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Staying active while staying home

Fitness instructors providing virtual workouts while gyms are closed

SPRINGDALE, Ark — For those with a routine of working out at the gym, staying home has been an adjustment.

"When you take our gym life away, it's like oh my goodness, what are we going to do now," Cardio Groove fitness instructor Kathy Johnson mentioned.

When the call to shut down gyms was made, many were left wondering how to stay active.

For some, that means going on a run or taking a hike. But others may prefer a different setting.

"Everybody's not cut out for the outdoor life, some people are gym rats," Johnson explained.

As a fitness instructor, Kathy Johnson immediately started looking for ways to keep people's blood flowing while still practicing social distancing.

"I thought, well what can I do?" she said when the gyms closed down. "Oh yeah, well we've got social media. We can do Facebook lives, we can do Zoom, we can do whatever we can to still see each other and interact that way."

While the setting may be a little bit different, Kathy plugs her iPad in, turns the fan on, and cranks the music up to provide a virtual workout for anyone who wants to stay fit from home. 

Her classes provide a full body workout to target and tone every part of the body through a variety of different techniques and routines.

"It incorporates dance fitness, it incorporates strength training, and it is a HIIT workout," she explained about Cardio Groove. "You focus specifically on dropping your heart rate to make sure you're burning the most calories you can."

Seeing people on the other side of the screen during her virtual classes, Kathy can still give feedback and encouragement as people get their workouts in. 

"Now that you're stuck at home, you really have to make the time to take that time to work out," she mentioned.

Kathy's main goal is to make sure nobody turns staying at home into staying on the couch. 

"We just want to make sure that we are giving everybody an opportunity to stay healthy, and stay fit, and stay active, and stay happy," she said.

Credit: Cardio Groove with Kathy

If you're interested in taking one of Kathy's classes, you can visit her Facebook page or Instagram. She streams workouts Sundays at 2PM, and provides workout packages with classes on Mondays, Tuesday, and Thursdays at 10AM.

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