New Hartford, NY - “Over the last 10 weeks or so, we’ve pivoted into a more virtual model and over and over again what we hear is that it’s tough to find the motivation, especially for people who have children at home, you know it’s hard to find that time to get away. So just having that ‘me’ time and having that coach there to hold you accountable is a huge part of it all,” said Anthony Mucurio, Owner of Prime Movement and Performance Gym in New Hartford
After over two months, gyms in the Mohawk Valley are re-opening their doors to the public. But with restrictions.
According to the state's reopening overview, recreational businesses cannot reopen until phase four. Making the thought of gyms reopening farfetched.
But now fitness sports centers are now permitted to operate with restrictions, statewide.
Beginning June 1, Prime Movement and Performance in New Hartford will welcome fitness junkies back into their doors with a limited capacity.
“We’ve always had a cap on classes. Our traditional cap is 16 now we've kind of scale that down to eight to be a little bit under capacity 50 percent it's kind of been the numbers that we've been hearing floating around,” said Mucurio.
Prime Performance is a reservation only business which considers itself a professional service/boutique, different from a commercial gym. When asked about the confusion upon reopening, Mucurio said,
“It’s a tough call. There isn’t anything that’s clearly out there. We have all of the protocols and things that kind of facilitate a professional service model. We felt that we fell into that category so that’s how we proceeded.”
They will incorporate new procedures following Oneida County's Best Practices Guidlines and Business Reopening Toolkit.
“Initial check in procedures will be a sanitation of the shoes, hand sanitizing and then a temperature check before the even come into the gym, there will be a person in the front doing that and as I walk through the gym they're going to go to a designated training space in the gym that’s taped out. There will already be other equipment pre-staged for them so they won't have to go and move around the gym and find equipment everything will be there and the workout will be then led by the coach,” said Mucurio.
Mohawk Valley Wellness in Marcy has also posted its reopening plans on its Facebook page.
Personal protection equipment, facility cleaning including a thirty minute buffer in between classes for sanitation, and reduced capacity to help with social distancing are some of the steps they are taking in keeping a safe environment following the county's guidelines.
“It's a delicate balance of preserving the business that we built over 10 years but also respecting our members individual choice to come back when they are ready and providing a safe environment for them to come back to,” said John Bartholomeo, Owner of Mohawk Valley Wellness. “Providing a valuable service to our community is why we’re here. So we are excited. We did a survey because we want to know what our members want and the survey was overwhelmingly 70 plus percent of our members are ready to be back we can't wait for Monday.”
Both gyms are re-opening, Monday, June 1 and will have abbreviated schedules that allow for more time to sanitize between sessions.
