In my part of Canada, gyms just opened. I’d done a mediocre job of staying in shape in the meantime, and was happy to see this.
I would have thought a lot of others would be too. One local gym, quite large, might have a capacity of 300-500 people. They’re only allowed 50 at the moment. It looks like they have done an exceptional job of reducing risk and keeping things sanitary.
Yet, I’ve only seen 10-15 people in there. People seem very cautious about returning. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. Is this occurring everywhere, or is this unusual?
I’m a member of the Y in the Twin Cities (MN), and they’ve been opening on a staggered basis for the past few weeks, with promises of similar safety precautions being made.
I don’t dare go until I’ve gotten a vaccine or things are otherwise similarly resolved.
Gyms in Toronto are not yet open unless it’s for professional athletes, but they are likely to get the green light in the next few weeks depending on our friend the letter “R”.
I’ve been doing pilates twice a week for a decade. It does wonders for my core strength and back. I will not be returning until R0 is close to 0.
I’m a member of the YMCA in suburban Chicago; most of our Ys have started to reopen, though with limited capacity, and recommending you make reservations ahead of time.
But, yeah, I, too, don’t foresee myself going any time soon.
Our local Family Recreation Center opened. The governor said no “recreation centers” could open but gyms could. So we took out the pool table and ping-pong table and tables & chairs that apparently made it a “recreation center” and turned it into just a gym.
They took all of the weight machines and equipment and spaced it out as far as they could (thankfully there was extra room due to the lack of recreational tables). I haven’t seen the upstairs where the treadmills et al are but they’re spaced out more I hear. Everyone who comes in gets a spray bottle and towel. You’ve got to wear a mask when not exercising.
The pool is open just for lap swimming. Families can rent time slots to use the activity pool. No steam room, sauna or hot tub. They encourage you to not use the locker rooms. Personally I just come and go in my suit with a dress over it.
Classes have been outdoor for the most part. We’re doing tai chi outside in the adjacent park. I came out one day to find a line dancing class in the parking lot.
Attendance for the gym and classes is much lower than usual right now as you can imagine. I think when it starts to get cold out they might have to start turning people away.
My gym was one of the 24 Hour Fitness gyms that closed permanently. Gyms are open here, and I’m itching to go sign up for a different one, but I’m at such high risk, I’m afraid to.
We go to a climbing gym and it opened a few weeks ago. However, they deserve praise because their opening came with many MANY rules to protect us all in the time of pandemic:
You have to wash your hands before you walk in the door, and to facilitate that they set up a sink with running water outside the front door, draining into a tub that has a sump pump in it, which then drains the used water into the sewer.
They take your temperature also before you walk in.
It’s members-only right now, and by appointment only to help them manage lower allowed population density.
They’ve got signs everywhere, including arrows taped to the floor to suggest walking routes around the facility for social distancing.
You can’t climb next to someone else but keep at least one empty rope in between (which is about six feet).
Use hand sanitizer or liquid chalk (which apparently contains alchohol) between climbs.
No more than 2 people in the locker rooms at a time.
And of course, you must wear a mask (properly!) at all times. And yeah it’s a bit tough to wear a mask while doing hot, hard exercise like that, but it’s to keep us all safe so we don’t complain.
Over on a local subreddit people have commented that some other gyms have opened and are taking no precautions at all.
The gyms here(California) opened for 3-4 weeks and they’re closed again. I already had decided to not go back. My gym implemented a reservation system and completely fucked it up with an overloaded piss-poor app.
My gym has just reopened but have given everyone the option of continuing to defer their membership which I am taking advantage of. My gym is near my work and I’m working from home, plus I’m in the group of people considered high risk (because of a health condition) and the UK government advise is for people like me to continue to avoid such places. They do talk of lots of new sanitary practices but gyms are not safe environments in my opinion.
I wonder what regular chalk does to the virus. It seems that since it acts as a desiccant and is alkaline, I would think it would react somehow with any droplets or virus particles. I’m not sure I would count on chalk alone to sterilize the virus, but perhaps some property of it could help reduce the presence of the virus.
But in a climbing gym, I would think a risk of infection would come from droplets exhaled against the wall from climbers. Since they are often pressed right up against it, any droplets they exhale are likely to land on the wall and could end up on another climber’s hand. A mask will help reduce that, but droplets will often escape through gaps around the edges. And the droplets could fall on the climbers below. So it’s probably best to consider the wall as contaminated and be sure to not stand underneath a climber.
My gym has reopened. It’s been almost a year since I went, and I had been meaning to cancel my membership when all the virus stuff hit and they deferred payments while they were closed, so I didn’t.
A couple of days ago I went in to cancel. They had signs in several places (including the front door) that masks were required. They had hand sanitize near the check in scanner. The guy at the front desk had a mask on. I thought, “Hmm… I really need to get back in shape, maybe I should keep my membership since they’re taking precautions.”
Then I looked around and saw, within 20 feet of the front desk, three guys working out without wearing masks.
Gyms are opening from Saturday in England. I don’t fancy it much, despite all the super jolly emails David Lloyd is sending me (They’ve even got a countdown clock on their website).
My gym reopened 3-4 weeks ago. When you enter you are required to have a mask on but they don’t require it during your entire visit. They take your temperature on arrival. I don’t know if they have a capacity limit, but so few people are going, a limit is not coming into play. It’s a pretty good-sized place and I’ve never counted more than 25 people there at most in the workout and cardio areas. (However, I see a lot more cars than that in the parking lot so I’m not sure where they are all.) They have closed the hot tub, steam room, and sauna. There is a lot more cleaning and they have installed hospital-grade air cleaners. They are, surprisingly to me, conducting various classes with limited numbers.
I don’t go to the classes. I wear a mask the entire time I am there. I never get within 20 feet of another person except maybe momentarily passing in the hall. I don’t use the cardio equipment and have been cycling outdoors instead. I don’t use the locker room. I wash my hands before leaving. It’s probably more risk than just sitting at home but realistically I don’t think it’s any more dangerous than going to the grocery store.
About three years ago, I quit my gym membership. Or rather just didn’t renew it when it time to do so. They didn’t seem to care. Until last year (I think it was) when I started to get all sorts of email about how they missed me.
The thing is, I only used the gym about half the year. Mainly to keep in shape during the winter when it was too rainy to bicycle outside. OK, I also did weights when I did go and I really should find a way to do those without a gym. But the cost of the gym was too much just for some weight training.
Anyway, those emails stopped during the shutdown and I was hoping they’d stopped for good. Nope. When the county opened up a bit, they started coming again.
I’m curious if gyms are open and how well this is going. They have been open in my area since July with limited capacity, small classes, no showers and some machines taped off. It’s been doing okay - people wear masks when not actively exercising, wipe machines before and after use, and staff clean the gym thoroughly several times daily. But an outbreak in an Ontario spin class has resulted in some further restrictions. Apart from some peak times, the gym is less than half as busy as usual - okay with me.
So people aren’t wearing masks when they’re working out and breathing hard?
My gym closed for good. It was a 24 Hour Fitness, and they were having financial trouble before COVID. However, I just found out a Planet Fitness is opening less than a mile away. (I have to walk.) The ad says there’s contactless sign-in, and all the machines are far apart. I’m thinking of joining. If machines are far apart but the people using them aren’t masked, how safe is that?
