By: John Kecman, Fitness & Personal Training Director
No one’s favorite new essential accessory how to help with your new mandatory accent piece
Unfortunately, the new normal when leaving the house has become wallet, phone, keys, and now mask. In my 
personal opinion, I don’t have a problem wearing one in public places, and usually forget I’m wearing one until I’m driving home. “Take five months off from the gym, and then I want you to try going back to the gym, getting back in shape, but I want you to wear an air restricting mask the whole time.”- said by no doctor, or physiologist under normal circumstances. Sadly these are not normal times and these are not normal circumstances, masks are here to stay. That being said there are ways to make things better or worse for yourself. I spent my first couple weeks in the gym wearing cloth masks. The first 30-minutes weren’t so bad. The following 30-minutes felt as if I was water boarding myself. Moving effortlessly, carrying on a conversation, and breathing while you feel as if you are underwater are skills that should be left to fish in Disney movies.
No matter how anyone feels about masks, they are here to stay and part of the new normal. The human body is amazingly adaptive, trust me, it will get easier. Unless you are in one of the designated spaces, like an outdoor tennis court, these are the conditions we need to operate under. If wearing a mask, and wearing it properly, is not something you are willing to do, then you are a liability to the Aspen Hill Club community. Accepting that I couldn’t run wearing a mask, I found a few ways to help mitigate the problems I described above.
The first thing you can do is make sure to keep your mask dry. Once you’ve sweat through your mask your work output and efficiency drop exponentially, so you might as well go home then. Make sure you bring a spare mask that you can switch to. The difference in working out in a dry cloth mask and a wet one is like night and day. Under Armour has made quick drying mask for this reason. Masks that are more rigid also help keep you from taking a breath in and eating your mask unintentionally. The Under Armour mask supposedly has this feature as well, but there are others out there already that help. The last helpful tip I can give while I wait for my Under Armour mask to get delivered, is to wear a paper mask, and bring a spare that you can switch to once it inevitably get wet. I’ve found it far easier to breath in a temporary mask even after wearing the same one long enough to soak it. That’s what I have from my experience, but if anyone else has tips, tricks, or information that might help others in the gym, please feel free to send me an email and we can share the knowledge.
