A personal trainer has said to “focus on yourself” this lockdown by making a commitment to boost your fitness and mental health.
Ian Findlay, who runs his own personal training business out of Inverness, was forced to adapt his business last year to ensure its survival.
But, despite describing it as a “brutal” year, he has been thrilled with the results. Not only has he been able to help his clients remain active and keep a clear and positive mindset, but he created five jobs.
The PT, who runs Ian Findlay The Academy, said: “Lockdown was pretty brutal in going from my main thing, which was one-to-one personal training with a bit of online on the side, to having six months of not being able to continue with that one-to-one.
“My business would have disappeared if I didn’t adapt to it.
“Luckily I had a small presence that I had built up online. I was quite lucky as around a month before lockdown I had started doing more stuff online.
“By going online I had a system in place and it was a case of rolling it out and adapting.”
Find a routine that works for you – and stick to it
Mr Findlay encouraged people to make working from home for them, and adapt a good routine.
“Some of my clients were getting their best results during lockdown, which is remarkable as gyms were closed and it was difficult,” he said.
“Clients were able to really focus on their routine and themselves.
“Everyone gets caught in the 9-5 lifestyle and that living for the weekend mentality but lockdown took the temptation away, and in terms of transformations, it was a blessing in disguise.”
He encouraged people to remain active in the coming weeks, pointing to the various online apps and programmes available.
Mr Findlay said: “You can use the lockdown as an opportunity to work on yourself as there is plenty of time to have structure and to build a routine, stick to it and have some mental clarity.
“If you have a routine and structure, everything else will fall into place after that.
“The number one thing that helped me was getting up early.
“In the first lockdown, I was up at 6am and was out running or walking, either or, and it sets up your day and gives you so much mental clarity and productivity.
“Walking gives you that time to think and your own space away from everything. Getting workouts in around that would be another bonus.”
Back to ‘square one’ – but challenges can be overcome
As well as benefitting his clients by helping them achieve their fitness goals and boosting their mental health, Mr Findlay is delighted the academy has created five jobs during such a challenging time.
Moving forward, Mr Findlay plans to focus on those who are enrolled in his online academy but will still devote a large proportion of his time for one-to-ones when restrictions allow.
“After building yourself back up after being kicked once, we are getting kicked again and it is back to square one.
“It’s the biggest challenge I have encountered.”