People can work out again after gyms reopen

Working out is as important to some people as eating or sleeping, so to say area fitness junkies are thrilled that gyms are open for business again would be an understatement. "We did a soft opening on Friday, so we're five days in now," said John Dixon Jr., owner of Grafton Barbell Club. "I've been doing this 15 years and this is five of the busiest days I've ever had at any gym. It's just been that insane." The gyms in Ohio were shut down March 17 after Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order on the Department of Health's recommendation in an effort to curb the rampant outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The loss of a workout venue had many scrambling for new ways to get an exercise fix. "It's been kind of terrible. John's really cool, he had some extra weights he let me borrow. I came up here and snagged them one day," Elyria resident Kevin Cloen said. "I've been working out at home in my garage. I have a yoga mat and some bands, so I've been making due, but it's been tough because it's just not the same." Gyms were officially allowed to open May 26, which many in Lorain County did, and Planet Fitness in Elyria welcomed back customers Thursday morning. "Planet Fitness is a little different monster because they're such a big corporation," Dixon said. "I think they're opening select clubs at first to make sure they have control of things. The reason is they have got so many more members than we do. Some of them are so humungous and have so many people coming in, it's going to be harder for them. So I think they're just being cautious." Planet Fitness had "social fitnessing" signs on every other piece of cardio equipment — treadmills, stationary bikes and ellipticals — to provide a buffer space between customers, and there were large purple and yellow pennants waving high above eye level to point out multiple cleaning stations throughout the facility. Dixon said his gym followed many of the new required guidelines before the shutdown, but decided to step his safety precautions up further. "I got some EPA-approved disinfectant cleaner through Anago (Cleaning Systems), which is a national cleaning chain that does hospitals, schools, things of that nature," Dixon said. "We went through them to get the stuff that actually kills this on contact. Every machine has a spray bottle on it. We require members to carry a towel and a spray bottle around with them, so they have no reason to not spray the machine before and after they use it. "Then me and my staff are walking through on the hour and doing a complete wipe down with disinfectant." The guidelines have provided some obstacles too tough to navigate, as well. "We basically shut everything down that has to do with water," Dixon said. "You're not allowed to have your water fountains running, you're not allowed to have showers, saunas … we've had to shut all that down and put signs on them to not use them until further notice. Until they figure out how the virus is moving through water-related things, we won't have access to that. It's probably going to be like that for a while." Dixon also requires the staff members to wear masks, and got his feng shui on while the gym was closed. "What we did during the shutdown is we actually moved equipment around," he said. "We redesigned the equipment so they were all more than 6 feet apart, so every machine has social distancing within it. That was kind of our logic, and that's why we moved some machines into other parts of the rec (center) so we could make room." The new measures haven't gone unnoticed. "It feels really good to be out of the house and be able to go back to the gym, and definitely seeing them cleaning a lot makes it a lot easier to come back," Grafton resident Lexie Hamker said. "It's good to see (cleanser bottles on every machine), to know that they're taking precautions to give people a chance to work out safely." The time away from the gym has been tough, not just because people are desperate to work out. "For a lot of people it's a mental health thing, and that's kind of what it is for me, too," said Cloen, who works at a hospital. "It allows me to calm myself, relax, even though it's something where you're trying to get pumped up and up your energy." There are also the social aspects of interacting with other individuals who share the physical fitness aspect of their lives, which caused a void over the last three months. "Most of our members have been super receptive to (the new guidelines), they're excited just to be back," Dixon said. "I've had three members call me since I've reopened to say they wouldn't be back until a later date because of concerns. Two of them are older — they're two of my Silver Sneaker members in their 70s that work out with one of my trainers — and then I had another who said they were going to wait a while." Most of his members have stopped in for a workout this week, and Dixon couldn't be happier. "I'm just grateful to have something I can go back to because some people don't, some people won't pull through this," he said. "Personally for me it's been brutal because I just dropped a lot of my life savings into a relocation, so the timing couldn't have been worse. The shutdown was during two of my busiest three months of the year, so we lost a lot of income. "So I'm just keeping my head above water and trying to get back into the grind of things. The response from the members has been great. They've shown up in full force and that's all that I can ask for." Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter.