ROCHELLE — Although fitness centers and recreation facilities across the state remain closed in efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, local instructors and leaders with the Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District are going virtual to help residents stay healthy and stay safe.

The park district is offering workouts and classes online through its Facebook page. Recreation supervisor TC Hager initiated the virtual campaign as shutdowns began taking effect around Illinois. Videos are posted to the Facebook page on a daily basis, and the workouts include Qi Gong with instructor Robert Sabin and biweekly fitness circuits with Hager. The park district has also partnered with Rockford Academy to offer karate with Master An, and residents looking to participate in the online classes can sign up through the park district’s website.

“We had been running 3-or-4 exercise classes through Teen Town prior to all the COVID-19 restrictions taking place,” Hager said. “We were waiting throughout the first month of the shutdown to see what would happen, but when we started realizing the shutdown would be in effect for a prolonged period of time, we began reaching out to our instructors and figuring out ways we could showcase our classes online… We thought it was important to reach out to the community and provide people with some resources to remain focused on their health.”

Hager has been posting general strength and conditioning workouts on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9 a.m. while Robert Sabin’s Qi Gong sessions are going online Mondays and Thursdays from 10:15-11:15 a.m. via Facebook Live. The karate classes with Master An are broadcasted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 5:15-5:45 p.m. As communities around the state prepare for the third and fourth phases of Gov. JB Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan, Hager said the park district will be exploring the possibility of hosting outdoor group fitness classes.

“We’re hoping we can get into those phases sooner rather than later,” Hager said. “We’re planning a scavenger hunt toward the end of May and we’ll be releasing the details for that soon. We’re also discussing take-home activities for kids, which is something new, and we’ve talked about doing some outdoor fitness classes. We had been planning to do an outdoor boot camp class at Helms Park before everything happened, so if we have the clearance to move forward with outdoor fitness, we have some plans in place to offer programming outdoors.”