Fitness instructor Mark conducting free classes
By Maurice Garvey
A FITNESS instructor conducting free classes online has reached tens of thousands of people in the last five weeks – many of whom are Irish people living across the globe.
Since he had to shut the doors of his Insanity Fitz Zone Studio and Gym in Palmerstown, Mark Lacey started offering free classes on Facebook to keep people going during this difficult time.
Mark Lacey is running free fitness classes
Each day, he hosts four different classes, including a 35 minute family class at 10am.
As of Tuesday, Mark estimated there was 420,000 views for the videos and approximately 10,000 family members are involved on a weekly basis.
“For one thing, I have not got a job, certainly not until things calm down. This is good for my own mental health and I have thrown myself into this for people in the community,” said Mark, who is from Lucan and living in Clondalkin.
“This is nothing to do with my own business, it is run on my own name. People join the group, I notify them the day before. There are classes at 10am, at lunchtime and a strength and conditioning at 7pm. We have people in Australia, Iceland, Germany, USA and Spain.”
Besides the fitness classes, Mark also hosts a two hour cooking class and a Bingo fitness for fun.
“I’m a qualified chef, we did a Zoom cooking class last Saturday with 40 people and 30 the previous Saturday. Cook three different things from scratch, like chocolate chip cookies or a chicken curry.
“There was over 500 people for the last Fitness Bingo on Zoom, but we will be switching to Facebook, as Zoom can’t hold that many
The classes have gone down well in local communities, including Jade Louise Byrne, a teacher in St Michael’s NS Ballyfermot, who hopes Mark’s gym re-opens when the crisis is over.
Ms Byrne said: “I really think this guy deserves some recognition for the work and effort he is putting in day after day, free of charge to keep spirits, fitness, morale and a sense of community up.”
Lacey also runs a live RaveFit on a Friday night at 7pm.
Visit Insanity FitZone for further details.
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