The corona virus has really messed up the training plan for many ambitious gym goers. Suddenly the gates were closed. Some make do with creative solutions.
Düsseldorf (dpa) - On the meadow of a Düsseldorf park, a woman tirelessly tears a colored ball by a thick handle in the air - up and down again and again. It is obviously a matter of condition.
But Ina Buchwald doesn't really like training in the park. The 30-year-old hobby athlete prefers to be in the box, as she says.
By that she means the gym, where she does Crossfit up to six times a week - a sport that combines weight lifting, athletics and body weight exercises. But the corona virus and the nationwide closure of the studios have thwarted their training.
"I felt uncomfortable and missed Crossfit very much. I noticed that it is like an addiction and how much I need the sport," says the sales representative of a large cosmetics group with a laughing voice. Like her, thousands of ambitious athletes fared, who practically have their second living room in the gym.
Many therefore moved their training into the fresh air or into the living room at home. Some fitness trainers shaped their protégés' bodies via zoom video conference instead of in the studio - personal training in their own four walls.
This was also noticeable in the sale of fitness products. Some companies reported triple sales in March and April compared to the same period last year, according to the German Association for Fitness and Health (DIFG). For large devices such as ergometers, the increase in April was around 80 percent. The most popular were classics such as weights with barbells and dumbbells, but also fascia rolls, yoga mats or jump ropes. Sales of these smaller utensils increased by 300 percent.
On the other hand, hardly any studio operators invested in new equipment, primarily because they feared their existence. This was how Raphael Fuchs felt at the beginning of the corona crisis. Together with his uncle, he runs a family-run fitness studio with around 350 members in Amberg in Bavaria. "At first we were afraid of how to go on," reports the 27-year-old. But now he is confident that he will weather the crisis.
As the owner, of course, he still had access to his devices and he needs that too. Because Fuchs is a bodybuilder, regularly takes part in competitions and trains six times a week. Other bodybuilders and athletes did not have this opportunity. "People were put on withdrawal and that goes to the psyche," he says. "It's like taking drugs from an addict."
Jens Kleinert, professor at the Cologne Sport University, does not go that far: Such a situation leads to a lack of well-being, perhaps even to irritability, nervousness or depression. "When people are heavily addicted to sports, such symptoms can become critical, but that's rare."
At the beginning of the lockdown, Fuchs lent dumbbells and weights to some athletes so that they could continue training at home in the basement or in the living room in front of the television. "One even bought a complete set with a barbell and weights," he says. Cost point: in the four-digit range.
But it's not just about the fitness freaks, pumpers and powerhouses that stand in front of closed doors. Even people with back problems or osteoarthritis need the equipment in the studios to train against their symptoms. Fuchs regularly trained with a demented man in front of Corona. He was able to stand much more safely afterwards. "It will now be thrown back," suspects the trained coach.
How does a professional athlete have to be under these conditions? Weightlifter Max Lang used the time of the training ban in his club for a break. To get down, as he says. "Flaying your body in the time without upcoming competitions is not worth it," explains the 27-year-old from Sandhausen in Baden-Württemberg. He did not train for a good three weeks, then the German team athletes were allowed to go back to training with the special permission of the state government. Since then, Lang has been lifting the kilos up again.
There is a ray of hope for all other fitness fans: in the coming week, as part of the relaxed corona measures in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, the studios will be allowed to reopen. Düsseldorf-based Ina Buchwald is happy about that. The Crossfit-Box is open again. "I am relieved that I can go back in," she admits.
