By Aprille Gozdecki, Jan. 26, 2021
ASI’s personal trainers, known for providing one-on-one fitness training to CPP students at the BRIC, have shifted their operations online following the campus’ closure. As they struggled to reach the same number of students as before, the trainers’ virtual services now focus on targeting an audience that struggles to prioritize fitness.
The programs that the personal training team are offering are free for students to use. They are the back-to-basics workshop, where each trainer gives their take on what back-to-basics means to them and includes fitness offices hours for students to join in to ask questions to one of the trainers.
“We’re offering several programs where the personal trainers are still able to deliver their skill and expertise outside of the one-on-one training,” said Ivan Serrano, ASI fitness coordinator.
The back-to-basics workshop is to help students get back into the rhythm of being active after potentially being stationary for several months. The workshops also address how working out at home can be discouraging, especially without access to necessary equipment.
“A lot of our programs are focused around the assumption that people are at home and they might not have access to all the equipment that they normally would at the gym,” said Serrano. “All the recommendations the trainers are making are focused around using your own body weight or household items like a jug of water, bags of beans or cans of food for added weight.”
The additional fitness office hours allow students to have conversations with a personal trainer and personalize workouts they should do with their resources at home. The trainers host Zoom channels for an hour, allowing registered trainees to join in and ask questions.
“We want to show the students that they don’t need the BRIC to move their bodies,” said Serrano. “We want to meet the students wherever they are at to have their individual needs met.”
While the personal trainers have yet to book any new clients for the spring, they stay busy by recording videos of themselves performing exercises and workouts to create fitness libraries for students to access on Kaltura. The group fitness instructors have been recording the classes that they would normally run then putting them on Kaltura as well.
“We all miss the BRIC,” said Nayiri Hamparian, ASI fitness supervisor. “We miss having those interactions. We miss talking to people about fitness, but we are doing everything we can to help people either get back into physical activity or to just help them with their journey in general.”
There are two new programs also slated for next semester. The first is a monthly fitness podcast that will cover a variety of topics and dedicate a segment for people to ask the trainers questions. ASI will also introduce personalized PDF badges for everyone who completes any program that the fitness team offers. The badges are like the punch cards that the fitness team awarded last fall as a motivator. There will be at least one giveaway for the badges earned.
To check out any classes, workshops or office hours register at least 24 hours in advance to receive the Zoom link. All additional information about dates and times can be found on their website, BRIC. Kaltura fitness videos can be found under the ASI tab “Just remember, it’s okay if you aren’t where you used to be. Just take it slow and listen to your body,” said Hamparian.