It also makes them a fantastic money laundering enterprise. Invent a few extra people on the membership rolls, and if they never show, who notices? Expand that across several locations and unless you’re careless or someone looks too closely, and you can clear a decent amount through. Especially if your fake membership is real (stolen) IDs… as long as the real person never sees a bill (which, if you’re careful, they won’t, because you’re paying it in cash), they won’t likely even know they’re being used.
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Nice! Barney Rubble’s home gym.
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I used to be an avid gym goer. My kids and home chores were always a distraction, and lack of equipment kept me from working out at home. But I’ve started to workout regularly now during the pandemic with good results. And yes it is very hard to find gym equipment right now.
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I’m in the same boat. I really miss going to the gym (words I wouldn’t have said 18 months ago) or to the pool every day. I’ve also been putting on the pounds, because I’m spending most of my time at home with All The Food (exercise only takes off so much weight for me).
I don’t see either my condo weight room or the one at the community centre opening up anytime in the coming months, so I ordered some resistance bands to go along with my calisthenics and daily walk.
A friend who owns a small chain of gyms told me the same things. It’s also a tight-margin business because there are lots of gyms out there, although I expect that will change (my friend is unsure if they’ll be able to make it through this).
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I’ve been lifting weights at gyms my entire adult life. I seriously miss squats and deadlifts. My cardio work has always been outdoors anyway, so I still cycle, run, and hike just like I always do. So that has not suffered. Bodyweight exercises have taken the place of pushing iron around. (I was really happy to find a tree in my backyard from which I can do pull-ups.) It’s a lot better than nothing, but not the same.
I’ll be super happy when it’s safe to go back into a gym.
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Years ago, a physician I know took random swab samples of equipment at a gym. Tests results indicated traces of blood, fecal matter, urine and even semen. Nasty, nasty stuff. I always did a pre-wipe before using anything at the gym, although its been a few months since I’ve been there due to the pandemic. Not sure when I’ll be going back; probably after a vaccine is released.
I picked up a jump rope with weighted handles. It’s fun, but I’m really bad at it. I figure it must be doing something because I’m tired after 10 minutes of failing. Cheaper than a tube of tennis balls, besides I’ve been too much of a slacker even before the pandemic to get to a tennis court often enough to be effective exercise.
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You could try Primal Screaming. It burns a good 10 calories per minute.
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The wife of an acquaintance works at a gym. A member/customer who she worked with tested positive. She and the family are now quarantined awaiting their test results. All the high-touch businesses are sanitizing surfaces etc., but this is the Deep South, land of air conditioning just recirculating all that shared air.
I canceled our family Y membership last month. We mostly used it for swimming, but with it being an indoor pool, there is no way I could see it being safe to go. Not because of the pool water, but because of the recirculating air - nope.
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I’d say there’s definitely middle ground between “will never return to a gym” and “covidiot”.
“Will return to the gym once I’ve been vaccinated and waited at least the expected duration for immunity” is a sensible response, for example.
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I need to do the same. The gym was my place to escape though. I went there to clear my head and get inspired by the sight of others getting fit. Group cardio classes were fun, too. It’s not a safe option now though. It’s time for me to install a pull-up bar and get busy.
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I was going the gym 4 days a week for 12 years. It was just about mental health and depression as much as my physical fitness. I need equipment and weights for dead lifts, squats etc.
I live in the UK in a small terraced house. For 4 months of lock down I have had to resort to push ups, squats with a pretty light bar and anything else I can muster. I have lost weight and muscle mass and it has not been good on my mental health.
Gyms in the UK have spent a lot of money on gym re-design and safety, health measures only for the gov. To push back the early July opening date Indefinately. However they are opening bars this weekend. Gyms can control social distancing, deep cleaning, gov guidelines a lot more than a bar full of drunk people. These people are the real covidiots.
I cannot wait for gyms to open. Working out from home just does not cut it for me.
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I miss group classes. We have an ok setup for weights so I can still do squats and deadlifts etc. We walk. But dance and yoga classes were a social luxury I really enjoyed once upon a time. For one thing there is too much woo though for me to trust ppl not to be using healing crystals to chase the covid away. Also even for the practical folks I just don’t see how any enclosed space where people will be breathing heavily can be safe enough in the foreseeable future.
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To be fair, you can culture most of those trace bacteria from pretty much any surface near humans. There’s fecal matter on everything within a hundred yards of us. Humans are just gross, it turns out.
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Our Y has been open almost a month, and is allowing one person per lap lane, by appointment, except for a few hours in the afternoon where it’s first come, first served.
I’ve been once.
Lifeguards are not masked. I’ve made a number of masks out of t-shirts, and I take along an extra specifically for from the locker room to the pool, and I left it folded up on my flip-flops.
Since then, in 2 weeks of setting an alarm at 6AM to try to get through to the front desk to schedule a lap lane, I have been successful once.
I used to attend an aqua-jog class twice a week. It was what kept me vertical and flexible despite the chronic illnesses and arthritis. I had hoped to be able to still go twice a week to do something, but I just can’t keep trying to wake up at 6 and hope I can get through before the next day’s slots fill up. I am not a morning person, add in meds plus brain fog in the morning, and I’m a wreck for the day.
If I had a pool, I’d cancel my Y membership. I have no other access to an indoor pool, so I’m kind of stuck.
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Many years ago a friend of mine pointed out that he would see people going through great pains to get the closest parking spot as possible to the gym entrance, only to go inside and run on the track or treadmill. He was on to something.
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Well that took longer than I expected.
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I went three times a week, doing trunk exercises with resistance (building up my lower back to support my dumb sacroiliac) and then a half hour each on the Futile Cycle and Trudgemaster. I miss it. I walk six times a week now, have added a couple of exercises to the stretching routine I’ve done daily since my first physical therapy in 2007, but the weight is creeping up anyway, and my back still isn’t getting what it needs.
I’ll go back to the gym when it seems safe. It was a nice routine–got me out of the house and away from my computer, and I listened to radio drama or audiobooks while doing mindless repeated motions. Then I had a nice shower. I miss it.
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Back when I was commuting by train, I picked a gym near the train station so I’d go to it on my way home, knowing I’d seldom bother if it weren’t extremely convenient. Sometime around 15 years ago, I was no longer commuting by train, slacked off a lot, finally got rid of the membership.
But if I were going back, the reason would probably be the pool. I’m in California, so most of the year it’s warm enough to run or bike if I want to, and while I found exercise machines a lot more focused than free weights, and weights are ok. In practice, these days I’m doing well to get around to walking, and using a stretch band to exercise the random shoulder muscles to keep then flexible.
My sister and her ex used to run a gym, and yes, the critical parts of the business model are that people make New Year’s resolutions that don’t last past February or March, and you also make money doing personal training for the people who want that.
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