As we head into our second Lockdown, OVERDUE debuts its new series, documenting people’s positive Lockdown experiences and seeing how these individuals have made the best of a challenging situation.
Words Miranda Wilkinson
Rod Buchanan is originally from Glasgow. He trained in NYC as a professional dancer, worked in the West End and toured globally with popstars such a Kylie Minogue. Rod retired from dancing after suffering a brain tumour and developed a passion for Barre fitness. During Lockdown he began online workouts via Instagram and Zoom which had an unexpected uplifting effect.
“When COVID hit I was either in denial or like many, didn’t know the seriousness of it. I remember saying to my team, give this 6 weeks and we’ll be back to normal. It only took a week to see that in fact, things were going from bad to worse.
I felt myself getting into bad habits, from getting up to eat breakfast and still being on the sofa hours later stuck in a news cycle.
I had already been living some sort of isolation as I was still in recovery from a hip replacement that I had at the beginning of Feb. I should have been due to start back to work 2 weeks after lockdown but I had a sudden awakening: I live alone, I’m single, I’ve recently had a hip replacement, I’ve lost my sense of taste and smell so presumably I had a mild case of COVID BUT I’m way better off than many others, who are either losing loved ones, suffering badly from COVID, or finding themselves in tough depressing situations.
My ‘go-to’ on my toughest days is to remember 10 years ago I survived a brain tumour; it very quickly puts everything into perspective.
This pandemic brought humanity to the forefront, we, the whole world was all feeling the effects from it, we all missed loved ones, we all at some point felt alone.
The science is there that exercise plays a huge impact on people’s well-being and mental stability. I needed exercise for my own hip rehab and for my own mental health, so I turned to IGTV.
The day I switched my phone on to deliver a workout, was the day I opened my living room but surprisingly I opened my heart. I saw my follower numbers grow and I didn’t feel so alone anymore.”
Website bodbyrod.com
Instagram @bodbyrodpt