With further easing of restrictions occurring over coming weeks, Yarrawonga Mulwala’s three public access gyms are reopening their doors, welcoming back those hoping to burn off those extra kilos gained during isolation.
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Focus Well-being and Fitness is the first to reopen their doors with Saturday, June 13 seeing a number of people excitedly returning although with new conditions in place.
Focus owner Paul Aitken said it was exciting to be reopening the gym for a sense of normality and to see all those familiar faces again.
“I am super pumped to see our members again and to get people back through the doors for their exercise,” Paul said.
“We are just excited for some normality both for us and our members as well as for people to get back into their exercising routines.
“We really just want to encourage our members to be safe. We also want to assure them that the fear of being too close is not an issue in Focus as we have rearranged and spaced out our equipment and have a lot more sanitising and hygiene measures.
“Health and wellbeing are the most important things and we want to help the locals with that.
“We also want to give a massive thank you to the Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort for their support during these tough times.”
Some of the conditions to follow for members and guests include:
Maximum of 100 people in the gym at any one time,
Maximum of 20 participants to any group fitness classes, therefore bookings are essential,
Everyone required to sign in on every visit to record daily attendance,
A towel to exercise is mandatory – no towel, no workout,
Everyone must adhere to their social distancing practices and cleaning protocols.
Focus Well-being and Fitness is also taking necessary steps ensure everyone’s health and safety as well as ensuring the gym remains open including:
Increased distance of equipment to a min of 1.5mtrs,
Increased the number of disinfectant spray bottles and wipe stations,
Increased the number of hand sanitiser stations.
“Please do your part to keep us all safe, healthy and open by staying home if you are unwell and continue to practice good hygiene measures,” Paul said.
“To our members and guests, we can’t wait to see you all back - we have missed you!”
On Sunday the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews announced that from June 20, indoor sports centres and physical recreation spaces like gyms will be able to open to 20 people per space, with a cap of up to 10 per group for those over the age of 18.
Our local public access gym on the Victorian side of town, Priority Fitness and Weight Management will be reopening from Monday, June 22.
Priority will have 20 in each room with 40 total across the whole gym.
At the moment the cardio area is spread out to adhere to the 1.5m rule as well as the weight machines being spread out further and less bikes for use with many hand sanitizer stations throughout the whole space.
Personal Trainer Brandon Carlin and Owner Cam Sanders said they are extremely excited to get back into the gym and are looking forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.
“We will also be requiring members to bring mandatory towels and sanitise equipment and we will also be carrying out extra cleaning,” Brandon said.
“We will still be running personal training sessions with members required to message staff to book their session.
“Classes will begin soon and capped at 10 with a booking system in place,” Cam added.
“We will reopen the 24/7 after hours with members to have access as of 12.01 Sunday night with sanitizer at the door and all of our other health protocols in place for our members to follow.
“As history has shown no more than 10 people have been in after hours at a time but we will monitor closely through online software to see if it is working and Brandon and myself will be immediately available to come back to the gym if need be.
“Our main thing to get across to members as well is that our wet areas ie the showers will still be closed.
“We’re so excited to get back and looking forward to seeing everyone back in the gym soon!”
The last of our local public access gyms to reopen will be Balance Spin Studio who are super excited to be reopening the studio doors on Wednesday, July 1.
Megan Wood from Balance Spin Studio said although the three-month closure has been difficult for both members and staff, it has provided the opportunity to reflect and re-design the studio space, plus offer some exciting new concepts and classes to the training centre.
“Our staff are passionate about what they provide – quality Wattbike, running and functional training sessions that push members into achieving great things…both physically and mentally,” Megan said.
Moving forward this will increase further with the addition of a new educational area.
“Knowledge is power, so helping people understand how the body works and why they should incorporate certain exercises or training sessions into their week, will benefit members hugely!”
Balance can safely accommodate up to 37 people in the premises according to the four square metre rule. Indoor classes will be booked with the maximum of 20 people. There will be no boxing classes timetabled until it is safe to do so.
“We were in a unique position where although our studio doors were closed, we could still provide our running sessions since June 1, which really helped some members to stay motivated.”
Cleaning and sanitation stations will be increased throughout the studio, plus encouraging the 1.5mt rule at all times.
“Staff have undergone Covid safe training and are very aware of what their role is moving forward. “To keep everyone safe, we will be asking members and friends to respect the health of others and stay home if unwell.”
The community are invited to visit Balance Spin Studio during their open day on Saturday, June 27 between 8am-11am.
Journalist