Exercise classes will be smaller and moved outdoors where possible, like the parking lot of 901 Fitness in Raleigh and Inside Out Gym in Midtown.

Walkup visits could be limited, with some gyms requiring reservations for classes and individual workouts and setting aside times for senior citizens.

Employees will wear masks, and some gyms will take temperatures at the entrance.

Virtual exercise classes via Zoom and Facebook Live will continue for the time being to give customers time to feel comfortable coming back to the gym after six weeks of social distancing due to COVID-19.

These are some of the changes that will be implemented at congregate exercise facilities as early as Monday, May 4, when Shelby Countians begin shaking off the cobwebs of self-imposed quarantine.

Memphis and Shelby County to reopen Monday

Operators expect, even hope, there will be fewer people showing up in the early days of reopening.

“Our hope is we’ll see a gradual approach of people coming back based on their level of comfort,” said Brian McLaughlin, chief operating officer of the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South.

The city’s plan to begin reopening certain non-essential businesses starting Monday caught most gym operators off guard, as there had been speculation they wouldn’t be allowed to reopen until mid to late May.

Some said they’d absolutely be open Monday, but others were still putting plans in place late last week.

The YMCA set Monday, May 11, to reopen all of its branches except Davis Family YMCA, 4727 Elvis Presley Blvd. in Whitehaven, and Sweeney YMCA, 5959 Park Ave. in East Memphis.

New normal

Once Inside Out Gym reopens on Wednesday, May 6, owner Lisa Buckner plans to shut it down periodically during the day while staff cleans exercise equipment and surfaces with a new disinfectant she discovered during the pandemic. She’ll supply participants in popular spinning classes with face shields. 

Members of CrossFit Hit & Run locations from Downtown to Collierville will find grids taped off on the floors, to enforce social-distancing, and classes spread out during the day and reduced from 25-30 people to intimate groups of five or six people.

YMCA locations will be limited to exercise equipment and classes, with locker rooms, pools, saunas, basketball courts and racquetball courts off limits. The YMCA will limit interaction between staff and customers by having all transactions done by phone or online and having members scan their own cards to check in.

But even with all the hoops to jump through, fitness buffs are looking forward to getting into the gym again and experiencing the new normal.

“We want to see our gym family again,” Inside Out member Lucia Heros said. “Facebook and Zoom are OK, but they’re not the same as being there.

“This whole quarantine has been about eating and a sedentary lifestyle. We’ve walked a lot with our dog and used the virtual classes and our Peloton machine at home,” Heros said. “I’m sure it’s thrown everybody physically and mentally into a much different situation, but it’s OK. I know we’ll get it back.”

Heros and her husband Ricky have belonged to Inside Out, a membership-based gym at 2162 Courtland Place, for 17 years. They’re there as often as five to six times a week, personal training with Buckner, doing cardio and weights, taking spinning classes.

Their loyalty to their workout community is evidence of what 901 Fitness owner J. Randall expects to see as the city’s ban on gyms operating is lifted starting with Phase 1 of a business reopening plan.

“Honestly, there is nothing that’s going to replace gym equipment, free weights, exercise classes. You can do things online, but in the end, there’s nothing that’s going to replace us. You get into the atmosphere. It’s motivating.

“We are absolutely going to open on Monday,” Randall said. “We’re going to take our time and do it right.”

Rules galore

During the phase of reopening that’s scheduled to begin Monday, May 4, Memphis will limit occupancy to 25% of capacity; limit workouts to 45 minutes; require employees to wear face masks; maintain 6-foot separation between equipment users; provide hand sanitizer; step up cleaning of equipment; and require customers to clean equipment with disinfecting wipes before and after use.

The state of Tennessee’s guidelines on gyms are more specific, including calling for health and temperature checks on customers and encouraging customers to wear masks while working out.

Or, as 901 Fitness’s Randall said, “It’s what they should be doing anyway. If you’re sick, don’t come in. Clean up after yourself. Things we’ve been taught since kindergarten.

