Inside the Covid-proof gyms of the future
Experts worry they risk super-spreading, but many gyms say they’re fit to reopen. Joel Snape reports
When will you be able to go back to the gym – and what will it be like when you get there? The Covid outbreak feels like a tipping point for the fitness industry – joggers abound, people are sharing hot tips on where to find dumbbells online, and thousands of Joe Wicks converts are doing star jumps every morning – but for brick-and-mortar locations, it might be tough to capitalise.
In regions of the US where gyms have reopened, safety protocols include keeping changing rooms and shower facilities closed, reducing capacity to 25 per cent, and even wearing masks or full-fingered gloves – none of which are likely to be popular with users. As far afield as Montreal and Hong Kong, gyms are installing plexiglass shields around treadmills, offering phone-sanitising stations or even implementing temperature checks.
In the UK, gyms have been closed since March 20, and the “roadmap” out of lockdown, which allows unlimited outdoor exercise and non-contact sports with household members, makes no mention of when gyms and other commercial fitness ventures might resume.
Experts are concerned that gyms could act as super-spreading environments: one dance class in South Korea was linked to 112 cases of Covid-19, leading researchers to conclude in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases that, “The moist, warm atmosphere in a sports facility coupled with turbulent air flow generated by intense physical exercise can cause more dense transmission of isolated droplets.”
But it’s also important to get fitness centres up and running as swiftly as safely possible – and not just to allow the population to get back into training. Gyms and leisure centres employ 189,000 people in the UK, and many are struggling to pay rent or bills as members freeze payments, while self-employed personal trainers are still being asked to pay “rent” in some locations that are shuttered to their clients.
Still, the industry is doing everything it can to prepare for a comeback. Ukactive, the leading not-for-profit health body for physical activity, has released a framework for reopening, with recommendations on cleaning, spacing equipment to encourage social distancing, and reducing attendance based on a 3m2 maximum capacity. Most of the main gym chains have signed up, though it’s intended as a baseline, and many gyms are likely to do more.
“Smart gym chains are ahead of the game because they were putting this stuff into practice before the lockdown came in,” says Richard Tidmarsh, the owner and chief strength coach of London’s Reach Fitness. “We reduced class sizes and implemented more cleaning back in February, but we also totally redesigned our workouts. Our normal workout is 4-5 people in a group moving between different exercise ‘stations’, but we totally changed that up so that every user had designated bits of kit and equipment.
“You’d be directed to your own station as you walked in, and in each zone there would be dumbbells and kettlebells laid out, sanitised after the previous class finished. We’re well known for our team spirit, and keeping that going comes down to the coach – we could be 2.5m apart and still communicating with each other, keeping the camaraderie that people come to the gym for.”
Reach is also shifting its class schedule to allow clients to attend only when necessary – heavy barbell work has to be done at the gym, but guided yoga classes can be done at home.
For spin and boutique fitness studios, the road out of lockdown also seems fairly simple – even if it’s not cheap. “We’re capping our class capacity, spacing treadmills and to conform with social distancing, ensuring that clients never share any equipment at any point in the class, cutting our classes to 50 minutes so we have more time to deep clean the studio and surfaces before and after every class,” says Sandy Macaskill, the UK founder of Barry’s Bootcamp.
“We’ll also be implementing temperature checks and plexiglass screens to ensure social distancing, and scheduling our staff across single studios rather than multiple sites.”
Where things get tougher is for gyms with unsupervised, drop-in training, or 24-hour access via keycard. These are places where customers drape towels over three bits of kit to save them for a circuit they’re doing, and refuse to put their own dumbbells back – will they really be up for following social-distancing rules that force dramatic changes in the way they work out?
“The industry is highly professionalised, service oriented, and well set up to handle this,” says Sophie Lawler, the CEO of Total Fitness.
“People are keen to get back to working out, and they’re unlikely to do anything that jeopardises their ability to go to the gym. Gyms have a variety of levers to regulate things like when people attend, how long they stay for and which pieces of kit they use, but our experience so far is that the customers themselves are as invested as anyone in keeping a safe environment to train in. I’d like to see gyms decoupled from the hospitality industry as restrictions are lifted – the mentality of going to the pub and going to the gym is very different.”
It’s likely that the Covid outbreak will see a tectonic shift in the fitness industry, with many people switching to the online or at-home routines they’ve established and trainers being forced to adapt.
At the same time, with the nation never more aware of how dependent mental and physical health is on activity, this could be an opportunity for a change in the national conversation around fitness.
Clarity is what most gym owners are clamouring for, with small studios keen to be differentiated from big-box operators and everyone looking for an established path back to business.
“I totally understand that in the end we’re all working together to keep as many people safe as possible, but it should come down to business owners being trusted to stick to guidelines,” says Tidmarsh. “I don’t think we should be last on the list.”
‘We can still keep the camaraderie that people come to the gym for’