Former Boston teacher turned fitness instructor conducts virtual classes all over the country

BOSTON — From her tiny living room in Boston, Angela Gentile touches all corners of the country. “People come from Texas, North Carolina, California,” she said.

Gentile is a former Boston teacher. She spent 15 years in the classroom. She’s now a personal fitness instructor.

Gentile has been forced to conduct her classes, called Sweat Remix from her home for the past year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“I didn’t know this was going to be what it was for as long as it was. I was like, oh, it’ll be a couple of months, we’ll do a couple of Zoom classes, everything will be fine. But it’s been a year we’ve been on Zoom,” she said.

The benefit of that is that Gentile’s classes have been able to grow beyond a traditional studio. Her classes have people from all walks of life, including a lot of teachers, like Brigid Rowlings, a middle school teacher from Waltham.

“I’m 44 years old. I’ve been teaching for 19 years and I’ve been feeling stuck, particularly through the pandemic and this has helped me move and kind of think about where I can go next,” she said.

Rowlings calls the classes her pandemic therapy. She often sticks around after workouts to video chat with the others.

Almost all are strangers.

“The only person I’ve ever met on Zoom is Angela, but I know all of these people like this is my family that I’ve never met in person before,” she said.

But they’re bonding virtually thanks to the power of social media and exercise Gentile said she has clients set up their computers outside on their decks, in their offices, and even at a hair salon. If you’re interested in taking a class at Sweat Remix, click here: https://www.sweatremix.com/

Cox Media Group