Adapting resistance training during COVID-19

Qualitative research to explore the experiences and adapted practices of resistance trained individuals in the UK during COVID-19 lockdown.

For people whose weekly routine included trips to the gym for weight training, the closure of the gyms has become a significant challenge. Some people have continued training at home and have bought equipment or adapted their training regime. Others have ceased training or begun alternative types of training like running. Throughout lockdown, physical activity was encouraged and supported by government, but the experience of resistance-trained individuals are unique given their reliance on the material conditions of gym spaces for training. This project seeks to explore those experiences and to understand in more depth some of hte findings from the related international quantitative study led by James Steele at Solent University that found, for example, that many people were dissatisfied with their training on lockdown, and many people had stopped training altogether.