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With millions of people going to the gym on a daily basis in the United States, most brick and mortar gym locations got quite a bit of daily usage. All that came to a screaming halt in March with many states enacting stay at home orders. How did these new quarantine laws affect you?
Immediately, everyone started to scramble. “How do I get a workout in if the gyms are closed?” Many looked to the internet for answers, building various contraptions via their own ingenuity, or clearing out the fitness section in their nearest box retailer. I am sure Amazon did quite well with fitness stores online selling out of basic workout equipment like dumbbells, resistance bands, and general fitness accessories.
Many people just never had the discipline to actually work out at home, the gym was there to provide that physical location to go to in order to keep them grounded. Now that was all taken away and most had no other option.
Going out and buying huge heavy weights really isn’t feasible, so utilizing things you have around the house was the best solution. Before all of this hysteria, the average cost per pound of weight for dumbbells or plates was 50 cents to a dollar, sometimes up to $2 for rubber-coated weights. Post Covid-19 we are seeing prices $5 and up per pound which is horrendous price gouging. So people must figure out how to economically get their workout in without spending a fortune.
With more people either physically working at home due to the situation, or simply losing their job altogether, nearly everyone is spending their entire waking hours in their homes. So what to do? Watch as many YouTube videos as possible and learn to do some out-of-the-box home workouts to stay fit. There are many free programs available online that will teach you some simple ways to stay in shape with minimal resources.
With some gyms across the country opening back up, the change will be permanent as many have seen the advantages of working out at home. Many will go back to the same establishments they were enjoying before, but others will save their money by utilizing their newly purchased equipment at home. There will be dozens of large brick and mortar gyms that will close down, unable to sustain the lack of business for many months in a row. The larger chains will prevail, as they’ve had surplus cash for many years. But at the same time, they may change the way they do business and cater to more remote customer interaction in many cases. Offering online coaching, group sessions, or remote support will become mainstream.
Physical gyms weren’t the only ones to take a hit. With many fitness brands that relied heavily on walk-in traffic such as workout clothes manufacturers, bodybuilding apparel brands, and even supplement companies probably saw a huge reduction in sales. But many will see an upswing here shortly if they’ve prepared their digital portfolio accordingly to be able to bring in most of their transactional revenue from online sales channels.
All in all, we can pretty much all agree that this has affected us all, for better or for worse. I feel it was for the better as most people won’t have to rely on physical gym locations to be in better health. All the right tools are already in your home, ready for you to start using and getting benefit from.
Here’s to your health and success in the new tomorrow.
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This content is brought to you by Patrick Brouillette.
Photo: Shutterstock