As the North Coast contends with the perils of the pandemic, our community has been forced to alter the way we live, how we feed our families, and how we interact with those around us. Redheaded Blackbelt wants to celebrate the resiliency of those individuals, businesses, and organizations that are weathering the storm. In our “Weathering the Storm” series, we will tell the stories of our community meeting the moment and learning to thrive in the face of adversity.

Sweat Panda CrossFit celebrating its online classes [Photo from Sweat Panda CrossFit’s Facebook, used with the permission of owner Thomas O’Kane]

Many in Humboldt County rely on exercise as a form of therapy and others rely on it for income. A thriving industry of gyms and studios ground to a halt in March as shelter-in-place protocols were instituted. Gyms and group exercise were identified as particularly potent sites of potential viral transmission. In the face of the pandemic, the local fitness industry has employed enterprise and flexibility to bring their services to those who need it.

Thomas O’Kane established Sweat Panda CrossFit in McKinleyville in 2017, opening up another location in Fortuna a year and a half later, and employing eight coaches between the two locations. He described CrossFit as a form of working out that “builds camaraderie between the athletes” and he says he found an avid community of athletes to train.

When O’Kane saw the pandemic’s storm clouds on the horizon, he was gravely concerned because “gyms need people to come in to use them.” When the doors were officially closed, he began to brainstorm solutions to “keeping our athletes moving.”

O’Kane began lending out the gym’s equipment to his athletes. He described “waiting lists for online orders of fitness equipment” and he wanted Sweat Panda CrossFit to step into the gap. O’Kane and his coaches worked out a system where they would home-deliver “equipment our athletes desired and if there is a high demand for that item, they return it for others to use.”

O’Kane said that one of CrossFit’s most enticing characteristics is the group workout energy and the camaraderie it builds. Hoping to maintain that group experience, O’Kane and his other coaches use a smartphone app to publish a “Workout of the Day” that is adaptable to the equipment each of their athletes has access to. Using Zoom, coaches lead the athletes through their training and say they have found value in “getting people together to enjoy each other’s company.” To cultivate a sense of competition, O’Kane described dividing the athletes into groups and facilitating an “in-gym competition” where “group members earn points for their team” by completing weekly challenges.

The shutdown has affected Sweat Panda CrossFit’s bottom line. O’Kane said, “many of our athletes are not working right now so obviously they cannot pay their memberships while not working.” O’Kane knows that “exercise is essential for sanity and health” and has continued to offer coaching and workouts to all his athletes. “We’re doing the best we can, but the longer this lasts, the harder it becomes,” O’Kane related.

O’Kane hopes that when considering re-opening, the state does not look at gym regulations in a one-size-fits-all approach. “CrossFit gyms have small classes and can limit the number of participants,” he explained. “They have the ability to adapt to the protocols. I know [we] are fully capable as a gym to keep everyone safe.”

Ultimately, O’Kane said he wants to “serve the athletes.” He noted, “We are a community and they have been super generous. They all want to a gym to come back to when this is over and our athletes have been there with us every step of the way.” 

Ann Constantino, co-owner of SoHum Yoga, teaching a class via Zoom in the comfort of her home. [Photo taken by her partner Jerry Latsko]

Ann Constantino, a friend of Redheaded Blackbelt, is a yoga instructor and co-owner of Garberville’s SoHum Yoga, a long-time established studio serving Southern Humboldt. 

Constantino described how at the end of February, “I started to realize the United States was going to be hit by the virus” and on March 8, the studio “took the initiative to close.” Yoga studios are particularly vulnerable to viral transmission because “of the shared props and deep breathing,” she explained.

Immediately, Constantino moved her classes online leading her students via Zoom. It was important for Constantino to provide her students “continuity” and give them an opportunity to continue with the “healthy practice” of yoga. She said that it vital “to keep yoga in their lives.” 

Constantino’s students currently “pay what they can” and she emphasized that what is most important to her is to “make connections and keep up the yoga practice.” Constantino expressed how lucky she feels to be able to “work out of my home” and “maintain my yoga practice.”

Brittney Morettini teaching her Pilates class before the pandemic closed all fitness facilities [Photo from Morettini’s Instagram account infernopilatesgirl and used with her permission]

Brittney Morettini, a Pilates trainer in Arcata and Instagram’s infernopilatesgirl, got her Pilates training certification in October 2019 finally “figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.” Arcata’s Movewell and Vibes, the studios Morettini taught classes at, shut down because of the pandemic and she felt as if her “dream was on hold.” For the first two weeks, Morettini said, “I was pretty lost. I fell out of my own practice–losing my place to work out and the drive to get my body moving.”

Three weeks after the shelter-in-place, Morettini began to “adjust to the online reality.” She described “taking a Zoom Pilates class from a studio in Petaluma. There were 110 people in the class. It was so much fun taking the class as a student and I decided I can do this and make it fun.”

Morettini started facilitating Pilates classes online with the help of Movewell and Vibes and now she describes doing classes “four days per week with somewhere between 6-13 students.” She spoke of opening up her network of students with participants from across the United States and even in the United Kingdom. The online format has been so successful that she foresees “when things go back to normal, I’ll probably still do the classes once per week.”

Morettini is facilitating all of these classes on a donation basis and though she’s lost the majority of her income, she celebrates that she is “able to provide something, keeping my fitness, my students…[W]hen we go back to normal, I hope they come back to my classes.” Morettini always reminds her students that exercise is “a powerful tool to raise dopamine” and encourages all North Coast residents to stay active.

Sweat Panda Crossfit, Ann Constantino, and Brittney Morettini are all still accepting new members into their exercise communities. Contact them if you would like to join.

If you have a story of resiliency and strength in the face of the pandemic, please email me at [email protected] to share.