Victoria lockdown: Gyms close as Melbourne shuts down
Fitness fanatics have squeezed in final workouts as Victoria’s unprecedented shutdown started. We travelled across Melbourne to find the many gyms and employees facing uncertain futures, and ask stricken businesses: Where to from here?
Leader
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Fitness fanatics swarmed to gyms for one last workout as the state slowly shut down today.
Indoor sporting centres were also ordered to close, with gyms inundated with members rushing to suspend and cancel their contracts.
Widespread suspensions
While some exercise-enthusiasts took the chance to get their last workouts in before the ban began, gym employees say most members were focused on their future payments.
Many gyms have made the decision to suspend all memberships indefinitely while the government’s restrictions are in place — meaning members won’t have to pay while they can’t use the gym’s service.
The floor was “extremely busy” at Spartans Gym & Fitness in Kilsyth South about 10am, after management sent out an email about the gym’s closure.
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Member care manager Lana Brewster said the gym was twice as busy as it normally was late on a Monday morning.
“All our members are coming in to do their last sessions, and to stock up on protein,” she said.
Ms Brewster said management had emailed all members to assure them their memberships would be put on hold without a charge.
“We want to keep the community vibe going — we want to keep (customers) happy.”
It was incredibly busy at the gym at Kieser Malvern on Monday morning as members took the chance to get their last workouts in.
The company — which also has gyms at Mont Albert, Caulfield, Heidelberg and Camberwell — also received more than 1000 calls about membership before noon, according to customer support manager Holly Lawler.
She said Kieser had closed its general gym but members were invited to undertake weekly one-on-one training by video link.
Physio and exercise physiology appointments, which are considered an essential service, are still running at Kieser and can still be booked.
Ms Lawler said members could also go online to defer their membership for free if they wanted to.
There weren’t many people working out at Goodlife Health Club at Camberwell in the lead up to its closure, with only about 10 members on the floor, according to membership consultant Ella Sansom.
She said the centre had been receiving a lot of calls about membership, but management was yet to make a decision for Goodlife Health Clubs,
She said memberships would probably be suspended without charge to begin with.
All F45 franchises are putting their own plans into place, according to F45 Malvern trainer Patricia Beaton.
Her franchise is discounting membership costs while it offers live-streamed workouts with trainers so members can be active at home.
In Boronia, Busybodies Lifestyle and Wellness was busy on Monday morning, but not on the floor.
Staff member Marcus Tomlan said some people were working out while the team was inundated with people calling up and coming in to inquire about their memberships.
He said lots of people had suspended their memberships over the past week, while many had cancelled their contracts.
Mr Tomlan said all memberships were being put on hold without charge.
“We can’t make people pay — we can’t even offer the 24-hour service.”
Melbourne Muscle Gym was “pretty much packed” in the hours before the lockdown, according to membership consultant Matt McDonald.
He said lots of people were coming in to the Bayswater North gym to cancel their memberships, but memberships were being put on hold without a fee anyway.
“We can’t make people pay for something they won’t be able to use,” Mr McDonald said.
Claude Sedacca, of True Fitness in Braeside, said there were a lot of people visiting for their last workout.
“Our members have been very understanding (but) most have been devastated as they feel their health is paramount,” Mr Sedacca said.
“There’s a lot of people who come here for rehab. What will they do now?”
Mr Sedacca said he had not heard how the Federal Government’s stimulus package would be rolled out.
“We have overheads that will continue and we don’t know if the government assistance will assist the landlord in helping; we will just have to wait and see,” he said.
“How are we supposed to sustain fixed overheads without any revenue?”
Mr Sedacca said members’ accounts would be suspended automatically, resuming only when the gym reopened.
He said the gym would keep members informed on how to train at home and ongoing updates via its Facebook page.
“Hopefully once all that is behind us normal service will resume,” he said.
Avid gym goer John Strempel, 58, scrambled to do one last workout before the Genesis gym in Ringwood gym shut its doors.
Mr Strempel, of Chirnside Park, has been a member for 12 years and visited daily for his exercise fix.
He said the atmosphere was “eerie” as the gym prepared to close for an unknown period of time.
“Normally music is pumping and there’s people everywhere,” he said.
“It’s almost like its Christmas Eve and everyone’s about to go home, but no one’s celebrating, it’s very weird.”
Mr Strempel said he was disappointed to have to stay away from the gym as it was “a critical part of what I do for the day”.
He said he would train outside and go for walks and runs at his local athletics track to keep up his routine.
Genesis’ regional fitness manager Kate Groube said the gym had suspended memberships and would offer members online videos and other home training options while they were closed.
“We have an amazing community here and our priority is to keep everyone connected from a physical but more importantly emotional health point of view,” she said.
“The gym is a sanctuary for a lot of people – they don’t just train here for the physical outcome, they come to be part of something, and we are going to do everything we can to keep our community connected.”
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