Personal trainer Thomas Chin vs. the Quarantine 15
For many people, being required to self-quarantine at home during the Covid-19 pandemic had its benefits and its problems. The main benefit, of course, was flattening the virus”™ spread and saving countless people from becoming infected.
However, there was a significant downside to being moored in one”™s home for an excessively long stretch of time: physical activity and proper diet were often replaced by sedentary hours and an emphasis on comfort food. Now, with most people seeking to regain a pre-pandemic normalcy, the results of being home for too long are rather visible: an unflattering weight gain that some pandemic pundits have dubbed the “Quarantine 15.”
And that”™s where Thomas Chin comes in. The pandemic had an adverse impact on his life when he was furloughed from his personal training job with Edge Fitness. Rather than sit around the house eating too much of the wrong foods, the Newtown-based Chin used the pandemic months to build his own personal training consultancy serving Fairfield County.
Chin stated that he can commiserate with people trying to gain better health through exercise since he walked that path years ago while growing up in New York City.
“I was very overweight as a kid,” he recalled. “Throughout high school, I was the chubby kid who played video games and had these neck rolls. I didn’t get involved with fitness until I was about 18 or 19. I was my freshman year of college and I was like, ”˜Okay, well, this can be my time to reinvent myself.”™”
Chin began his makeover regimen using home workout videos and soon found himself at a point where “I started to really feel so alive working out.” His personal euphoria with exercise didn”™t permeate his career choices ”“ a stint in culinary school and work in mortgage banking were unsatisfactory experiences for him, as he found himself more interested in maintaining his physique than cooking stews or originating hoe loans.
“I competed in bodybuilding at the time and came in dead last place ”“ I failed miserably,” he said. “It was ridiculous, but it was an awesome eye-opener.”
Chin began concentrating seriously on fitness, gaining his personal training certification and using social media to create an audience of like-minded individuals. His Instagram and YouTube presence brought him to the attention of Edge Fitness, and his online presence helped him again when the pandemic forced the closure of gyms.
“Everything just fell into line and opportunities exploded,” he said, noting that his Edge clients sought him out to stay in shape and began to refer him to new clients. “I started with one client here, one client there and, before you know, I”™m everywhere in Fairfield County with an awesome group of people. Everyone from kids to 71-year-young grandmas who are crushing it.”
The 25-year-old Chin built his pandemic-period fitness consulting with in-person sessions at his clients”™ homes, keeping proper social distancing and mask-wearing while conducting the training. One might think that pandemic would have resulted with a growth in online training, but he only maintains a single online client ”“ a pilot who flies around the country and consults with him from different cities.
In helping clients erase the Quarantine 15, Chin found his biggest challenge was reanimating their sense of motivation.
“People had lackluster energy for three to five months, especially a lot of the parents,” he said. “They’re having to home school and adopt that teacher role while still having to work either remotely or in person. And there’s just a giant shift of energy and stress onto those people.”
As for those without school-age children, Chin found his working-from-home clients giving far more time to their day jobs ”“ almost all done through long periods of sitting ”“ while their dietary regimens and external habitual structures faded.
“You’re in your pajamas and you’re not seeing anyone, everywhere is closed and the world’s up in flames ”“ so why not have a little extra ice cream or some donuts or just not really workout today?” he asked. “A lot of people thrive off accountability and that’s been taken away from them be in quarantine.”
In his work, Chin seeks to “reset people” and steer them back into being self-accountable. He recommends journaling or creating planners to keep to a schedule with specific goals.
“That’s a form of a mindset training, because it starts with how you feel,” he said. “People will say, ”˜Hey, I want to drop this Quarantine 15.”™ But until they actually feel like they want to, they’re going to still wake up and have their Pop Tarts with their protein shake.”
After establishing a motive, Chin”™s next challenge comes in creating an eating structure.
“I take a piece of paper and I ask,”™ “What are four times a day that you like to eat?”™” he continued. “That structure is going to be important. It all comes down to how you can get your calories in at structured times.”
Looking ahead to a post-pandemic period, Chin expressed worry that the protocols of the past month ”“ particularly working from home and using teleconferencing in place of in-person meetings ”“ will keep many people at home and sidelined from physical activity. But, he added, it is not too late to break those habits.
“Now, you kind of wake up and you’re like, ”˜What the heck happened?”™” he said. “I truly believe whenever this happens, you’re going to see people emerging from it. It’s all about creating that positive momentum. If you really want to take accountability for your health and drop the Quarantine 15, you can get the ball rolling and be accountable.”