“When you get on a piece of equipment, wipe it down, and wipe it down when you’re finished,” Randall said.

LA Fitness didn’t respond to questions about plans for reopening locations in Memphis. Planet Fitness provided this statement from senior vice president of communications McCall Gosselin: “The safety of our team, members and community is our top priority and we are working closely with our local franchisees to determine a reopening date with that in mind. We look forward to welcoming our members back soon.”

Planet Fitness online club pages say the gyms will reopen as soon as permitted.

Inside Out Gym

Lisa Buckner, a former Universal Cheerleading employee, started Inside Out Gym in Cooper-Young in 1996 as “the original body, mind and spirit place in town.” It’s best known for classes including spinning, box aerobics and rowing.

“We’re not the gym to come to if you’re going to do body building. We’re the gym to come to if you want to be healthy,” Buckner said.

The 8,500-square-foot facility on Courtland Place east of Cooper Street serves about 375 members.

Buckner said she already had something of a reputation as a clean freak before coronavirus and the March 17 shutdown, and she plans to redouble cleaning and disinfecting efforts.

“We had been using professional-grade hydrogen peroxide for years, because it’s safe,” she said. “I have since switched to Vital Oxide. It’s cleaner, that’s totally safe. They tell me you can spray it on yourself. It’s approved for cleaning food surfaces without having to rinse. It’s basically a chemical reaction, a positive-negative reaction.”

Inside Out planned to have a “soft opening” after a cleaning service “comes in and literally saturates our interior with Vital Oxide. It’s supposed to last 30-45 days depending on traffic. We will be cleaning with that as well, on a very strict schedule throughout the day,” Buckner said.

Buckner’s plan is to take advantage of Inside Out’s outdoor space for classes.

“I don’t feel comfortable cramming a bunch of people in a room and doing a box aerobics workout. We can roll equipment outside and do 6- to 10-feet distance and still be able to have a class.”

A 3,000-square-foot cardio and weight room will be limited to eight members and two staff members at a time.

Buckner anticipates a typical day in three waves. Open from 5:30-9 a.m., then closed for cleaning; open for seniors at 10 or 11 a.m. then closed from noon to 3 p.m. for another cleaning; then reopened from 3-4 p.m. until 8 p.m.

“We’ll set up times that people can sign up so we don’t have people standing in line waiting to get in,” Buckner said.

Buckner didn’t like guidance from Gov. Bill Lee’s framework that customers be encouraged to wear masks, but she said Inside Out plans to provide gloves to members and face shields for spinning class participants. She said the idea of encouraging customers not to circuit train with multiple pieces of equipment “defeats the purpose of opening the gym back up.”

“I believe a lot of this responsibility falls on the individual,” Buckner said. “A lot of it is common sense. People tend to want to congregate because we’re social animals. But with this virus, we’re scared.”

The YMCA

The YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South reduced operations to fitness centers only in mid-March before pivoting to provide meal distribution to needy families and emergency child care for essential workers.

An executive order by Gov. Lee last week cleared the way for the fitness facility in Trenton in Gibson County to open as early as Friday, May 1, but YMCA officials on Wednesday were still working on a timeline.

The regional YMCA crosses multiple jurisdictions with its own COVID-19 restrictions, from rural West Tennessee to Shelby County to Oxford and Olive Branch, Mississippi.

COO McLaughlin said the Trenton branch would likely open first, but officials were working to bring multiple branches back once the first one reopens.

“Trenton has pushed up our timeline, because as you prepare to open one, you prepare to open the others. Even though Trenton is a very different facility than most of our others, we’ve had to prepare to get that one open. It could be different in Mississippi than it is in Tennessee,” McLaughlin said.

“We’re going to do a phased approach to opening that will help us make sure we can comply with all the social distancing and that we are keeping everybody safe,” McLaughlin said.

“That’s why we’re really going to the reservation system, because we don’t want anybody standing in a line or anything like that. In some branches, it might not be needed at all. And that’s really something we’re going to have in place if we need it,” he said.

