Nothing can stop her from working out
Having dedicated her life to health and fitness, Donna Groothedde kept working out during the pandemic while motivating others to reach their fitness goals as well.
Have health and fitness ever been as important as during this pandemic?
Fitness has been prominent in most of Donna Groothedde’s life, so much so that she finally made a successful career out of it. She currently runs a successful gym while raising three kids and working on her own fitness goals at the same time.
“In 1989, at the tender age of four, I mimicked young gymnasts I saw on TV during the world artistic Gymnastic Championship. Every day I taught myself something new; I practised doing handstands, cartwheels, crab stands, back flips, splits, anything I remembered seeing, every chance I had.”
Unable to attend a gymnastics class, she used every opportunity her preschool had to offer – athletics and netball in particular – while keeping the dream of becoming a gymnast alive in the back of her mind. A few years later, the opportunity came and she started bringing home the gold for her gymnastics club.
Fast forward to high school. “The dreaded day eventually came. Just before I turned 16 my parents made me stop gymnastics due to a back injury. Shortly afterwards, I took up long-distance running and cycling, and continued doing all the strength exercises I had learned to maintain my physique.”
Her love of art and photography was the reason Donna did her honours degree in Multimedia Design, but couldn’t shake the feeling that she belonged in the fitness industry. While working in film and photography production, she did an international diploma in exercise sciences.
“I felt I merely fitted the mould; wake up, work, make ends meet, go to bed, and do it all over the next day. I so badly wanted to make a difference in people’s lives; I wanted to earn something more than money could buy; I wanted a purpose.”
She helped a friend lose 18kg in five months and the word quickly spread among her friends and family. In mid-2010, she had a group working out under her guidance for free twice a week.
Very soon, she had to rent a larger space for the growing group that was willing to pay for her time and expertise, so she opened her first cardio-kickboxing studio in Krugersdorp.
“From there on my day started at 04:30 to do my own training in the gym, and by 06:00 I have my first personal-training client for the day. At 08:30 I move on to doing my production job. Swim instruction starts at 13:30, then back to the studio to instruct classes at 17:30 and 18:30. At 19:30 I start with my studies and assignments.”
After completing her degree and multiple sub-qualifications, and quitting her multimedia job, Donna’s Health & Fitness has grown into a large and full-time operation.
When the pandemic and lockdown struck, Donna faced the same uncertainties as all the other gym owners and fitness buffs. Anticipating the first lockdown, she extended the gym’s online platform and recorded four-hour continuous exercise videos.
“I’ve always trained with our clients because I believe in what I teach, but by the time we launched online and lockdown happened, I was beyond exhausted.” Donna even went from an already impressive exercise regime of six 60-minute workouts to six 120-minute sessions.
Because of this intense schedule, Donna improved her fitness, strength and agility, but was saddened by the fact that she had to postpone reaching her 2020 goal of training for triathlons until Covid-19 passed.
“My goal changed to keeping our clients fit and healthy when it was quite easy for them to lose the plot completely. We needed to bring them stability and routine, motivation and encouragement, and a way to stay healthy from home.
“I just recently recovered from Covid-19 and although I am a chronic asthmatic my symptoms weren’t extremely severe – aside from body aches, headaches and fever. My oxygen saturation fell a little and we had to monitor my inflammatory markers as they were elevated during the hyper-inflammatory phase, also in my heart muscle. I finally got the all-clear from my doctors last week, but have to start from scratch with a very slow progression. I have started with three 40-minute moderate exercises per week.”
Donna, who described herself as somewhat of a ‘germaphobe’ has had many of the hygiene protocols now being required in her gym for many years, such as wiping down equipment and purifiers in each studio. “When we reopened our studios after lockdown, we introduced foot sanitizers, mask wearing, social distancing and ozone machines in each studio for certified sanitization. Wearing a mask was something to get used to initially. We tried and tested many sport masks and eventually found one that works well for us.”
Donna’s advice for others during this time? “Take a picture of yourself to have something by which to measure your progress; be aware of what you put into your mouth; stay active within your normal daily routine; and stretch. I would explain the importance of cardio-respiratory health at this stage, and how it could possibly save lives. Exercise manages your weight, improves your sleep patterns, health, mindset and your confidence. It reduces stress, lengthens your life span, improves your quality of life, and reduces you chances of getting for example diabetes and heart disease. For these reasons, staying fit and healthy is more important than ever during Covid-19 times.”
