A sentiment that is shared at Legacy Fitness in Blaine. “We’ve thought we were going to be open five different dates at this point,” said Griffin Jerke, owner of Legacy Fitness. They’ve both been closed since March 16, and say they learned that they had to shut their businesses from the news. But in challenging times for businesses, both of these gyms found ways to stay relevant to their members, even with closed doors.
“We’ve done our best to transition online,” said Jerke. “We do Zoom workouts every single day, we’ve created a fitness app where we can customize plans – meal plans, workout plans for people and their fitness goals.”
Online classes are also a daily happening at Endurance Fitness, where they’ve converted the class studio into a streaming space.
“There’s a daily schedule every day. They are the regular classes that we know people really count on doing,” said Fudali.
Once the workouts moved out of the gym, weights and other fitness equipment sold out nationwide, leading both of these gyms to find new ways to bring value to their members.
“We’ve done our best to maintain relationships with everybody. We [lent] out all of our equipment. You can see all of our dumbbells are gone. We [lent] out all of our rowers,” said Jerke.
“[The owners] went ahead and loaned out, basically all the stuff we have, to members that had asked, so they have the equipment at home to do what we are doing online,” said Fudali.
“People have a random selection of stuff. Somebody might have a set of ten pound dumbbells, then a pair of twenties, and then one kettlebell. Other people have a bosu ball and rower,” said Jerke.
And while they are making it work for now, they say they’ve done their planning, and they think they can safely reopen.
Endurance fitness will be limiting access to towels, water fountains, and shared equipment that hasn’t been cleaned. They’ve moved cardio machines to make more space. There will be new locker protocols and class limits.
“More time in between classes, so instructors can make sure the floor space has been cleaned, door handles, all that stuff has been cleaned,” said Correne Johnson, assistant manager at Endurance Fitness.
Even with safety protocols, they know not everyone will come back right away. Both gyms have seen a dip in membership, and realize that long term adjustments might be necessary.
“Whenever we are able to open, we are going to start continuing our classes. It will be modified on a schedule base,” said Jerke. “Probably shorter classes, we won’t have as many. We’ll probably only be open three or four days a week instead of six, but we’re also going to continue to provide people with online options as well.”
As the waiting continues, both gyms have neighboring businesses that are open and busy. It might be out of their control, but it doesn’t take away the frustration.
“The business who share this building with us, they’re open. They have customers in and out constantly and we have everything in place to be able to open and we are being told no,” said Johnson.
