Personal trainer Phil Carpenter creates global fitness community on Facebook with live streaming of workouts

A personal trainer has diversified during the coronavirus outbreak, creating a fitness community that has grown to 2,300 as far away as Australia.

Phil Carpenter, who lives in Takeley, was running his business combining one-to-one training and a weekly timetable of classes, but that came to a halt when the country went into lockdown.

His wife, Helen, said: "When the coronavirus meant he was no longer able to train his clients or run his group exercise sessions, he wanted to offer something that could be accessed by anyone, no matter their financial situation. So he launched a 100% free online fitness community.

"He offers a weekly timetable of workouts, all live streamed via Facebook and available on demand soon afterwards. The group has roughly doubled in members each day so far and the first live workout saw whole families gathered around phones, tablets, computers or TVs to get active together."

The Free Lockdown Fitness Community timetable covers cardio and weights workouts, and exercises to work the arms, legs, abs and everything in between. Phil offers options and modifications to ensure they are accessible and suitable for as many people as possible, irrespective of their age, fitness level or available equipment.

Helen added: "Since the community started, there’s already been an outpouring of gratitude towards Phil for providing such a high-quality and frankly vital service completely for free.

"There’s a real community buzz about the group now, even between people who've never met in person, but have been brought together by a shared love of exercise and Phil’s initiative.

"There are people as far away as USA, Canada, Australia, Germany and Croatia tuning in to enjoy their exercise and stay active at this difficult time.

"We hear so much noise about people not 'doing the right thing', only thinking of themselves and disregarding the impact they're having on others. So it’s really heart-warming to be part of a community where everyone is supporting each other, keeping positive, and where someone is doing something amazing with no expectation of anything in return."

To follow Phil's workouts visit his Free Lockdown Fitness Community Facebook page.