And while there’s not much we can do en masse while the pandemic rages on, The Strong Studio by Dance Fitness with Kyra took it upon themselves to offer something a little bit different on Saturday afternoon while staying as safe as possible.
The local fitness organization staged their 2021 Winter Games competition in and outside their River Street studio throughout the day, featuring a host of physical and mental challenges for teams of eight, all with the goal of getting folks out of the house, getting lungs pumping and having plenty of fun in a safe environment.
“We just wanted to run an event that was COVID friendly but was still something to do while there wasn’t a whole lot going on,” said event organizer and Strong Studio founder Kyra Klassen. “The feedback has been great, everybody is just happy to be doing something. The inside, the outside, being physical and moving and just having fun with it.”
All told, the Games ended up completely filling up with a total of 10 teams, who converged on the facility at varied start times to take part in eight challenges that ranged from an intensive obstacle course, tire flips and word scrambles combined with a fitness routine, just to name a few.
Folks got into the whole thing, too, something that isn’t surprising given the lack of activities of this sort for months on end.
“There was a real sense of community on the teams,” Klassen said. “People have really enjoyed it, they made team shirts and team outfits and really got into it. So it’s a huge success.”
The Winter Games were just the latest venture for The Strong Studio, which has emerged as a success story in the COVID era -- right from the start of the pandemic, they were able to create varied programming for their clients to keep them active, even from home if need be. And that hasn’t let up in the ensuing year of up-and-down news surrounding the whole situation. Take their current set up for in-house fitness classes, which takes a novel approach to working with the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s eight-person-in-a-room mandate.
“We put up a second room in our studio and film the instructor on stage, so we have eight people in this room and then eight people in the backroom that’s projected onto the screen,” Klassen explained. “We tried running multiple classes and our trainers were burning out trying to work with that many members, so this way we’re able to double it and still stick with those SHA rules.”
That plan has been a hit, of course, and just another example of how they’ve managed to help their clients in tough times.
“We’ve really been able to make a go of it, the members have been great and there are lots of exciting things happening,” Klassen said.
