The Queen’s Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC) usually serves as a hub of physical activity for members of the Queen’s community, helping over 3,000 people a day meet their health and wellness goals. As the university embraces physical distancing measures in response to COVID-19, the ARC has temporarily closed. To help keep the community active in the meantime, Athletics and Recreation staff are creating daily videos and social media posts to provide tips and encouragement for exercising and keeping healthy while adjusting to studying and working from home.

“Queen’s Athletics and Recreation plays a big part in promoting health and well-being on campus, and we take that role seriously. These videos and posts help us to continue promoting healthy behaviours to the community, even as we all practice physical distancing. Our hope is to provide some inspiration to take some time to focus on well-being and get active” says Gareth Cunningham, Associate Director, Recreation and Active Living at Queen’s University Athletics and Recreation.

Keep up with their daily videos and tips by following Athletics and Recreation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Students stepping up

Most of the videos are being led by Queen’s students who work as personal trainers and fitness instructors at the ARC. Since many of these students have returned home, they are producing their videos from across Canada. “The dedication of our students has been really inspiring. They are doing everything they can to bring their talents and expertise to help people stay well and feel connected to the Queen’s community while they’re away from campus,” says Cunningham.

The video series covers many different aspects of fitness people can work on without special equipment. Some of the topics covered so far include daily activity challenges, dynamic cardio warmups, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and full-body workouts. As the series progresses, Athletics and Recreation plans to evolve their approach to meet their viewers’ needs.

Live remote exercise classes

Athletics and Recreation is also hosting remote exercise classes each Friday at noon on Facebook Live. They are hoping these virtual workouts will create a sense of community while promoting fitness. During all workouts, instructors make a point to note modifications people can make to the exercises, so people of all levels of fitness and skill are able to take part.

To learn more about these remote fitness services, visit the Athletics and Recreation website, where they also provide some basic tips about how to exercise at home.