London Inc. May/June 2021 - 20

Upfront Fitness & Recreation

THE DIGITAL LEAP

Seeing demand as opportunity, a trio of ﬁtness instructors bet at-home ﬁtness is here
to stay

THROUGHOUT THE PANDEMIC, ﬁtness studios and
gyms around the city shut their doors and adjusted to new
ways of doing things. The sudden shift inspired creativity
and ﬂexibility for businesses largely dependent on physical
locations and on-site staff, and in some cases, paved the way
for entirely new businesses.
Such is the case with Fitness For All, an online ﬁtness
studio ﬁrst conceived as a way to keep people healthy and
connected during lockdowns.
The business is the brainchild of yoga instructor Lore
Wainwright, who is also an experienced ﬁtness instructor
and director of operations at Pillar Nonproﬁt Network.
According to Wainwright, when Covid ﬁrst hit and gyms
were shuttered in March 2020, she set out to ﬁll the wellness
gap with a few virtual classes. Finding her clientele both
receptive and eager for additional classes, she invited fellow
ﬁtness instructors, Michelle Kerr and Theresa Carriere, to
join her.
" What started as a free online offering to help people
stay active and in touch quickly blossomed into a new way
of living, as everyone transitioned to at-home ﬁtness, " says
20 | londonincmagazine.ca | MAY / JUNE 2021

ƟƫƨƦƥƞƟƭ Theresa Carriere, Lore Wainwright and Michelle Kerr
of Fitness For All

Wainwright. " Before we knew it, our workouts and yoga
sessions were generating Zoom classes of 100-plus. So, we
reconsidered our individual goals, joined forces and built a
virtual ﬁtness studio. "
Together, the trio is embracing what they call an " accidental opportunity to collaborate. " With Carriere's experience
as a personal trainer, life coach and founder of the OneRun
cancer fundraiser, coupled with Kerr's deep roots in ﬁtness,
community-building and recreational services, the partners
are leveraging their collective expertise and client connections while adopting and adapting to new tools and delivery
methods to meet online demand.
But while they credit available technology for enabling
their platform (Zoom is key to delivering their online
programming), Wainwright is quick to say that technology
itself is not a magic bullet. " It deﬁnitely has glitches, and
we're learning alongside our members. We're not actors
recording sessions in outﬁtted studios, we're real people

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London Inc. May/June 2021

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