Owner of Energise Fitness Shares His Thoughts on the Reopening of Gyms
The Coronavirus pandemic has caused major disruption in every aspect of our daily lives -from dining rooms doubling up as offices and classrooms existing through screens, we have seen a major change in how we do things. And despite cafes, bars and restaurants opening and closing multiple times over the course of the pandemic… the door of gyms has remained firmly shut.
Recent studies by Sport England found that Brits miss being able to exercise at their gyms more so than doing any other form of sport and that the majority believe exercise is crucial to maintaining their mental health during this pandemic.
Unsurprisingly many of us have persevered and found new ways to maintain our fitness with 85% of us upvoting to livestream classes weekly versus 7% in 2019. Owner and manager of Energise Fitness Cambuslang Chris Allan shared how his team have adapted during the pandemic.
He said: “We started off with doing online classes and when restrictions eased moving to outdoor classes, free for members and non-members. Since the closure of the gym unfortunately we have been the last industry to open each lockdown, which is frustrating because all the cleaning procedures we have in place as well as data showing that 27 million visits to gyms last year resulted in 0.02% of Covid cases.”
A major obstacle in reopening gyms is the new guidelines put in place, Chris explained the new standard the gym is now at to meet these guidelines.
He said: “Since we reopened the club, we’ve had to do a lot of changes, all of the equipment is in two-meter square boxes, members must wear masks when they come in and before they train. We also installed six new stations for cleaning as well as upping our cleaning schedule.”
Long gone are the days you would see people leave a cross trainer without wiping it down - the silver lining is the mandatory disinfecting after every use. The staff at the gym are working hard to ensure the gym is at its highest level of cleanliness to protect all members.
Allan said: “We do hourly cleaning touch points as well as three deep cleans of the club per day. Throughout the whole day there is a lot of cleaning going on, it keeps everyone safe. We’ve also installed a new booking system which monitors how many people are in the club at one time, also acting as a track and trace system.”
There is no doubt that the closure of gyms has had a major Impact on our physical and mental health. However, the reopening of gyms across the UK in place since April 12th is making things all starting to look up.