Health |

Fitness clubs can reopen for indoor workouts Friday, but stricter rules in Chicago have some gyms worried

After months with nothing but virtual workouts and, more recently, personal training and outdoor classes, CrossTown Fitness has been getting ready to let people back inside its three Chicago gyms.

There are socially distant workout stations marked on the floor. They’ve stocked up on cleaning supplies to disinfect weights, cardio equipment and frequently touched surfaces, and purchased devices to check temperatures and disinfect shoes upon entering. One trainer made a video offering advice on how to work out in a mask.

Even with the changes, the next phase of Illinois’ reopening will be a big step toward normalcy for gyms like CrossTown Fitness, which closed when the state ordered nonessential businesses to shut down and have only recently been able to resume personal training sessions and outdoor workouts.

Starting Friday, Illinois health and fitness clubs can open at half their capacity with group classes of up to 50 people, as long as they can practice social distancing. But in Chicago, tighter restrictions, including a 25% capacity limit and requirement to wear a mask while working out indoors, have some owners worried. Outside the city, people must wear face coverings except while exercising.

“A lot of places will be able to open up, but by no means is it a long-term solution,” said Charles Graff, owner of CrossTown Fitness, which has locations in Lakeview, Roscoe Village and the Near West Side. “If we can’t get to higher capacity in a few weeks, there’s going to be a lot of places that don’t make it.”

It’s not just that restricting access means less revenue, club owners say. When fitness clubs reopen, they will spend more on cleaning supplies and devote more staff time to sanitizing equipment and making sure gym-goers keep their distance. Some businesses, including hair salons, dentists and restaurants, have tacked on extra fees for the extra work, though several gyms said they aren’t changing prices.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how eager members will be to start exercising with strangers — especially if it requires sucking air through a sweaty mask. Many people upgraded home gyms while fitness clubs closed — overall sales of fitness equipment jumped 130% in March compared with the same month last year, according to market research firm The NPD Group.

Planet Fitness will be among the first to reopen, with 69 of 82 Illinois gyms reopening Friday and the rest soon after. Other gyms and fitness studios are still getting ready, including CrossTown Fitness, where indoor group classes start July 6. Gym-goers must reserve a spot in advance since classes, which normally draw about 30 people, will be capped at 15.

Reyna Hoerdeman, owner of Studio Fit Chicago in the Lincoln Park area won’t be ready to reopen Friday. She would feel more comfortable restarting barre, bootcamp and boxing classes if she knew Chicago’s capacity limits would soon be eased to 50%, a more financially sustainable level, she said.

“It is a little upsetting because as a boutique fitness studio owner, I have every point of control from you walking in to you leaving,” she said. “You think about a Home Depot or Target, people aren’t walking by and washing everything after you touch it.”

In a news release announcing the reopening guidelines, city officials said capacity restrictions could be loosened within Phase 4, but likely not until Chicago sees fewer than 100 new cases each day. The city is averaging 159 cases a day as of Wednesday.

Large fitness clubs with more space for people to spread out were less concerned about the capacity limits.

Planet Fitness hasn’t had issues hitting capacity limits in other states, said spokeswoman McCall Gosselin. Signs encourage members to practice “social fitnessing,” and certain cardio machines have been marked unavailable to encourage people to spread out.

Life Time, which has more than 150 clubs in the U.S. and Canada, plans to open all 10 Illinois clubs at 6 a.m. Saturday. Group fitness classes require advance sign-up, but members don’t need to reserve equipment.

Fitness equipment has been spread out to allow for social distancing and at swimming pools, families can gather no more than four chairs. But swim teams and lessons will restart July 6, said spokeswoman Natalie Bushaw.

Midtown Athletic Club’s four Illinois clubs won’t reopen Friday, said CEO Steven Schwartz. Each club employs 150 to 400 people who must be trained in new health and safety measures.

“There just isn’t enough time for us to mobilize,” he said.

Midtown’s three suburban clubs will likely reopen in mid-July, but Schwartz is evaluating plans in Chicago due to the lower capacity limit.

In addition to extra cleaning, temperature checks and measures meant to ensure social distancing, Midtown’s Logan Square-area club is creating more outdoor workout space in a covered parking garage. Each club’s website will have data on how close it is to reaching capacity to help members plan visits.

Lakeshore Sport & Fitness, with two locations, plans to reopen July 1, at which time it will resume charging dues, said managing partner Peter Goldman.

Members will see clear plastic shields in front of cardio machines to contain droplets users exhale. Advance sign-up will only be required for pool access and group workout classes unless it’s needed to manage demand for other equipment or facilities.

Goldman estimated 30% to 40% of members are eager to come back and 20% are fearful of returning. The rest are nervous, but willing to “get their feet wet.”

Several gyms said they plan to continue offering outdoor or virtual classes.

“We have some students who are ready to bang the door down and can’t wait, and others saying they won’t come back until there’s a vaccine,” said Meghan Rohde, operations manager at Yoga By Degrees, which has six Chicago-area studios.

It will resume in-person classes Friday, but virtual classes will continue at least through August.

There will be tape markings indicating where participants can put their mats, and the business will not rent yoga mats, towels or props. Yoga By Degrees spent more than $50,000 on electrostatic spraying devices that will help disinfect studios nightly. Showers and water fountains are off-limits, and people must sign up for classes in advance.

Some studios are making preparations in case reduced class sizes make it difficult to keep up with demand. CrossTown Fitness is giving people with unlimited memberships priority access to classes. Studio Fit Chicago plans to limit members to five in-person classes a week.

Orangetheory Fitness is starting with its standard schedule of classes but will add extra sessions if needed based on traffic during the first two weeks, said Brad Ehrlich, CEO of Orangetheory Fitness in Illinois.

All Illinois locations are expected to open between June 29 and July 6 to allow time to rehire and train staff. Classes will be about half their usual size, and members will have temperatures checked at the door. Each piece of equipment will be used by no more than two people per class, and participants will get sanitizing wipes to clean them between uses.

At the 14 studios Ehrlich owns, classes will initially will run for 45 minutes, not an hour, to give employees time to get used to the new cleaning routines and ease members back into workouts.

In Chicago, whether members return isn’t just about fear of contracting COVID-19. Several gym owners said they worry customers would rather keep working out at home rather than come back to a studio and work out in a mask.

“I have had a lot of members say they aren’t going to come back until the mask requirement is gone,” CrossTown Fitness’s Graff said. “It’s more than I can count.”

Orangetheory Fitness members who usually work out in the city can switch to the suburbs to get around the rule. Some already have begun going to studios in Indiana, Ehrlich said.

Health officials recommend wearing masks to keep people who don’t know they are infected from spreading the virus, especially in public places where social distancing is challenging. Still, the World Health Organization has advised people against wearing masks while exercising and instead to concentrate on social distancing to prevent the virus’s spread, since masks can make it more difficult to breathe.

Abby Phelps, owner of three Chicago Club Pilates studios, planned to require masks regardless of whether the city required them and instead cut some high-intensity classes from studio schedules. Those classes will be offered online so members can take them at home.

“I believe it’s a really important aspect of containing the virus,” she said.

Studio Fit Chicago’s Hoerdeman has worn masks while teaching outdoor classes.

“I just say, ‘Your lung capacity is going to be super stellar after this,'” she said. “You have to make light of it because you have to do what you have to do.”

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com