Gym Rats Are Staying at Home and Making It Work
The same environmental condition that is wiping out public gyms is a boon for the home-based fitness equipment sellers and manufacturers.
Arguably, the world’s most renowned gym, Gold’s Gym, the house where Arnold Schwarzenegger and many other famous bodybuilders , has filed for bankruptcy protection and is closing numerous gyms across the nation because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Zeitsiff, the CEO and president of Gold’s Gym, announced that 15 locations in Tennessee have reopened. However, the photographs of an employee and a member wearing facemasks and nearly empty facility were not good optics.
The news and of the bankruptcy and reopening of sites prompted some comments posted on LinkedIn from various people in the fitness industry. Overall, the comments were optimistic that things would soon return to normal. The industry pundits were exercising forward thinking. It also showed a sense of denial. It is hard to put a positive spin on an environmental condition that already has harmed the economy worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. The fitness industry has been one of the hardest hit industries of this worldwide tragedy.
In business-speak, an environmental condition is something that happens that affects businesses (and society) positively or negatively because it occurs, and businesses have no control over the effects but must deal with its aftermath. The changing of laws by a government, severe weather conditions, such as devastating hurricanes or tornadoes, a natural disaster such as tsunami, or a worldwide pandemic, such as COVID-19, are examples. Anything that changes the business climate, for better or worse, and is not controllable fits.
Missing the point
The fitness pundits on LinkedIn spoke of accountability and aesthetics as two issues why at-home workouts are not the same as going to gyms. The consensus was that people will stay home for now but will return to gyms because working out at home is not the same as being at a gym. The home gym equipment being purchased today will be expensive coat racks tomorrow. This comment received a lot of likes.
It is true that a lack of accountability likely will surface, and the exercise equipment, devices, and apparatuses will not be used by a lot of the ex-gym patrons who bought the items, in the long run. However, the part these businesspeople are missing, or maybe denying purposefully, is that that same diminishing gung-ho attitude in exercising and working out will happen to people working out at home instead of at gyms.
Statistics bear that most people who have gym memberships do not attend their clubs regularly despite paying to do so. So, that lack of accountability or commitment is nothing new. Gyms do not make their money from the members who show up regularly. Most revenue comes from the members who pay regularly but only show up occasionally. That is human nature.
At-home fitness industry boon!
The same environmental condition that is wiping out public gyms is a boon for the home-based fitness equipment sellers and manufacturers. Go try to buy a set of adjustable-weight dumbbells, a weight bench, or a power tower today. The demand is exceeding the supply, and the prices for this equipment have skyrocketed. Every website I have checked, from Amazon to eBay to manufacturers and distributors alike, most have more sold-out signs posted than available notices. Peloton’s total revenue has spiked 66% in the past quarter and the price of its stock has more than doubled. Subscriptions are up 94% in one quarter.
Gyms are germ pods, with people sweating on and using the same equipment. The former head of the FDA, Dr. Scott Gottileb, has stated that gyms are places that people should avoid until COVID-19 is under control, that is, public places where close contact is unavoidable.
New ways
The last time I visited my local gym was around the beginning of March, and I wore surgical gloves instead of weightlifting gloves and had a pack of antiseptic wipes and hand sanitizer in my tote bag. Regardless, my apprehension went into overdrive from wiping down the barbells and dumbbells before using those. The grime in my disinfectant wipe horrified me. It was the first time I left before finishing my workout, and I have not returned since.
Fortunately, I have some fitness equipment at home. Additionally, I am on YouTube viewing videos of personal trainers whose content is focused on working out at home. Fitness celebrities, a.k.a. people who sell fitness-related goods or services, are pushing content to assist people with working out at home with either no equipment, minimal equipment, or alternative exercises to supplant the equipment that usually is found at gyms.
From gym rats to homebodies
This “new” state of normal is testing my willingness to learn how to do things differently, and so far, I have not missed a single, scheduled workout. I am now using resistance bands and dumbbells and relying more on calisthenics and body weight exercises to get things done. It is a learning experience a new challenge.
It is my attitude toward fitness, not the ambiance or aesthetics of a facility, that keeps me motivated to work out. I am not bashing gym memberships. I really miss my local YouFit, and I feel bad for the staffers who have been furloughed or laid off. I have friends that I miss seeing too.
I would love to grab one my workout program sheets and go do some sets on those acid green Cybex machines that dot the green and purple interior of my old club. However, I have no plans on returning any time soon.
According to the results of a Gallup poll published today, more than 85% of the respondents are confident that social distancing will contribute to saving lives. It is interesting that the main difference of opinion on this issue stems from political party affiliations, with the Republicans not being as confident as the Democrats or Independents who were polled.
Meanwhile, back at the LinkedIn forum
The world for fitness enthusiasts may never be the same. Fitness execs being myopic toward the new reality will only make things worse for them. It was noteworthy some of the fitness execs and those in the business were more concerned about losing money than the ramifications of the health issues if gyms and health clubs are reopened too soon. Seeing people wearing face masks is unnerving at gyms regardless of how much forward thinking is applied.
A couple of those execs even picked on people who expressed more concern about avoiding health risks than making money — with a noteworthy level of crassness and temerity.
Maintaining social distancing from with those types of folks is exercising freewill.