In terms of changes, “The hardest stuff when you think about routines is that the locker rooms will be closed. In phase 1 there’s no locker rooms.”

“You can’t be on a machine next to someone, because you have to have the 6 feet of social distancing. Our group classes will be limited to 10 people – nine people and an instructor – which is very different from how we normally run them,” McLaughlin said.

“Little things,” he added. “We used to scan people’s membership card. There will be a self-scanning station, where they’re not passing back and forth anything. We won’t take any transactions at the branches. They’ll be done through a centralized call center or through the web, which most people are using.”

A senior-only hour is planned.

McLaughlin said the YMCA leadership is most concerned about providing service to the community, whether it’s to members or not. He believes usage will rebound as people gain a sense of safety about resuming normal routines.

McLaughlin and others said they didn’t see the pandemic diminishing the role played by fitness and wellness facilities.

“I think there’s something more to coming to the Y than just working out,” McLaughlin said. “Some people use it for that reason, but it also has other benefits looking at the whole body, not just the physical aspect of it.”

CrossFit Hit & Run

Justin LaMance’s four CrossFit Hit & Run locations – South Main, Concourse Place, Poplar Avenue at Interstate 240, and Collierville Town Square – each serve a dedicated clientele of more than 100 people.

LaMance said a measure of customer loyalty is that members continued to pay during the COVID-19 layoff, allowing LaMance to keep all 10 employees working.

“Really it’s just people who like to exercise and hang out with other people,” LaMance said.

The workout is a boot camp-style combination of pushups, pullups, squats, weights and aerobic exercises led by instructors.

CrossFit Hit & Run classes during peak times – before and after work – can run up to 25-30 people and allow for walk-up customers to join. Workouts were 60 minutes before COVID-19 but will be reduced to 45 minutes by the city guidelines. Class sizes will be limited to five or six members plus an instructor.

The limit is a function of the physical size of CrossFit locations, rather than the city’s mandate of being under 25% capacity, LaMance said.

Because of the smaller classes, CrossFit will have to schedule more classes spread out through the day to keep up with demand.

LaMance said his workers were busy over the weekend making last-minute preparations for Monday’s opening, such as setting up hand sanitizer and towel stations and marking personal space grids in tape on the floor.

He also had to check with staff members to make sure they’re comfortable returning to work, and he was planning to provide masks custom made for them.

“Rule No. 1 is always look cool,” LaMance said.

The governor’s guidelines called for fitness centers to take customers’ temperatures upon entry and for centers to encourage customers to wear masks.

“We’re definitely wearing the masks, but customers won’t be required to wear masks. We have no plans right now to take people’s temperature as they come in. I’m happy to let our little culture sort it out.”

901 Fitness

J. Randall, a 29-year employee of French Riviera Spa, bought the gym at 3634 Austin Peay Highway last year after area French Riviera Spas went out of business. It has a membership roster of about 2,500 left over from the former ownership.

He said the center’s 15,000-square-foot, two-level footprint should handle 30 or so members at once safely. The center sees an average 250-300 workouts spread out over each day, with no more than 30 pieces of equipment in use at a time, so “It should be an easy transition for us,” Randall said.

Lack of access to showers and locker rooms will hurt.

“People who come work out before they go to work, it’s nice for them to be able to get ready.”

For 901 Fitness classes such as yoga, spinning, boot camp, kick boxing and Zumba, the parking lot is an option that’s been used in the past. “Those bigger groups get into 20-30 people at a time, and they’re diehard. That is going to be affected a little bit,” Randall said.

Randall didn’t think he would start out with a reservation system. “I don’t really foresee that, but obviously we will if demand gets to that point,” he said.

Randall said he’s looking forward to getting back to business and seeing how many customers come back.

“Once I get the green light we’re already raring to go. We’re set,” he said.

“I’m a little interested in seeing how many come back. I know my diehards will be the first ones to come. I know people will be a little reluctant to come out to these non-essential businesses, because they’re not ready yet.”