Fitness: Canadian gym owners get a workout with new regulations

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When Adam Bracken opened the doors of his three Ottawa-area fitness clubs on July 17, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Like other gyms across Canada, the Fitness Lab locations were shut down in mid-March by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. And although Bracken was offering online classes while his facilities were closed, he says his members were “’chomping at the bit to get back” into the gym. Two-thirds of his members have returned, with about 200 opting to keep their memberships on hold for the time being.

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David Snively, owner of DBS Fitness in Montreal, is living a different reality. Gyms opened in Montreal on June 22, but Snively says his business is down 80 per cent.

“People are afraid to come inside,” he said.

Prior to the pandemic, DBS offered 60 to 70 classes a week, and had three instructors on salary and a small support staff. Since the gym reopened, the number of classes is down to 11 per week. Snively and one other instructor are the only staff left.

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Yard Athletics in Vancouver was planning a move from a shared space to its new studio when the pandemic hit. Its doors opened on June 1, a couple of weeks after British Columbia gave the OK for gyms to open May 18.

Owner Ilan Cumberbirch said opening a new fitness club during a pandemic has its challenges, but since the space was in the final stages of construction, changing the gym’s physical layout to accommodate more distance between exercisers wasn’t one of them. Plus, he’s grateful for the brand new ventilation system, which sports the latest in clean air technology — a key component in reducing potentially infected aerosols lingering in the air.

The original gym layout allowed for 12 exercisers at a time, but given the two-metre distancing rule, classes are now capped at six to eight people. Working at half capacity, or just slightly better — along with a buffer between classes to clean the equipment and workout space — the gym isn’t bringing in the kind of revenue Cumberbirch projected. Still, he is happy with the number of people who are coming in, especially since there are fitness studios in Vancouver that have been shutting down.

“We’re very busy,” he said. “Our clients like the place and the (smaller) numbers in our classes.”

Like Bracken, Snively and Cumberbirch kept their clientele fit and engaged through online workouts while gyms were closed, but all three had no idea what would happen when their establishments opened back up.

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Many Fitness Lab members continued paying their dues even though Bracken offered his online workouts for free. Now that they’re back in the gym, he’s making full use of the equipment people missed while working out at home. But all that equipment needs cleaning after every use — a practice that has significantly increased the cost of running a gym.

“It’s not cheap,” Bracken said of all the sanitary protocols. “And it will continue not to be cheap.”

Enhanced cleaning is a necessary expense — not just to reduce the risk of virus transmission, but to make exercisers feel safe in an indoor environment where everyone is breathing heavily. Bracken, Snively and Cumberbirch all have members who say they aren’t ready to return to the gym — a sentiment they say is more often expressed by older exercisers.

Cumberbirch said feedback from those who have returned to the gym has been largely positive, and that they are appreciative of all the extra hygiene and safety measures. Still, he admits putting extra distance between clients and trainers doesn’t come naturally, which can be stressful for both parties.

Bracken and Snively are still doing online workouts to accommodate those who prefer exercising at home. But Cumberbirch says his online community shrank to numbers that didn’t warrant continuing the sessions once the gym opened up.

“It doesn’t replace what you can do in a gym setting,” he said of home-based workouts.

Like many business owners, people in the fitness industry are faced with new challenges and new ways of doing business as we all slowly get used to living with the virus. Snively has sold half of his equipment, and not just to recoup some of his investment: with classes at half capacity for the foreseeable future, his full inventory wasn’t being used. Plus, he needed the extra space to spread everyone out. He’s also investing in a new website and camera equipment to facilitate a greater online presence. If clients aren’t comfortable coming to the gym, he plans on offering more workouts that can be done in the safety of their own home.

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And while he admits his studio is his “whole life,” he has found a new online community that has encouraged him to share his expertise from in front of a camera instead of in front of a class.

“I’ve reconnected with people who took my classes in the ’90s, and they’ve stayed with me (even while gyms reopened),” said Snively. “So it’s ended up working quite well for me.”

Bracken, Snively and Cumberbirch clearly share a similar philosophy, and one that gym owners everywhere need to embrace: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

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