The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
COVID cuts into New Year’s gym memberships
Elana Goldblatt says members and prospects do not even bother asking about the deep-cleaning regimen at RedZone Weston, given the clear pains she and her fitness instructors take before and after each session.
But a few still ask about how many people are showing up — though with RedZone now adding more group classes to its calendar, those hurdles appear to be coming down for some.
With New Year’s resolutions amounting to an annual Black Friday for fitness gyms, Connecticut facilities are not reporting any boom in new members this year, as states nationally track upward trending COVID-19 cases.
But Goldblatt is among those expecting pent-up demand to unleash by next summer, as vaccination programs hit their stride and warm weather beckons.
Goldblatt said that the arrival of colder weather appeared to spur some new members for RedZone, which she opened last summer in the midst of the pandemic in partnership with the owners of Results Fitness in Ridgefield. Other fitness centers have since emerged in Connecticut, including one at the Stamford Town Center mall.
“I think that people are going to be sick of working out at home, on their own,” Goldblatt said. “They are going to want to be with people.”
It is a decision as many as 950,000 people in Connecticut have been weighing since the onset of COVID-19 last March, if International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association’s most recent estimate on the state’s health club patronage is accurate. The Boston-based association counts 575 fitness clubs in Connecticut, roughly in line with the number that applied for certification from the state to reopen last year with accompanying pledges to adhere to safety guidelines.
Chelsea Piers in Stamford is the largest, with myriad fitness options including ice skating rinks, pools and a field house.
“Traffic in the club is lower than this time last year, however the new members that are joining and our returning members are happy to be at the club,” stated Greta Wagner, executive director of Chelsea Piers, in an email response to a query. “... I’m confident that once the vaccine is delivered to more of the population and the state sector rules become less restrictive we’ll see many more people come to us to get fit and stay healthy.”
Most confident on safety
In October, IHRSA published results of a survey it commissioned of some 1,200 Americans who are gym members or recently canceled memberships. The study determined that about seven in 10 respondents were confident about the health and
safety measures their venues had in place, in line with hair salons and barbers but below supermarkets and restaurants’ outdoor seating areas. About three in 10 described as “nervous” their response to the thought of resuming fitness center workouts.
Last month, Norwalk’s health department ordered a temporary closure of an LA Fitness location near the Wilton line after violations were reported of distancing and mask guidelines. The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development has recorded 80 complaints to date from people at LA Fitness gyms, of more than 600 against sports and fitness facilities and groups statewide, representing less than 5 percent of complaints across all industries and settings.
“We have and continue to receive complaints about gyms [and] fitness centers for various sector violations,” stated Josh Morgan, a spokesperson at Norwalk City Hall, in an email response to a query. “Lack of mask wearing and lack of social distancing are the routine complaints. We take each seriously, and follow up accordingly. However, unless staff witnesses the violation, we cannot issue warnings or infractions. That is why we continue to conduct spot checks of not only gyms [and] fitness centers, but all businesses.”
Under the current “2.1” rules that went into effect in November, larger gyms can operate at half capacity with small studios that run group classes limited to 25 percent.
Connecticut’s requirements include mandatory face masks, six feet of distance between people exercising, extra ventilation, and intensified sanitation of equipment. In addition to traditional gyms, the rules are in effect for dance studios, martial arts centers and specialty facilities running the gamut from fencing studios to indoor climbing walls, with about 400 in all getting certified last year to reopen.
In Danbury, when the pandemic arrived Mariusz Janicki had already set an August moving date of his MJ Fitness and Kickboxing to a venue on Shelter Rock Road that is twice the size of his old facility. He said while he was apprehensive at first on keeping up memberships with a new lease in hand, the new gym proved a boon by providing 12 feet of space for more individuals participating in group workouts.
He said MJ Fitness did not get any significant boost from January sign-ups that might have materialized in previous years, but added he expects the numbers to catch up in the spring as vaccinations roll out.
“I’m a small business owner so it’s really challenging, but I never thought about stopping what we are doing because I have great members and the community needs places like ours — especially for health reasons,” Janicki said. “We just rolled with all the situations, with what has passed with the reopening. ... We are getting members and they are happy and doing great.”
Goldblatt said her membership is growing on the heels of the November mask mandate.
“I was really nervous about it, [but] I think people feel safer because everyone has to wear a mask now,” Goldblatt said. “I had members who were just doing virtual [workouts], who started coming to the studio once the mask mandate was required. I think that was a silver lining — I am going to take that.”
She expects gains as vaccinations become widespread, but some leaner months in the interim despite a .002 percent COVID-19 infection rate among fitness center members as determined by MXM, in a study of nearly 50 million “check-ins” at U.S. clubs.
Planet Fitness, the largest chain operating in Connecticut with three dozen gyms, did not provide membership figures or trends heading into the New Year, but the company disclosed a 5 percent drop in membership between July and October.
Speaking on a November conference call, CEO Chris Rondeau said many Planet Fitness clubs were starting to turn the corner heading into October, amid an intensified ad campaign and the roll-out of a digital app that among other features lists a running count of people in gyms at any point in time so that people can feel good about getting a machine with plenty of elbow room.
“I don’t really think that January is going to not be a ‘joining’ month,” Rondeau said. “I think the New Year Eve's resolutions in the winter months will be busy like usual, as busy or depending how the spikes are known, no one really knows right now . ... I think if we stay on this trend we see today or better by the first quarter, I would think things would even perform great.”
‘They didn’t have a routine anymore’
Still, those jangled coronavirus nerves have led to a surge in subscriptions for Peloton, whose stationary cycles and treadmills are equipped with interactive screens allowing people to workout remotely from home under the exhortation of live instructors. With business more than doubling in the past year — and members roughly doubling the amount of time they work out, given many no longer commute — late last year Peloton announced the purchase of the exercise equipment maker Precor, with the goal of pumping up its U.S. manufacturing base to meet demand.
And a new cohort of fitness entrepreneurs is emerging in Connecticut and nationally — those who are live streaming workout classes, without the need of an expensive piece of equipment. A onetime daytime TV producer who worked several years on The Martha Stewart Show, Ashley Palumbo launched Open Barre with Ashley in October after not being satisfied with her options in the early days of the pandemic.
“Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, those are the quietest months for any gym — since then I have quite a few new clients,” Palumbo said. “All these people are realizing they can do their jobs from home, ... just flip their computer open and in five minutes be working — right after a workout. I have found that a lot of the women taking my classes really like this new flexibility of being able to have a great workout with a live instructor in the comfort of their own home.”