Happy Anniversary!!! As we approach one full year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, many are beginning to work towards getting back into a gym to start working out or training in person again. Many of these people don’t know where to start, let alone if it’s even safe in their area. We’ve had clients training in person since mid-May, and when we ask those clients why they feel safe training at our facility, they almost always say the same things. From that feedback and the precautions we have taken in our facility, we have developed a list of 5 Tips to Find a Clean and Safe Gym Environment During COVID-19.   

1. Private Training Facility - While private training facilities aren’t a perfect fit for everyone, one huge benefit of choosing a private gym is the family-like atmosphere. Since our clients know and care about each other and their families, they are constantly trying to be as courteous and cautious as possible by making sure their equipment is sanitized and cleaned up, keeping their masks on as much as possible, and keeping the appropriate distance between each other. Whenever I talk to our clients about how grateful we are that they help us in taking the proper precautions, they always respond by saying they want our SAPT family to be able to keep training and stay healthy. The extra cleaning, distancing, and masks aren’t a huge issue for them since they are always thinking about the gym as their family. 

2. Limited Total Class Size - Our semi-private training sessions see a max of 6 clients/hour. In Virginia, the recommendation for indoor social gatherings is 10 people, and has been for most of the pandemic. Keeping our class size at 6 also allows us to spread out the clients beyond the required distancing, keeping clients even safer. This maximum class size of 6 also gives us some flexibility when our clients are able to start/finish their sessions. This way if a client is trying to finish their workout and needs 5 more minutes to cool down/foam roll/stretch, we don’t have to kick them out right away, they can finish up as the clients for the next hour are rolling in.

3. Large Open Space - Another important factor to consider when selecting a gym to do in person training during COVID 19 is how large the facility is. As we all know, social distancing is a massive part of preventing the spread of this virus. If gyms have lots of equipment packed into a small space, there is no way the clients training at the same time would be able to stick to the recommended 6ft distancing. Our facility is about 70% open space, with many different options around the facility to allow clients to keep the recommended distance apart from one another. This combined with the limited class sizes we mentioned earlier allows us to keep large distances between our clients for virtually all of the session hours. 

4. Mask Policy - One of the decisions we made early on in this pandemic was that we were going to have our clients keep their mask on for the duration of their training session. With that decision however, we had to assist our clients in dealing with the obstruction they would feel when wearing a mask while training. When weather was appropriate, this solution was simply to allow our clients to step outside when they wanted some fresh, unobstructed air and bring themselves back to a point where they felt comfortable breathing with the mask on. We have also decided to put a heavier focus on strength training during this time, getting away from more difficult conditioning as our clients would struggle to complete this training with their mask on. Keeping these things in mind allows almost all of our clients to keep their masks on 95% of the time they are in the facility training. 

5. Sanitation/Minimizing Shared Equipment - Sanitation is one of the most important things we looked at early on in terms of making our clients feel safe training here. Every person that steps into our facility immediately either washes their hands or uses hand sanitizer, something they also do right before they leave. Our clients also clean the equipment they use after each use. This is usually done after each series once all of the sets on a piece of equipment is completed. These things combined allow each client to feel safe that each time they use a piece of equipment it has been sanitized and is ready to be used safely. In addition to help from our clients, our staff has been more diligent than ever with wiping down equipment throughout and at the end of each day. We make sure that every surface that is touched gets cleaned! This includes the handles for dumbbells, door knobs, weight plates, bands, medicine ball, and everything else!!

In our experience, if you can find a place that has at least the above procedures and policies in place, you will be setting yourself up for a great entry back into in-person training with minimal risk.