INNISFAIL – Fitness clubs in town are pleased there are fewer COVID restrictions but they still look forward to the day when every last one of them will be lifted.
“The government is blocking us all under a big umbrella. People want to come back but the restrictions are not lifted enough for us to do that,” said Kim Tibble, owner of Kinections Fitness Studio, who feels “very strongly” that health and fitness is an essential service. “It seems the government doesn’t understand that. I feel we should have been able to open back up when personal services were back allowed.”
The province allowed the re-opening of personal wellness services businesses on Jan. 18.
“With us, we are group fitness so it is totally different, right?’’’ noted Tibble.
The easing of restrictions on indoor fitness announced on March 1 is allowing unsupervised low intensity individual and group fitness activities by appointment only, and high intensity only on a one-on-one-basis.
“What do they (province) do? They make it low intensity. That doesn’t help us at all,” said Tibble, whose studio is located across from McDonald's in the Eastgate Mall. “Sure, my seniors are happy. They came back but we run spin and pound classes and all kinds of stuff like that and to me we are like a boutique studio.
“We’re not a big chain,” she added. “I know exactly who has been in there and they’ve touched what, and it is very easy to clean and have social distancing.”
Across town at the Henday Mall, Snap Fitness opened its doors last week following many weeks of client frustration.
“I know there has been quite a few people who have been frustrated with the number of restrictions because I know most are still charging for full memberships, and when you are paying for a full membership you expect to have the full benefit but with these rules you really can’t,” said Reiss Flunder, a personal trainer at the club. “There has been a lot of frustration and there are a lot of people who are just happy to be back in the gym as well. It is kind of mixed response.”
He acknowledged there is still a long way to go before indoor gyms are totally restriction free, but said there has been a lot of interest by people to come back to the gym, as well as new people. Flunder added there’s also been a few who cancelled because of the restrictions.
Flunder said people have been using the sign-up system as they now have to schedule appointments, noting the current provincial COVID rules say all indoor fitness clubs must have pre-registration with no drop-ins allowed.
“They have to schedule when they want to come in,” he said.
The updated COVID guidelines for indoor fitness also call for mandatory physical distance of three metres between participants, including coaches and trainers.
Masks must be worn at all times by trainers and those participating in low-intensity activities.
