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“It was a big day … to hear the reopening plan and to start to feel a sense of we’re going to be OK, we made it this far. My goodness, we can kind of see the finish line.” — LIVE WELL Exercise Clinics president and CEO Sara Hodson
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When the full force of the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year and fitness facilities were shut down, Live Well Exercise Clinics turned online to continue to provide services to its patrons.
Live Well, which has 11 locations in Metro Vancouver and others across the country, started live streaming with staff leading fitness sessions. Soon, they began tailoring sessions to their patrons, who are typically 55 or older with health concerns such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
Restrictions were loosened heading into last summer and some patrons returned to facilities.
Initially, 90 per cent of patrons stuck around, but by November of last year, as restrictions tightened again, they dropped down to a client level of 60 per cent.
But in the last few days, after the B.C. government announced a restart plan last week, the phone has been ringing off the hook, said LIVE WELL Exercise Clinics president and CEO Sara Hodson.
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“It was a big day … to hear the reopening plan and to start to feel a sense of we’re going to be OK, we made it this far. My goodness, we can kind of see the finish line,” said Hodson.
Another circuit breaker implemented two months ago as COVID-19 cases were surging in B.C. and around the globe had hit fitness facilities hard.
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It limited the amount of people in a facility at any one time to increase physical distancing, and only allowed people to work out on their own or one-on-one with an instructor.
But since May 25 low-intensity group exercises are allowed again, for example, a yoga class.
As long as vaccination uptake continues in B.C. — 67 per cent of adults have a first dose now — the aim is to have fitness facilities fully open by July 1.
While it has not be an easy road to survival, B.C. fitness facilities have fared better than other provinces where facilities faced complete shutdowns.
Hodson and Carl Ulmer, a partner in Trevor Linden’s chain of fitness facilities Club 16, were able to get the ear of Dr. Bonnie Henry and provincial health officials to communicate the importance of fitness to physical and mental health during the pandemic.
The provincial officials listened and it meant there was not a complete shutdown of fitness facilities in B.C.
The B.C. Fitness Industry Council, of which Hodson and Ulmer are co-chairs, were able to present data that showed millions of visits to fitness facilities with few infection incidents, including 1.3 million visits between March 1 and April 12 of this year.
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“It was eye-opening,” said Ulmer. “We were able to show public health (officials) that we are open and we’re safe.”
Across Canada, the numbers have been bleak for the fitness sector.
One third of fitness facilities have permanently closed and 75,000 fitness professionals have lost jobs, according to information from the Fitness Industry Council of Canada.
In Alberta, a major fitness operator, with 21 gyms in Calgary and Edmonton, filed for creditor protection in April.
The effect of the pandemic in B.C. has not been as devastating, noted Hodson.
Still, a longtime yoga provider in Vancouver, announced early in the pandemic it was permanently closing its four locations after a steady stream of membership cancellations strained finances.
Other fitness facilities, such as Barre Belle and Pulse Cycling Studio in Vancouver, have temporarily closed their physical locations.
Hodson said the hope is that the fitness sector can be part of a major effort to help people improve not only their physical health, but their mental and social health, as life returns to some semblance of normalcy.
In other jurisdictions that are opening, such as the United Kingdom, fitness memberships are rising and are higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, noted Hodson.
ghoekstra@postmedia.com
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