A Life Time employee disinfects a rack of free weights as part of the fitness chain’s new health and safety protocols. Life Time
As the fitness industry plans its reopening strategy amid the coronavirus pandemic, health clubs and gyms will confront a new normal as they operate with reduced capacity, implement enhanced health protocols and assure customers that their safety is paramount.
Adam Zeitsiff, president and CEO of Dallas-based Gold’s Gym, and his counterparts have leaned on local officials, state guidelines and health experts to assist in the reopening process. Gold’s, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 4, shuttered all 60-plus company-owned gyms as well as more than 600 global franchise locations by late March. The shutdown put a three-week pause on any foot traffic before the first Gold’s Gym eventually reopened in Mongolia on April 18.
“COVID has had a dramatic impact on our business and literally everyone’s business around the globe,” Zeitsiff said. “I’m not sure the last time anyone has been able to say that.”
Zeitsiff said Gold’s filed for bankruptcy to ensure the global brand would “be here for another 50 years,” saying that the company is on schedule with the sales process and is expected to have a buyer by the end of July.
The industry continues to map what new operations look like — literally — while respective gyms and health clubs evaluate a revamped business model and explore additional digital offerings. Ultimately, though, what will the long-lasting ripple effects be on the gym business from COVID-19?
“That’s the $100 million question right now,” said William Coker, vice president of fitness at New York City-based Crunch Fitness.
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Andrew Alfano, CEO of New Jersey-based Retro Fitness, along with his executive team, key corporate leaders and 20 franchisees sit on five committees that encompass the company’s coronavirus task force. They’ve utilized “facts to help us do the heavy lifting” as the organization wades through the reopening process and works with local health departments and county officials. For example, the company has had a direct line of communication into New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s office through his deputies and chief of staff as it assesses how to reopen in one of the hardest-hit states.
In addition to local guidelines, clubs will have to be recertified by Retro corporate that they have met or exceeded the health and safety protocols mandated by the company. Employees will have to be retrained, too, Alfano said.
Similarly, those team members at Minneapolis-based Life Time — who crafted a 450-page operating manual for reopening — had to be retrained via the company’s in-house training and certification system, Life Time University. Topics such as member experience, health and safety protocols and conflict resolution, among others, were covered, according to Jeff Zwiefel, chief operating officer.
Life Time is instituting temperature checks for all staffers upon their arrival while reducing locations’ hours and outlining peak and nonpeak club usage times on its website so members who may be cautious due to an existing condition can avoid busier hours.
“It’s a real significant adaptation of our operating model,” said Zwiefel, who also remarked that Life Time’s 120,000- to more than 300,000-square-foot locations “provide us with a distinct advantage” to allocate appropriate spacing.
Inside Gold’s Gym, there’s now social distancing floor markers, team members are masked and gloved and group classes are at a maximum of 30% occupancy. A third-party cleaning crew arrives overnight and uses electrostatic disinfectant sprayers to sanitize the gym, a practice that Zeitsiff can see lasting beyond the pandemic. Company-owned gyms also incorporate an hourlong intermission from 1-2 p.m. local time where no new customers are allowed to enter while staffers clean the gym.
“There’s not too much more we can do except having robots in there cleaning everything like in ‘The Jetsons,’” Zeitsiff said.
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Tom Cove, president and CEO of the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, didn’t mince words when assessing the other side of the coronavirus pandemic for the health club and gym business.
“We’re gung-ho on the return of the fitness club industry,” he said.
The early data might reflect some of that line of thinking. On June 8, when Crunch Fitness reopened its first corporate-owned gym in South Beach at 50% capacity, the club experienced a 50% increase in new memberships versus a normal Monday in January, the busiest time of year. Coker said that the lone location also had a 40% uptick in personal training revenue compared to the same date.
Other gyms, including Life Time, have resumed almost 80% usage traffic year-over-year for those locations that have been open for 25 to 30 days, Zwiefel said.
“That’s an important indicator for us,” he added of members returning.
The SFIA’s Cove explained that those health organizations that “evolve with new capabilities,” such as connected fitness tools and resources, and get more creative with how to best use their physical space, will successfully emerge from the pandemic.
Zwiefel said Life Time has aggressively embarked on new virtual capabilities, including providing free, remote fitness classes for members and nonmembers during COVID-19 along with looking to expand a virtual personal training program and other fee-based opportunities. Gold’s Zeitsiff said the pandemic has “accelerated the hybridization between brick-and-mortar gyms and the digital fitness world” and also helped people realize the role gyms play in their everyday lives.
“[Gyms are] not just for large biceps, toned legs and a six pack, which I don’t have,” he said. “Exercise is medicine.”
Andy Stenzler, co-founder of boutique class-based brand Rumble Boxing, explained that while COVID-19 effectively curtailed all revenue, at least initially, it soon spawned free Instagram TV content followed by a paid business via Zoom, where the company now produces roughly a dozen sessions a day for its customers. The new digital offering is called “Rumble TV,” a product that reaches thousands of new customers, Stenzler said, in India, Canada and Spain, among other countries.
When Rumble locations reopen, there’ll be reduced capacity, but there’s ongoing conversations about exploring classroom flexibility, keeping revenue flowing throughout the day and adding more revenue streams for the higher-priced company, which sees prices range from $12 to $15 per class.
“People are fanatic about our brand, and this will also expedite our online business for clothing and retail,” Stenzler said of the pandemic.
Added Tarquin Thornton-Close, founder of San Francisco-based boutique gym Triptych Strength Training and a member of the San Francisco Independent Fitness Studio Coalition: “Niche-type facilities like mine and personal training gyms that are a little bit more specialized can definitely succeed, if not flourish, because it is nothing you can get at your average gym, especially a place built around platforms and barbells.”
