1 – You can get a workout in anywhere. For three weeks now we’re been delivering all of our training “virtually”, using apps like Zoom and FaceTime. We’ve had clients doing lateral raises with plastic bags full of almond milk, squatting with rucksacks of books and shuttle running in their gardens.

And we’ve broken others with nothing but their own body weight. Yes, a gym is great to have and barbells and dumbbells are awesome. But if you don’t have them you can still absolutely get stronger, fitter and leaner. This period of forced change and adaptation can be a genuine benefit to all of us, provided we use it wisely.

2 – There’s a meme for everything. The world could be on fire while being invaded by aliens and someone will still be making a joke of it over a cute picture of a pig in a hat or something. There’s almost no lag time anymore between the earth-shattering event and the Facebook meme mocking it. It’s either a testament to the resilience humans or a sign that we’re all doomed.

3 – It’s easy to over eat when you’re stuck inside. Grazing is a real danger when you’re working six feet from your fridge. That combined with dramatically less active lifestyle is a recipe for weight gain.

And to be honest, we haven’t been too harsh with clients about their diet this week. It’s a weird, stressful time and many of us have other priorities. But I think as we move into our second week of proper lockdown, finding some healthy balance and a schedule is going to be more important.

It might be tempting to inhale a bottle of red wine and watch comfort telly, but doing that every day is not going to help in the long term.

4 – Our clients have really nice flats. We’re talking stylish lofts with exposed brickwork and wooden floors. We’re talking floor to ceiling windows with city views. One client has escaped to Germany and has a fully equipped gym in the mountains. You’re a stylish bunch and it’s really scratching a voyeuristic itch we never knew we had.

5 – I was spending a fortune. Pre-lockdown it was like my bank account had a slow puncture. Simply walking around London causes you to leak cash. In a post-lockdown world I may be bored but I’m a hell of a lot thriftier.

This is one of those lessons it’d be great to retain from all this. That spending a tenner every day on a disappointing lunch and coffee is both wasteful and unnecessary.

On that note…

6 – Cooking is actually fun. I’ve never been much of a chef. I essentially think of cooking as heating meat. But necessity is the mother of invention, or in my case, the mother of bothering your arse to try cook a decent meal. I’ve always seen it as a chore.

Now, planning and cooking a nice meal is one of the highlights of my day. Going straight to basics with cooking lessons from YouTube and building from there.

It’s all part of a larger lesson that I hope we can all learn about not taking simple things for granted. Right now we all think we’re learning a powerful lesson. But it’s just as likely that when things go back to normal we’ll go right back to getting frustrated about trivial nonsense.

Let’s try and be aware of that and prevent it happening. If we can get pleasure from something as simple as cooking now, we can still feel that way, rather seeing it as a chore, when things return to normal.

Zack

PS – We’re going to learn a whole lot more in the coming weeks. If you want to be along for the ride and learn to use your time wisely we can help.

We can train you, from anywhere, with anything. Whether you’ve got a few dusty dumbbells, bands or just your body, we’ll help you through this weird time so we can all emerge fitter, stronger and happier on the other side.