BOSTON — The ‘temporarily closed’ signs on most fitness businesses will be taken down by Monday morning as gyms got the green light to reopen in Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan.
“We took a little bit of a hit but we are hoping we can recoup from this with our loyal customers,” said Jeffrey Fortier, who owns Answer Is Fitness in North Attleborough. Fortier suspended membership dues during the shutdown and loyal customers are ready to start paying again.
“I can’t wait,” said Tony DelPozzo, who worked out six days a week before gyms were ordered to close due to the coronavirus. “It’s terrible. I haven’t done hardly anything at home. I can’t get excited about working out at home.”
“They were getting over the virtual classes,” said Arteca’s Karate Academy owner Jared Arteca. “Nothing was replacing the in person outdoor experience. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been doing outdoor classes. We’re able to serve more people that way and we were just waiting for the go ahead to start moving indoors gradually.”
Some gyms like Arteca's Karate Academy in West Boylston have continued their classes online and even outdoors, but even that's not the same.
[ It’s official: Phase 3 of reopening Massachusetts starts Monday ]
Also on tap to open are museums, movie theaters and professional sports with no spectators and casinos. Larger gatherings are also going to be allowed inside and outside.
Gov. Baker says recent health data has the state ready for Phase 3 and as long as everyone continues to comply there won’t be a reopening reversal.
“The place where you get into the biggest trouble with respect to all of this is not abiding by the rules,” said Baker at a press conference on Thursday.
The 24-Hour fitness center in North Attleborough says it will shut down every two hours to clean and disinfect things and have hand sanitizer, masks, and disinfectant available to customers. Plus gyms will have capacity restrictions. This facility for example can only allow 150 people per hour based on square footage.
“Signage to keep social distancing six feet apart, using every other machine so we do not have people on top of each other and our class sizes will be very limited,” said Fortier. “Plus we have orchestrated an online sign-up list.”
[ Movie theaters in Massachusetts cleared to reopen Monday ]
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