Fitness clubs to face unique challenges once California reopens for business, and how the fitness industry reinvented itself through Zoom.
Fitness Clubs To Face Unique Challenges Once California Reopens For Business
The rules businesses will need to follow in order to reopen once coronavirus restrictions are lifted in California could be especially stringent for fitness clubs.
When gyms get the green light to open back up, operators and patrons can expect to see some new changes.
Teralyn Fredricks has turned her garage into a gym, but she is ready to get back into her regular crossfit gym.
“I’m ready to go back. I work out better in a group, said Fredricks.
No doubt people have gotten inventive with their home facilities. But Dennis Dumas, owner of Omni Fight Club, says he can’t wait to get his members back in the gym again and not just from the revenue aspect.
“This is the place where you get your immunity,” Dumas said. “This is the place where you get your body strong, and so this is part of the treatment. This is part of the solution. I think that postponing long term our ability to serve our clients is taking away from a large part of the solution.”
Via CBSN. Read full article here.
How the Fitness Industry Has Reinvented Itself Through Zoom
Online yoga sessions, digital post-natal exercises, and virtual gyms have built the new fitness landscape.
Seemingly overnight, coronavirus has caused the fitness industry to go digital.
Every day, classes covering everything from hooping and Zumba to yoga and crossfit, are live streamed to locked down Britons.
For the millions in self-isolation, online lessons have helped ease the anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic. And for thousands of fitness instructors, they have proven to be a lifeline for their businesses.
“I was told my services were no longer needed, because I wasn’t able to go into offices and teach yoga anymore,” says Charlotte Kahn of Maida Yoga, which primarily focuses on corporate clients.
Via The Telegraph. Read full article here.
Fitness Instructors Flock Online to Pump You Up
With widespread stay-at-home orders, they are using social media to stream their workouts. But many trainers are facing financial straits from a lack of paying clientele.
It was a little after noon on March 26, and Naomi Campbell was working out in her living room in New York City.
Disco music on blast, she crushed a set of squats, guided by her personal trainer, Joe Holder, who had tailored the 40-minute workout. As she started a grueling set of flutter kicks, Campbell stopped and glared at her trainer. “Oh my God,” she said. He couldn’t help but laugh.
Holder was not in the room, however. He was monitoring her on camera as she cycled through the circuit. Thousands of other people on Instagram Live were watching too — and participating — in what is normally a private workout between the supermodel and her trainer.
Via The New York Times. Read full article here.
The Gym Used to Be My Therapy. Here’s How That’s Changed During Social Distancing.
Group fitness is easy to fall for and hard to let go of. I’ve slacked off on working out at home. Exercising on your own for an hour sounds great in theory, but it’s harder in practice. A common scenario: I go online, find a workout, do the exercise, and maybe shave off a few reps. But I always find myself mystified as to how I was able to do these workouts multiple times a week without getting bored.
“It’s a lot easier to be motivated and guided by another human when it comes to working out,” Charlee Atkins, a trainer and founder of fitness company Le Sweat, told me. Atkins used to be a master instructor at SoulCycle, teaching for seven and a half years; I was a regular in her class.
“I think people come [to group classes] for different reasons, maybe the music or the sweat. But a majority of people keep coming back because of the community. I’ve always been a firm believer that a shared experience is the best experience, and working in the fitness industry for over a decade has continuously proven that to be true,” she added.
As someone who isn’t naturally inclined to gravitate toward groups of people and detested group projects in school, it’s perhaps ironic that I have to rely on other people for motivation. Maybe there’s a hint of competition there.
I’ve come to love it, though, and according to various studies collected by the National Institutes of Health, working out with other people in a social manner has benefits over working out alone.
Via Vox. Read full article here.
How Did Chinese Clubs Tackle Coronavirus?
“In life, uncertainty is the only certainty,” according to an ancient Chinese proverb.
It’s a notion the country’s health club operators would certainly agree with, having spent the past three months battling unprecedented challenges at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
But despite having to close their doors for two months as the country went into lockdown, many Chinese clubs were able to survive, and indeed thrive out of the uncertainty, building massive digital presences in a matter of weeks and dramatically transforming their businesses.
And at the start of April, as the rest of the world adjusts to life in lockdown, gyms all over China are gradually reopening their doors, welcoming back old members plus new fans they’ve been able to attract from their online exploits.
So how did they pull through the biggest crisis clubs have ever faced? And what can the rest of the fitness world learn from their actions? Here are 12 key insights into how Chinese clubs overcame the challenges of coronavirus.
