Amit Sekhon, 5th year Kinesiology, Interdisciplinary Stream.
Amit demonstrates true altruism. Recognizing the need for healthy coping habits during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he took the initiative to provide free online home workouts for people to follow.
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When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down our communities, I began to notice that friends and family felt like they could not exercise due to the closure of their local gyms. This behaviour was coupled with other negative coping habits, such as eating unhealthy foods and excessive consumption of alcohol in order to deal with the stress of our current situation. I was able to show some of my family how they could still exercise without having a gym to go to by creating a home workout program for them. Many friends began asking for workouts as well, so I teamed up with fellow UBC Kin student Michael Fan (4th year Kin) to create a digital platform where we could post home workouts for people to follow.
We have just launched the Instagram page “@isolationworkout”, where we aim to provide at least 3 home workouts a week for people in the community to follow. The goal of this page is to provide an exercise resource library on an easily accessible social media platform. We are trying to keep the equipment used to a minimum, as we understand that the general population does not have equipment at home.
I have also been volunteering with the BC Brain Wellness Program exercise group, which aims to provide wellness support programs for individuals living with brain disorders. With facilities being shut down, I continue to volunteer in exercise classes through online Zoom classes three times a week. I am also creating instructional exercise videos that are sent to participants in the program so they can access exercises made specifically for them from home and keep a sense of normalcy in their lives.