Gyms reopened in Kentucky on Monday. Here’s what working out looks like now.
Gyms and fitness centers across Kentucky reopened Monday, for the first time since March 18 for most places, and clients were ready to break a sweat, even if it meant doing it in a mask with a bottle of sanitizer nearby.
At Empowered Flow, which specializes in pole dance workouts, owner Candace Robinson said she’s had a few inquiries about the new hygiene protocols.
“But overwhelmingly I’m surprised at how many people are back. Most classes are full and wait-listed, many of them,” she said. She reduced class size so that each dancer has her own pole, no more sharing. “At class time I prop open the door, they go right to wash their hands, bring in no more belongings than necessary, get alcohol cleaner which we’ve always used anyway … and they bring their own mats if they want one.”
Despite that, she said, “Overwhelmingly students are back. They’ve been waiting. ... I didn’t really expect it.”
It’s been a stressful time for many gyms, which are often small businesses.
Gov. Andy Beshear ordered gyms, theaters, hair salons and other businesses to close to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus. At the time, there were 26 known cases in the state of COVID-19, which had been linked to only one death.
In the last two and half months, while the state was shut down, there have been more than 9,700 confirmed cases and 431 deaths in Kentucky.
But the rate of new cases has slowed enough that Beshear began relaxing restrictions on May 11.
What’s reopening
Besides gyms, movie theaters, aquatic centers (but not public pools yet), bowling alleys, auto races, fishing tournaments, Kentucky State Park lodges and the Salato Wildlife Education Center were allowed to reopen Monday.
While the shutdown has eased, the safety consciousness has not. Social distancing and other measures are still in effect. Gyms can only have one-third occupancy, must space equipment at least 6 feet apart, separate customers in classes by 10 feet, and eliminate congregating, even in locker rooms.
Sheila Kalas, owner of Fitness Plus on National Avenue, said that her 3,000-square-foot fitness center was allowed to reopen in mid-May because it also qualifies as a physical therapy center.
“But most people came back today,” Kalas said Monday. Her facility works with people 50 and older, with some clients in their 80s, so maintaining safety guidelines is crucial, she said.
She said they have implemented a limit of eight people — four trainers and four clients — in the gym at a time. And all must be masked, even during workouts. Workouts start on a staggered schedule so that only one person is entering or exiting at a time.
“What I feel good about is when people came back they were impressed with the communication and said that they felt very safe coming here,” Kalas said. “That has everything to do with being up front and showing clients that we are following the governor’s guidelines, as well as the Kentucky physical therapy best practices for clients.”
Kalas said they also have created an outdoor workout area where a client and a trainer can be far enough apart to allow the person working out to take off a mask for a bit. She expects that will be a popular option.
Outdoor classes
At Crossfit Maximus, also on National Avenue, the garage doors are wide open and the fans going to keep air moving but even so the gym will be adding outdoor classes next week.
It’s for members who are 55 or older, which is considered a higher-risk category for complications from coronavirus, so manager Melissa Combs said the coaches of the Stronger Life class will move to an area where members can spread out in the open.
Which they tend do to anyway, Combs said. “We’re following the 10-foot guidelines,” she said, with everyone getting a bottle of spray sanitizer to keep things clean as they go.
But members were clearly eager to be back, with 13 in a 6:30 a.m. class, the busiest of the morning, she said.
“We have done online classes, holding remote Facebook Live classes to keep our members healthy, keep them moving. Engage the community,” Combs said. “That’s what the members have missed the most. They are really missing the people they see in the gym classes. ... We’ve held trivia night and Bible study just so they can see their friends.”
At the Y
At Central Kentucky YMCA locations, attendance was light, said COO Paula Anderson. “But that’s what we expected.” Nationally, she said, gyms are seeing about 25 percent of their members returning.
“The members who have come back have really been glad to be back,” she said.
The Y has opened pools at the Whitaker and Beaumont locations and is looking at the best way to reopen other locations, she said. Requirements that members wear masks before they get in and right after they get out are difficult, she said, but they are maintaining social distance.
Anderson said group exercise has yet to restart and when it does may have to move into the gym to meet the spacing each person will need.
“It’s hard to accommodate 45 to 50 people,” she said.
She does anticipate they will be able to reopen the outdoor pool at the Beaumont Y and the splash pad at the Whitaker Y soon as well.
And the Y plans to restart summer kids’ camps in July as well, but the numbers will be smaller than normal.
“The restriction is rain days, when we have to be able to bring everyone inside,” she said. “It’s challenging to keep everyone safe and segregated from the members.”
Accountability
In addition to providing web-based instruction, REACH, a group-fitness operation that opened in September as a partner to LIFT Fitness and Wellness (726 National Ave.), leased most of its popular VersaClimber cardio machines to longtime visitors who wanted to maintain as much of their routine as possible while confined to their homes.
Some people are continuing to lease those machines, but most seem “super excited to get back into the gym and put their home workouts on hold for a little bit,” said REACH co-owner Katie Herndon.
For people like Grace Hahn and Meredith Boarman, who’ve been visiting LIFT since it opened its doors a decade ago, nothing beats the in-person experience — even at reduced capacity and with increased sanitation procedures. Both were present for the gym’s first class Monday morning.
“I woke up and I couldn’t just delay it like I would if I was going to my basement to work out,” Hahn said with a laugh. “I knew I had to be there at 6 when the class started.”
It helped that Herndon and co-owner Wes Rainey were proactive in communicating their new procedures well before their doors re-opened, Hahn said. During their closure, Herndon also started a Facebook group for frequent visitors to stay in contact with one another and maintain a level of outside accountability that otherwise could have been lacking for some gym-goers.
“They did a really good job of keeping us motivated but I’m much better at it when I know I have to go there and have signed up,” Boarman said. “I missed all my gym folks. A lot of us have been going to LIFT for 10 years. It’s kind of a little family, and when you don’t get to see ‘em, you miss ‘em.”
Margot Schenning said she felt more at ease going into the facility than she expected to this morning.
“They had plenty of cleaning supplies labeled and easily accessible,” Schenning wrote in a text message. “It wasn’t much different from a normal day at the gym because they like for us to clean equipment down as we use it normally, it is just now being done more intentionally by everyone.
“It was so refreshing working out with other people again. The atmosphere and people definitely make it more enjoyable.”
Re-energized
Angela Cucolo has worked in the fitness industry for about 30 years. She’s owned and operated Personal Best (250 Walton Ave.), a personal-training outfit, for the last nine after previously working for the YMCA.
She thought she’d be closed for only a couple weeks when gyms were shuttered in mid-March. It turned into nearly three months.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to lose everything,’” Cucolo said.
Instead, Cucolo experienced an outpouring of support to the point she has more clients from gains made during the pandemic than she had prior to it. Many people who initially dismissed virtual workouts came around quickly, she said, after failing to see the results they wanted on their own, and parents started reaching out for her to teach virtual P.E. classes to their recess-deprived kids.
She managed to avoid missing a single bill during the time her business’s doors were closed. On Monday, she’d seen 14 clients in person as of about 2 p.m., and any tiredness was offset by the reinvigorating energy of the restart.
“It hasn’t been easy, and it’s been depressing some days, but I am so pumped up now because I feel like I live in a community (that cares about each other),” Cucolo said. “ … I am never gonna complain about getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning, having to be here at 6 and have to work. Because I love what I do and I love working. I’m really happy that I get to do that. …
“I’m cooking man. I’m ready, let’s go.”
