From Gym Rat to Rock Star! Negotiating Constraints to Leisure Experience via a Strengths and Substitutability Approach

Abstract

This commentary shares my recent personal experience of having to find a new and realistic way to strength-train, my longstanding serious physically-active leisure preference, during the recent gym closures and widespread social restrictions in place due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While thoroughly considering how to negotiate specific leisure experience constraints, I incorporate familiar concepts and processes from the strengths perspective, identity, and leisure substitutability theories. The result of this process led to a creative solution that retained, or perhaps even amplified, my motivation and ability to continue to progress at my preferred serious leisure activity while also experiencing the activity quite differently.