Madison Trainer Went Virtual When The Pandemic Hit

MADISON, NJ—What do you do when your business depends on being in close proximity to sweating, panting clients? If you're Katie Siano of Fitness For Mankind, you adapt.

"When coronavirus hit, I decided to immediately figure out a way to go online," said Siano, a wife and mother of two kids. "I decided to buy Zoom, and that was a huge factor."

Siano, who started training clients in 2015 and opened Fitness For Mankind at 268 Main St. three years ago, said her reaction wasn't based on finances.

"What went through my mind was that my clients won't have access fitness and exercise," she said, "they're completely stressed and have nowhere to go and nothing to work out with."

In preparation for the virtual classes, Siano noticed several clients missing a key piece of equipment for workouts, so she acted.

"I lent them all my weights," she said, "some of them had none; all my dumbbells, anything I could."

Siano said she started holding virtual classes in April. She or one of her staff would conduct the workout from the empty studio while the class followed at home.

"We just said, 'let's do this' and started teaching," Siano said. "People had their weights, and they started to do the workout online."

When the studio was allowed to open again in August, Siano incorporated the virtual workouts with in-person classes. Now, some clients choose to work out at the facility and some follow along at home.

Siano said the capacity is a maximum of 10 inside her business, and that sanitizing procedures are performed according to department of health and CDC standards. While the weather is warm, she's also found another creative way to teach fitness.

"We have classes outside on Tuesday, Thursday, and on the weekend," she said, "so we have a bunch of socially-distanced people outside and more on Zoom working out together."

Siano said the forced creativity the pandemic brought has helped her think bigger and explore new methods of promotion. It also enabled her to branch out into an unexpected area.

"I can definitely see the virtual working out thing taking off," she said, "people seem to love it."