By Ernest Wolf, staff writer
“Yep, I’m gonna start doing this every day,” I thought to myself after my first visit to the gym in early 2020. My new year’s resolution that year was to go to the gym every day for the entire year. Unfortunately for me, a global pandemic and countrywide lockdown in mid-march would put my plans to a quick halt.
It became very clear that I wasn’t going to be able to go to the gym for awhile. I’m not going to lie, I lost motivation to start a home workout routine. The severity and abruptness of the pandemic had caught me completely off guard, I became depressed and anxious about what my future would hold. I left like a shell of the person I was before the pandemic started. For the first time ever I let myself fall out of shape and lost all motivation.
Once summer break started I realized I would have a ton of free time and should probably use my time to do something productive. I knew I wanted to get back in shape but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do it without a gym. Fortunately, that didn’t end up being a problem for me. I started going on 8 mile long bike rides daily and lifting weights multiple times a week. Exercising started to make me feel good again and brought me closer to my pre-pandemic self. I realized I didn’t need a gym to get a well rounded workout and I could do it from pretty much anywhere! I didn’t even really need my weights (although they definitely made it easier). I found a bunch of super cool workouts to do on youtube that could be done anywhere with no equipment. Once summer ended I had less free time on my hands so I couldn’t work out as much as I was before but I still train 3-5 times a week and go on runs or bike riders multiple times a week.
Although having no gym equipment definitely made exercising more challenging, it made me be resourceful and more motivated. It was actually nice to do it from the comfort of my room. My favorite part of my pandemic fitness experience was definitely the runs/bike rides. I almost always went down the embarcadero which was always gorgeous, even on cloudy days. It is something I’m going to do for as long as I live in San Francisco.
