WILMINGTON — With locals trying their best to keep active during this time of isolation, gym owners and trainers are doing their part to help.
One of those is Hawken Lewis, a personal trainer at Vital Fitness in Wilmington and EVO Fit Club in Maineville, and at his own personal training business GroundZero Coaching.
Lewis isn’t a big fan of the gyms closing.
“Not only is it part of my livelihood, but it’s a huge part of my life that has helped frame who I am,” said Lewis. “To be successful in anything in life. I feel you need to be: hardworking, dedicated, a great work ethic, a want to learn and, most of all, consistent.
”I found out to have results in the gym, you need to apply all of the above.”
Because of his faith, Lewis knows this is going to come to an end and life will get back to normal.
“Since the beginning, I’ve been calm. It’s actually pretty weird,” Lewis said.
At the moment, all of his clients have received at-home workouts to do with minimal to no equipment. As most people were not prepared, he doesn’t expect them to have that much equipment at home.
“I reached out to find what they had, then programmed accordingly,” he said.
He’s also started doing live workouts at 5 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Facebook. On Tuesday and Thursday, he posts videos of certain exercises and he’ll post a written workout explaining the exercises.
Starting next week he’s excited to try out an application called Zoom where he can do live workouts and see all his clients and others at the same time. There they can do a live workout together and he can interact with them.
“This is a tough time for everyone and a lot of people’s stress levels are going through the roof with what they are going to do or how they will make it,” said Lewis. “The gym was an outlet for them. Not only physical but mentally as well. So I wanted to give them something that would help them out and get away from life from 30 minutes to an hour.
“Any way I can do my part, I will,” he added.
Lewis offers this advice: Be consistent with who you are.
“Don’t look at this as a time to change everything because of the situation we are in. Look at it as a time to remain consistent with your daily rituals to help you remain mentally clear and stable through these uncertain times,” he said.
“Also, these are dark days for most of the world. So instead of looking at it as a reason to be down and depressed, try and be the light for others around you. By being the light and the beacon for those around you, they can look at you for strength and stability in these troubling times.”
He believes if more people do that, society will be a lot brighter.
