As Canada enters our second summer of battling COVID and coping with pandemic restrictions, we are all growing tired, frustrated and fatigued. While physical activity opportunities are limited or unavailable, we know that being active helps significantly with managing stress and depression. This year especially we want to highlight the ways people can get active and how important activity is for physical and mental health.
National Health & Fitness Day is June 5, 2021. To help Canadians be more active and stay safe, LIV North’s Fitness Management team is launching outdoor, audio guided workouts on their virtual platform – Optimal by LIV North.
These audio guided tracks include:
Walk/run tracks (great for beginners and advanced runners alike);
Mindful walks (combining mindfulness and activity, ideal for a break or at lunch) and;
Outdoor workouts (take your fitness class outside with the instructor in your ear).
From June 5th to 11th, LIV North is letting everyone try audio guided workouts!CLICK HERE to learn more and to try some of the audio tracks out in celebration of National Health & Fitness Day!
When COVID-19 hit, the fitness world was turned upside down. Facilities were closed, staff were sent home, and LIV North adjusted to the challenge and dove head first into the virtual world!
As we celebrate 1 year of being in the virtual market, here is a quick reflection on how we adjusted and what was born from our efforts.
Prior to COVID
While the pandemic threw the world for a loop, LIV North was already actively making plans to offer more virtual programming and services. There were already increasing levels of people working from home (growth of 10% 2015 to 18% of population by 2019) and there were fewer people going into the office on a regular basis.
Noticing this trend, we introduced our cloud based LIVx club management software in early 2018 and began offering on demand fitness classes to our club members that were accessible 24/7 through their member portal and app. In late 2019, some of our projects had also begun to offer live streaming fitness classes to meet the changing needs of our clients.
Friday, March 13, 2020
This day stands out in all of our minds. It was the day that Canada declared COVID-19 a pandemic and we all held our breath waiting to find out what it meant for the fitness industry.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
In response to the pandemic announcement and not wanting to waste anytime, we immediately pivoted and launched our first series of live streamed classes on Instagram live and Facebook live. Shortly thereafter, we transitioned to delivering most of our online services through our LIVx member portal.
As we continued through the early pandemic months, we developed a framework of planning that broke down into two primary phases:
Phase 1
Phase 1 focused heavily on virtual program expansion and enhancement. This included:
Small group training and PT services
Expanded group exercise classes
Lunch n’ learn series
Family fitness & wellness activities
Corporate challenges
Nutrition & wellness information
Phase 2
As we entered into June and with our virtual offerings running well at our projects, our efforts shifted to reopening plans. To preparing re-opening a post-COVID operating plans we worked very closely with our clients to prepare robust reopening plans that included:
Space reallocation
Member communication plans
Onsite signage
Health and safety protocols
Welcome back videos
We also continued to refine and define virtual programming during this time.
LIV North Virtual Services
Our virtual services were developed and designed to provide organizations, corporations and multi-tenant residential properties a comprehensive fitness and wellness virtual program. These services are:
Branded to organizations or property
Follow a High Tech – High Touch approach
Include a full program plan created to support a person’s physical and mental well-being
Programs to help build community and social connection
Designed to incorporate the realities of the current agile work environment
LIV North’s quick response to the pandemic set us apart. We were the first fitness management company in Canada to offer a virtual fitness solution to corporations. In fact, we are happy to say that because of this action, 95% of our clients moved to our virtual program plan and are still with us today. We continue to develop our virtual offerings based on client and member input.
Thus, Optimal – Your Corporate Gym Online – was created. Today, Optimal delivers a very wide range of services to over 150 000 people across the country, including:
Live Streamed Classes
On Demand Classes
Employee Challenges
Personal Training
Small Group Personal Training
Corporate Meeting Stretch Breaks and more!
Exploring the Future Post-COVID
While we navigated the challenges and rose to the opportunities presented of the past year, we continued to keep our ear to the ground and to watch the trends emerging across the country. For example, our 30% of Canadians will continue to work from home Post-Pandemic
Experience the LIV North Difference
If your organization has become more agile and traditional employee wellness programs will not work for you, let’s chat! We are happy to offer any organization a 2 week trial of our Optimal platform and prepare a proposal as to how LIV North can compliment your organization’s vision and goals. You can reach us at Virtual@livnorth.com and we will be in touch shortly.
As a Canadian leader in Corporate fitness management, we recognize that 2020 was anything but ordinary. As challenging as this time continues to be, it has provided an opportunity for us to reimagine how we deliver corporate fitness. With the workforce dramatically shifting and employee mental health and wellbeing concerns at an all time high, companies have been asking us:
How can fitness and wellness services be delivered to all employees in the organization?
How can fitness and wellness services cultivate social connection among all employees, including those who are working remotely?
How can fitness and wellness services contribute to resilience and productivity?
In answer to these questions, LIV North has created Optimal – Your Corporate Gym Online!
Currently over 150,000 employees across Canada, from over 27 corporations, are accessing our virtual services daily, with numbers growing monthly. In the new office environment Optimal is an excellent tool to maximize productivity amongst all employees and create community across your company.. Our contests, challenges can be tailored to your company and results tracked to monitor activity in broad strokes to provide continued opportunity for improvement.
Why LIV North? Our years of experience and the experiences we deliver. In managing fitness facilities and onsite wellness programs for over 40 years, LIV North realizes that improving the health of individual employees contributes to the healthy culture that organizations seek. We saw the opportunity to take our physical on-site programming and translate it digitally into a platform offering live and on-demand programming from our expert team.
What separates LIV North from other online fitness offerings?
We are more than a content provider. A successful online fitness & wellness program needs to be managed much in the same way that a physical fitness centre does. As your partner, we build a program plan that is managed against clear defined and measured goals that align with your organization.
We are people led and people driven. While we deliver Optimal services on a virtual platform, we recognize that our success comes from our dedicated team of experienced fitness professionals delivering fresh programs daily.
All programs are delivered with a focus on increasing social connection.
We have programming options for everyone: novice exercisers to fitness veterans, those seeking mindfulness meditation to high intensity class enthusiasts.
Our core programming includes:
Live streaming mindfulness & fitness sessions
Goal specific fitness programming
Wellness and educational workshops/series
Motivating monthly and quarterly challenges
Personal, small group and nutrition coaching
And more!
To learn more about LIV North’s Virtual Services and how they can benefit your organization, contact Virtual@livnorth.com or visit us online.
To learn more about workplace wellness trends in 2021, click here to download our e-book Virtual Wellness: a virtual solution for a virtual world!
