Elements Fitness: the virtual gym

Wilma Kenny | May 13, 2020

One of the first group of services to close during the current pandemic threat was Elements Fitness, a gym located just north of Sydenham. Its manager, Karley Heyman, has since been busy setting up and posting a wide range of online workouts.

“It’s important to keep people moving their bodies, and it’s great for mental health, too,” says Karley, “People from all over the country have been tapping into these workout programs via social media. It’s a free resource.” (Donations are optional).

She said that it’s been so popular she may consider continuing some of this online activity even after the gym re-opens, so people living outside the Frontenacs can continue to participate.

These online offerings include age appropriate workout and activity programs for children, which sound like good resources for home schooling.

Karley, who majored in sociology at Queen’s, has been running the gym’s programs since 2016; her clientele comes from the area between Kingston and Godfrey, and stretches in age from infancy (moms and babies), through preschoolers to teens and adults. There are outdoor activities for summer, including obstacle courses for all age groups, and other years, summer day camps for both boys and girls. Karley is the only full-time staff, but has had a male coach to lead the men’s groups, and her mother does health and nutrition coaching.

And the future? Karley says it’s hard to predict: she’s waiting for direction from the province, and hoping that some well-spaced outdoor summer programs might be permitted by July.

Meanwhile her online site, Elements Fitness Sydenham and her Facebook page encourage people to join the varied daily challenges and to stay in touch with each other. There are even ‘Zoom’ workouts.

In her spare time, Karley helps her husband on their organic farm, where they raise beef cattle and laying hens. Like all of us, she’s looking forward to more spring like weather.