Gyms Reopen Under Governor’s New Orders

Governor Walz announced some adjustments to restrictions to a variety of businesses yesterday including gyms as they are now allowed to reopen Saturday with some strict rules in place. 

DULUTH, Minn. – Governor Walz announced some adjustments to restrictions to a variety of businesses yesterday including gyms as they are now allowed to reopen Saturday with some strict rules in place.

With the new order in effect, gyms are now able to open Saturday at 25% capacity with a maximum of 100 people as masks must be worn at all times.

At Impact Sports Training in Duluth, the gym offers personal training along with Cross Fit programming.

To accommodate for the inability to come into the actual gym space, owners at IST have been doing Zoom meetings for their clients. They say that being able to finally open up after being shutdown for a month is a relief.

“Our folks are excited,” said Dr. Chris Bell, the owner of Impact Sports Training. “We’ve had communication with them. We’ve been doing four live Zoom classes every day, six days a week with our folks. And so we’ve had constant engagement.”

Due to the governor’s previous orders on gyms, the training center has twenty-two boxes that are spaced out so there is a 12-foot distance between patrons.

“We’ve done our diligence in the social distancing, cleansing, keeping everything is highly organized, safe,” said Dr. Bell.

In downtown Duluth, XMT-3 training is a space that offers one-on-one in-person studio workouts for patrons.

The in-person nature of the studio made it applicable to the governor’s orders for the past four weeks. Owner Eric Franklin says they are excited to reopen up their studio once again.

“I get to practice the craft that I’ve set out to do for the last 10 years, last 5 years, professionally, so there’s a big relief,” said Franklin.

Because of the pandemic, the studio has had to adjust and offer online classes as well, and the governor’s shutdowns have resulted in the re-education of what it means to develop trust with patrons.

“The consumer has to feel like she can walk into a gym and not get sick,” said Franklin. “The consumer has to feel comfortable with going to a store and shopping, so I think all of these shutdowns, they really hurt consumer confidence. That’s the most important thing that we need to take away.”

And starting January 4th, group classes at gyms, personal fitness and yoga studios, and martial arts spaces will be allowed, which will also help drum up more business for the state’s fitness facilities.