Gyms Anticipate Large Turnout Friday

Posted by: Staff Report Friday, May 1, 2020

While not all gyms around the Upper Cumberland will open on Friday, James Young, General Manager of Fitness Master, one of the gyms that will open, said he expects a spike in members returning. 

 

“I believe that you know the first two weeks that we’re going to be open, or that any gym is going to be open,” Young said, “I think there’s going to be a surge of people wanting to come in and workout just for the main fact, of just to get out of the house from being in quarantine for so long.”  

 

Young said they have taken extra precautions to adhere to guidelines Governor Bill Lee recommended earlier this week. Young said equipment has been moved to accommodate social distancing, sanitizing hand spray has been placed in all rooms, and there will be an employee dedicated, during their hours of operation, to sanitizing the equipment between uses.

 

Before members enter the facility, the first notable change will be seen.

“We also have someone standing outside of our gym, with a pop-up tent and a table, asking questions as people come in, screening them, to make sure that they haven’t had a fever recently, they haven’t had contact with anyone that might have came in contact with the virus, as well as taking their temperature digitally just to make sure that they are not running a fever over a hundred,” Young said.

 

Other measures to limit the number of members in the gym at one time have been taken, Young said. “Again we do encourage people to go ahead and call us and let us know ahead of time when they are coming so that way we can schedule how many people are in each room and make sure that we keep that social distancing to cut down on any kind of germ growth.”

 

Though Fitness Master supports Silver Sneakers and Silver Fit, programs to promote health and physical activity for senior citizens, they do not anticipate a large number of seniors coming back to the gym for a couple more weeks.

“If we start seeing more of the senior population wanting to come out and work out, then we will probably cut back from eight to nine when we open in the morning,” Young said, “Just for them to be able to come out and get their workout in.”