After weeks of lockdown, gyms have started opening up. Enquiries are being made, new membership plans offered but gym rats as well as gym owners have worries at the back of their minds.

Earlier this week, two teenagers - Mayur Singh and Arihant Chatterjee — were visiting Anytime Fitness in DD Block to check out the facilities. “We are final-year students of DPS Newtown and till the pandemic, were heavily into basketball, football, cricket and swimming. With hardly any option for outdoor sports now, we are considering joining a gym,” said Mayur, a resident of Sanjeeva Town. But they confessed that their parents were a tad worried about taking an annual membership in case another lockdown gets declared.

Fee worry

Naved Ali, who runs the EC Bock gym Endorfins, confesses that this is a worry dogging members. “So we are promising them extensions in membership in case more lockdowns get declared,” says Ali. It also helps that their three-storey building is not rented. Since they do not have to pay rent through locked down months, members need not worry about them shutting down.

In a township where several gyms have had to close down in recent months, the FitNet Muscle Den chain has taken over another one in CF Block in April. “Our research shows that many people have been searching for gyms in this area and so we took the plunge,” says general manager Prasenjit Sinha. They even offered a 50 per cent discount on a yearly membership days before opening up. “Now we have a 30 per cent discount offer on but have to be careful about the number of people we take in as we cannot allow over-crowding in Covid times either.”

Covid protocol

Anytime Fitness has an elaborate sanitisation programme in place. “We are fumigating the air, mopping the floor with chemicals, have installed a ‘coronaguard’ machine. When the gym is empty we are switching on UV lights,” says assistant manager, Raja Nandy. Both supposedly disable or kill the virus, he claimed.

Endorfins has chosen to keep its spa, jacuzzi, steam bath and even yoga section shut so as to avoid gatherings.

BD Gym, that is run by the ward atop BD Market, is encouraging members to wear gloves while using equipment. “We had about 90 members before the lockdown and in the first six days of opening, half of them have rejoined. Most of our members go for monthly payment instead of long-term ones. Our ward coordinator Ratna Bhaumik came down in the initial days to brief staff and members about Covid protocols,” said ward assistant Subhasish Ghosh.

Timing trouble

The USP of Anytime Fitness, before the pandemic, was that it was open 24 hours a day. Sector V employees with odd work hours are known to have hit the gym even at 2am. “Now the government mandates us to operate only from 6 to 10am and 4 to 8pm,” says Nandy.

“The timings are certainly not long enough. Homemakers, for instance, would prefer coming around noon but now we have to shut then,” says Ali of Endorfins. It doesn’t help that many gyms are shut on Sundays.

Shutters down

Some of the biggest names in the gymming business have closed down during the pandemic. One in GD Block has a padlocked gate and the driveway is strewn with withered leaves. Another one on a DD Block highrise is locked too, with the equipment visible through glass doors. A BE Block building that would house another renowned gym has even removed its nameplate outside.

“I shut The Fitlab last year itself. How long could I go on paying rent without any returns,” asks Arunava Nandy, himself a nutritionist and wellness consultant now serving clients online. “I lost Rs 8-9 lakh. I had invested heavily in the interiors of the gym and the expensive equipment had to be done away with in a distress sale.”

Arunava does not see a revival in the industry till Covid is completely wiped out. “Before that, I could restart the business but what if there’s another indefinite lockdown?” asks the HA Block resident.