Abstract
It is expected that the Covid-19 lockdown will have increased physical inactivity with negative impacts for older people, who are at greater risk of health complications from the virus. This paper draws on customer evaluation questionnaire of a Pilates class aimed at people aged over 50 years old, which transitioned from a studio setting to online classes via Zoom at the start of the lockdown in England. The paper aims to (i) evaluate the shift of exercise services to online and (ii) examine how engagement with online services has influenced people’s reaction to Covid-19 and unprecedented confinement to their homes. Our analysis shows that experiences of exercise in the home are dependent on prior exercise engagement, particularly a sense of progress and competency in exercise movements, trust in the instructor and socio-economic privileges that enable participants to love and appreciate their homes. This paper argues that online classes have had positive impact on participants’ ability to cope with lockdown: routine, structure and being seen by others all proved important well-being aspects.
Highlights
National lockdown, the confinement of people to their homes, became a popular response to Covid-19, with an estimated 4 billion people living in social isolation (Matias et al 2020)
It is timely to (i) evaluate the shift of exercise services online and (ii) examine how engagement with online services has influenced people’s reaction to Covid-19 and unprecedented confinement to their homes. We explore these questions in terms of changes to an established business that provides Pilates classes to middle-aged and older residents of a Northern English semi-rural town
Our survey asked what benefits our participants derived from Zoom Pilates; we found that people were thankful that the classes continued online, they liked the routine of the classes and enjoyed the greater flexibility that the online classes enabled
Summary
The confinement of people to their homes, became a popular response to Covid-19, with an estimated 4 billion people living in social isolation (Matias et al 2020). Zoom, the video-conferencing service, became highly popular as a means of group communication (Sherman 2020). It is timely to (i) evaluate the shift of exercise services online and (ii) examine how engagement with online services has influenced people’s reaction to Covid-19 and unprecedented confinement to their homes. We explore these questions in terms of changes to an established business that provides Pilates classes to middle-aged and older residents of a Northern English semi-rural town. Within a week of lockdown, the business, which we call here Easy Mobilities, moved from physical classes held in a purposebuilt studio, to Zoom Pilates. This research is important to the business because: it can help it understand client behaviour and expectation; reveal any mismatch between perceptions of the client and the business; and help to indicate areas for growth and innovation (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2010)
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