Staying fit during lockdown a challenge
STAYING FIT DURING PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN A CHALLENGE
Final Results Fitness, like some other businesses, has been pulling out all of the stops when it comes to creativity.
GILBERTSVILLE »
Suzanne Funk of East Coventry was excited when she received a group text from one of her fitness instructors from Final Results Fitness early in June.
Her instructor was notifying her that despite the gym’s closure, classes were going to begin being offered again. The twist is that they would be held in the parking lot of the health club to enable safe distancing.
“I said, ‘Yay! Thank God’,” Suzanne recalled. “I had been missing it terribly. When I was locked down it was really hard on me.”
Suzanne has a special needs daughter in her 30s who lives with her, so she said the gym has always been her outlet for taking some time out to care for herself. She found that the home workouts she had taken up under isolation weren’t as fulfilling to her as time spent at the club.
“It doesn’t even compare,” Suzanne said. “I need to be with people to keep me accountable.”
Final Results Fitness, like some other businesses, has been pulling out all of the stops when it comes to creativity to enable them to continue operating one way or another in accordance with the guidelines dictated by each phase of reopening.
“We needed to stay in close relationship with members to keep the relationship going,” said John Wood, co-owner of the family-owned and operated club with his wife, Jen.
Aside from their “Rock the Lot” classes, they also started offering curbside pickup from their smoothie bar along with gym rental equipment available through their online store.
“Necessity is the mother of creativity,” John said. “I have a big building full of equipment and nobody to use it.”
Some members who prefer to stay put at home have rented cycles, rowing machines, yoga mats and yoga blocks they picked up curbside at the club.
“They can have a home gym while we are closed,” John said. “It served a need to keep those people engaged.”
The duo’s teamwork is what has helped them wade through a challenging time for many businesses.
‘We are a great team — we complement each other nicely,” Jen said. “He’s a marketing genius and I create the content.”
Early on in the closure they stopped collecting membership dues and set out to film home workout videos featuring Jen, who is also an instructor, to post on their YouTube channel, to enable them to keep in contact with members.
“Studio two was turned into a production studio with lighting and microphones,” he said, adding that their Les Milles Barre classes have been very popular.
Despite starting the live classes in the lot, they are still filming home workout videos so they can continue to cater to those who aren’t ready to venture out.
“There are people who are ready to get moving and others who aren’t quite ready and are still freaked out by this (the pandemic),” he said.
Suzanne, who typically takes classes five days a week, like
BodyPump and Combat, has felt safe being a part of the parking lot class environment that has participants positioned eight feet from one another.
“We are socially distanced so you don’t have to wear a mask since we are outside,” she said. “Everything was cleaned up when we got there.”
The club dedicates a halfhour in between all classes to disinfect equipment, which includes everything from BodyFlow and CX Sports Class to Les Milles Body Jam and Pilates.
“We disinfect before the next group shows up,” John said.
In addition to all of the equipment they bring outside daily for the classes, they also have a sound system.
“We have mixers and a microphone and amplifier on a wheeled rack so we can wheel it out every morning,” John said.
The Rock the Lot classes accommodate up to 25 people and are open to members and nonmembers. The plan is to continue offering them until the club can reopen in the green phase.
Jen expressed that she has been touched by the outpouring of support from their members who have been attending their parking lot classes.
“I’m very humbled that everyone is showing up and numbers are growing,” she said. “They are our cheerleaders.”