Pandemic fitness
Gym memberships impacted by COVID-19 restrictions
SUMMERSIDE — Starting an exercise routine at a local gym is a common New Year’s resolution. With a rise in COVID19 cases, though, a few P.E.I. gyms have noticed that the holiday spike in membership is not as high as it used to be.
“The timing of all this is terrible, basically,” said Aaron Dawson, owner of Hustle Athletic Training in Summerside. “Just when everybody’s like ‘alright, I’m going to kick it into high gear, get in shape, get healthy.’”
His gym, he said, typically sees a spike in membership a few times a year — including around the new year.
During the pandemic, though, gyms in P.E.I. were frequently limited to 50 per cent capacity. While Hustle had seen a holiday membership spike for the last two years, Dawson said it’s not as much of an increase as the holidays before COVID-19.
Instead of the 20 to 30 new members Hustle used to bring in around the new year, Dawson said that the last two holidays have brought in around five to 10 each year.
“You like to see that upward trajectory climb year over year,” he said, “And it’s kind of been flat.”
At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Dawson said that his gym’s membership decreased by around 25 per cent over 12 weeks. By the end of 2021, he said, membership had climbed back to where it used to be.
“It’s been a long road to just getting back to where we were before COVID, which is not good,” said Dawson. “But other gyms have not survived, or have chosen to close, and we’re fortunate just to still be (here).”
Although the pandemic has slowed membership growth at Hustle, Dawson said that its existing members have been attending classes just as much as they were before pandemic restrictions.
“With it just being classes, it’s very controlled, it’s very clean. We didn’t have to change much during COVID,” he said.
While his gym has had to adapt in a few ways, he said because members aren’t sharing equipment and have room to socially distance, it has helped minimize the impact.
“We’ve never jammed in 100 per cent capacity,” said Dawson. “We’ve always wanted to keep it intimate.”
In spite of the challenges that have come with operating a gym during the pandemic and its restrictions, Dawson remains hopeful that membership will continue to grow.
“Hopefully, after this increase in (cases), people won’t be as afraid to get to the gym.”
Terry Adams, owner of
Iron Haven Gym, said his gym’s three locations — in Alberton, O’Leary and Summerside — have experienced similar challenges.
Before the pandemic, Adams said that his gym could expect new members every day between January and March and a 15 per cent increase in membership for January and February.
The last two holidays, Iron Haven hasn’t seen as many new members as previous years. Adams was pleased to see, though, that there still had been a small spike.
“There are people who are health-oriented, they’re fitness-oriented and they want to stay in shape,” he said. “So there is still that influx of people coming in.”
Similarly to Hustle, Adams said that pandemic restrictions had a limited impact on pre-existing members.
“If someone’s been training for a while, they’re going to do whatever it takes to stick with it,” he said. “So our members are really good with following protocols and doing what it takes so we can stay open.”
But overall Adams is fortunate that Iron Haven has survived the pandemic with few challenges aside from a couple of temporary shutdowns. He thinks that the pandemic has had more people thinking about their health, including fitness.
“We have a lot of people starting who are just wanting to get in the best shape they can get in,” said Adams. “There’s a lot of talk of just staying healthy, staying fit or getting fit, depending on where a person’s starting from. It’s certainly made people more health-conscious.”