DENVER (KDVR) — Gyms across the state have started re-opening this month, but only for personal training—and with strict regulations.
Anytime Fitness, in Littleton, was able to partially reopen on May 9.
It wasn’t what owner Jeff Ferguson had envisioned, when he took over back in Janaury.
“Two months to the day of actually taking over ownership, I had to close my doors,” Ferguson told FOX31.
“If the gym was going to be closed, I was going to be okay with that—but I was really fighting hard for the clients. They came to us for a certain reason. Not being able to provide that—that one hurt a little bit,” he added.
Ferguson says it was especially difficult for their personal training clients—the majority of which range from ages 40 to 70.
“With a lot of our older clients, it’s a lot of stability issues. They’re looking for longevity, quality of life,” he said.
“I think the difference in this particular gym has to do with they really like people my age, and they want to help people who are older—people who have a sore hip or a bad knee, or a bad shoulder—and help me modify these things,” said client Linda Bourett-Rodriguez, shortly after finishing a session.
She was scheduling as many as four sessions a week before the shutdown.
“My balance is very poor. In the video classes, you can’t tailor them directly because you have a number of visitors on the video,” Bourett-Rodriguez explained.
Monday was her first time back in more than two months.
“I really missed it. And I think working out with Jeff just now—I really do notice that I’ve kind of gone back a notch or two in my balance, in my stability—that I need to get back to that,” she said.
Under the Safer at Home guidelines, they’re allowed to have a maximum of four people inside at one time—including staff.
“It is tough. We have a high demand to come back in—for the members to come back in,” said Ferguson.
“But I’ll take two clients in here, over having zero,” he added.
Ferguson is hoping the state will consider increasing capacity size to 25 percent, which would be the equivalent of about 12 people in that particular facility.
“We have 5,100 square feet. That’s a lot of social distancing from everyone.”
Gov. Jared Polis has not yet released the next phase for reopening gyms.