking classes. After all, I felt that age doesn‘t matter to exercise if you put your mind to it. (Mr. Jiwon)
These days, health and body-building or body profiles have been popularized a lot, so it is impressive that really young friends (teenagers) and middle-aged people (40–50s) put in a lot of effort to create their bodies and leave photos. It is no longer the privilege of young people to make their bodies look so beautiful. (Mr. Jeong Dauni)
3. In this era of Covid-19 Pandemic, are many people doing exercise in Gym? If it so, is the gym always crowded with visitors time? And approximately, how old are the visitors who exercise at Gym?
Gym always a lot. The busiest time for gym members is start from 6pm to 10pm, and for office workers after work hours. Different age groups visit the gym. There is no specifically age group, all of them comes from 10 to 50 years old. (Mr. Sung Dae)
For the first six months or so after the COVID-19 outbreak began, fitness centers stumbled a lot and closed a lot, and the number of people decreased to almost 1/10 level. After a certain period of time, I saw an article that the average weight has increased a lot overall because people can‘t go out, stay at home and eat a lot of take-out food. As a result, people’s health awareness has increased a bit, and people are starting to come back gradually. It‘s not as much as it was before Corona, but it seems that the gym activity is recovering a lot now as the vaccination rate has increased a lot.
Now it’s starting to get crowded during peak hours (especially after work hours). Although the age group is small, people from elementary school to many people rarely exercise even in their 80s! Many housewives in their 30s and 50s come out in the morning, and students and office workers in their 20s and 30s at lunch. After 6pm, after work hours, they come in various ways, regardless of age or gender (Mr. Jiwon)
As Covid-19 continues for a long time, more and more people are returning to the gym, usually in the evening (after work) the most. The age range is really diverse. In the morning, there are many people of all ages, and in the evening there are usually office workers (20–40s). (Mr. Jeong Dauni)
Important reason to stay healthy during the Covid-19 pandemic
4. What do you think / whats your opinion about maintaining our health and body shape especially during Covid-19 pandemic?
I think this is an opportunity, because I think it‘s a better time to take care of yourself the more you can’t do outside activities. (Mr. Sung Dae)
In fact, a lot of people are reluctant to go out of the house during the corona pandemic. Of course, stay at home would reduce my activity level and adversely affect my health. How about doing simple home training at home? There are a lot of home training equipment these days, and there are a lot of great resources on media like YouTube. (Mr. Jiwon)
I think it‘s very important. It is the simplest and most effective way to combat COVID-19 as well as many other health-threatening diseases. (Mr. Jeong Dauni)
Their opinion about gym closures during Covid-19 pandemic
5. What do you think / whats your opinion about the regulation for limiting activity in gym at the end of 2020?
Although there are strong restrictions on activities, I think the government do the right way to follow them for the health and safety of everyone. (Mr. Sung Dae)
Actually, when I was told to close the gym, I was very irrational. It seems that the aftermath was not actually a proper measure without even thinking about it. In fact, you can see that it is operating well now even when the number of confirmed cases is 3 to 5 times higher than then. (Mr. Jiwon)
On this point, in my opinion Since I exercise indoors, there are situations in which the space is small or there is an unavoidable contact. (Mr, Jeong Dauni)
Based on the experience of each personal trainers above, you guys already know how gym activities are being carried out in South Korea at the moment (especially during the covid-19 pandemic). From them we can learn that maintaining health and body fitness doesn‘t matter the age of each person, started from young to old, they must maintain their health and fitness to avoid all diseases, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic, we must maintain health and fitness our bodies to stay fit for daily activities.
Although until now the Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t ended, we can still carry out outdoor activities to reduce activities in crowds while still observing health protocols by our goverments.