Everyone has a variation of an everyday routine they stick to. Oftentimes these habitual aspects of life are a source of stability and judgement of wellbeing in day to day life. Exercise is one that is implemented in many daily schedules, and is in fact recommended to improve quality of life. So what happens when that ritual of a daily workout is revoked? During lockdown some people resorted to bringing the gym into their own home, while some found that their passion and motivation for exercise had withered away. A collection of data revealed the differences in health and fitness levels as well as the struggles people faced during quarantine when it came to staying active… with no access to the gym.
The Pressures to Stay Fit During Lockdown
While stuck in the house during quarantine, many people developed new habits, and some maybe fell off of ones they were once consistent with. In many cases, that was hitting the gym. The pressure to make good use of all time spent cooped up in the house was immense during lockdown. And what better time to work on yourself, right? However, there are factors of that isolation that caused many to not have that desire to work on themselves.
Suzy Mari, opened the SuzyMari Health and Fitness studio to create a safe and empowering space for women to focus on their wellbeing. She provides everything from fitness and dance classes, to one-on-one personal training. While she offers fitness tailored to her clients, the dedication does not stop there. Offering regular check-ins and referrals to her clients allows her to keep up with their needs and ensure that they are being met.
Mari expressed that the opening and closing of the studio during the pandemic impacted the mental ability of clients, and that isolation in lockdown took away the joy of working out. Many of her clients experienced a variety of hardships throughout the pandemic that impacted their motivation to come back to the studio; including issues regarding their mental well being.
In an effort to keep her studio afloat, she began offering remote classes for her clients, “It took some time for the success rate of online classes to go up. People were entering unfamiliar territory by joining,” said Mari. Sometimes nobody would show up to remote classes. Mari explained that the environment of the gym provides motivation. By the second year of COVID clients were more motivated to come back and workout, because she was able to reopen her studio. Mari began offering one-on-one personal training as people became more inclined to book sessions post COVID, after feeling unmotivated to workout in quarantine.
“The key for us is not necessarily to get them to spend more, it’s to get them through the door.”
The effect that lockdown had on fitness studios
Fitness studios, gyms and physiotherapy clinics took a hard hit in 2020 as COVID quickly spread. The SuzyMari Health and Fitness Studio in Etobicoke had approximately 3000 clients before the pandemic hit. After dealing with constant opening and closing of the studio during lockdown, clientele went down more than 90 per cent. Now the studio is sitting at around 2000-2500 members.
Local businesses such as SuzyMari had their share of struggles during the ever changing measures to keep everyone safe from the virus. However, the statistics regarding the overall effect on the industry put into perspective how detrimental the hit was.
According to a study done by Two-Brain Business, “the worldwide closures resulted in an estimated 44 percent decline in revenue, from $96.7 billion in 2019 to $54.2 billion in 2021.” Additionally, according to Statistics Canada, “businesses in this industry reported a combined decrease of 23.1% in their operating revenues to $3.5 billion in 2020, as government-mandated restrictions forced the closure of fitness centres to limit the spread of COVID-19.”
The fitness industry was one of the largest to be affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting not only gyms and studios, but people’s mental and physical well being and owners success and livelihood.
