Gyms have faced extreme business caps and COVID-19 restrictions this year as various places have moved to lockdown, reopen for business, then now lockdown again.

Tens of thousands of gyms in the U.S. alone are considered to be small business operations and they've lost more than $13 billion collectively this year and many more face closures with new restrictions being recently announced.

Are you more at risk going to a gym?

Gym business owners say that the evidence doesn't support this notion of gyms being a major source of infection, especially given the rules that they've implemented as far as social distancing and frequent cleaning.

Some investigations show that going to the gym might be safer than going to a variety of other places, like the grocery store or another popular venue that sees a lot of activity and social interaction. Given this reality then they see the extreme measures as unfair, and the strict caps on their business activity prevent them from trying to lift themselves up out of this problem.

Together these businesses are employing millions of trainers and others, and now they face another lockdown and possibly closure of their business altogether.

Many clients have been cancelling their memberships, especially with the reduced business hours. Those gyms who had been using the 24 hour model found that this worked a lot better than the forced restrictions they are operating with nowadays. For many, they just might find it easier to start working out at home.

This year, Peloton sales grew more than 170 percent as millions turned to find something at home that could help them to sustain their workouts. It didn't take long for it to become impossible for many just to try and find a simple bicycle, many bike retailers had sold out and were on back order long with other popular items this summer.

Individuals who frequent those gyms and other workout spaces will often admit that the social interaction they experience is a significant motivating factor to them joining up and going in the first place, they don't want to work out alone at home. But now people have those same capabilities with social interaction during workouts at home, they can connect online to one smart workout device or another.

For those gyms that did make it through the first lockdown in the U.S. and other countries, they might not be able to make it through a 2nd and this could mean the closure of thousands more small businesses in the fitness industry.

Pics:
pixabay