Falkirk gyms launch online lockdown fitness and nutrition programmes

Both OWNNIT and The Engine Room are offering a variety of virtual sessions and training tools to help current and prospective clients with everything from exercise and nutrition to weight loss and lifestyle changes.

The facilities were forced to close their doors when the new coronavirus restrictions came into effect at the start of January.

Eager to offer others an opportunity to keep active and shed some pounds, Liam Healy, OWNNIT owner and head coach, started planning his “online fitness community” idea in December when rumours of an impending lockdown began circulating.

With the Callendar Riggs-based gym shut, Mr Healy is using platforms like Facebook to help those seeking to structure their training and eating habits.

Speaking on Monday as the sessions launched, he said: “We offer two types of programmes. One is focused solely on training and the other is on nutrition and lifestyle changes.

Falkirk and Grangemouth areas with the lowest number of Covid-19 cases between January 2 and January 8

“We wanted to create an online fitness community that was based on giving clients some sort of social support platform to help them through lockdown and give them an accountability tool.

“We give out programmes designed around key movement patterns that help build strength and conditioning. On the group, we provide educational videos on how to perform exercise well and how to structure warm-ups.

“The guys do five workouts a week. We treat each client like an athlete and can modify exercises here and there.

“We’ve always done one-to-one personal training with outdoor boot camps.

“The feedback has been quite positive so far. I’d like to have this running yearly or every few months.

“We’re all about trying to create a positive environment for people to train in.”

Connor Russell, who is the head coach at The Engine Room, is overseeing nutrition and fat loss programmes.

The Callendar Road gym is also putting on weekly fitness classes via Zoom at 9.30am and 6pm on weekdays, as well as weekend mornings.

Mr Russell said: “The eight-week fat loss programme is run by myself and the other coach, Michelle Gallagher. It’s basically an introduction to fat loss.

“We offer support and accountability while providing education and knowledge so you can learn to lose fat with us but are then able to continue that on your own.

“Every week we focus on different things: from what a calorie deficit is to how to change your habits and behaviour because these are what lead to weight gain.

“We look at trying to change your mindset around food. We try to explain there's no good and bad types of food, just good and bad decisions.

“We look at additional exercise and run exercise classes. Across the eight weeks we encourage clients to do daily check-ins.

“We get the guys to include images of what they’ve have to eat that day, whether they had enough water, what exercise they managed to get in and include some positives because we like people to focus on the small wins.

“We provide daily and weekly videos about different concepts of fat loss and try to stay in touch as much as we can.”

Visit the OWNNIT and The Engine Room Facebook pages for more information.

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