The Fitness Lodge Update – 23rd June 2020

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‌Hi All.

Firstly I hope you and your families are all well.

It’s been 2 weeks since our last update on the 8th June, so we feel that it’s particularly important right now with all the uncertainty to keep everyone updated with the current circumstances.

Today the 23rd June Boris announced that many industries will be opening on the 4th July, sadly the fitness industry won’t be returning on this date. From my point of view I’m not surprised to hear this. In my opinion I would assume we may be looking to reopen mid to late July, but this is only my opinion and we have to wait until the government announce any actual updates. I’m actioning all timetable and renovation works to be completed by the reopen date.

 

Outside Training –

• Due to the government allowing outside training with a maximum group of 6 people, in the next 1-2 weeks please keep an eye on the calendar as we will be undertaking outside sessions. If the demand requires it we will look to add back to back sessions.

 

Forward Planning –

• One of the most awkward elements I’ve found is trying to predict what a new normal looks like, this whole situation is unprecedented, if I told you last year that in 2020 the world will literally pause for 3 to 4 months, I know you wouldn’t have believed me. But we are here and we are all trying to work with what we have.
• I know many of our members circumstances would have changed, 9 to 5 in London meant leaving for work early to jump on a train to then in turn get back home late, quick dash to the gym then the day was done. This is now not the case, many of us are working from home meaning that old schedule has gone out the window. More people can train during the day, before work due to being local, or a bit of both. So it is possible that gyms being at peak in the evening is a thing of the past.
• For this very reason, predicting a new calendar is tough to say the least. But as always we break it down bit by bit. So….. we have created a survey to help us understand the demand as it stands, we realise this will be fluid & need to adapt week in week out & we will cater for this when planning. We would like as many completing this as possible as it will help us massively to predict what could work for as many as possible. We will post this on The Fitness Lodge Facebook group shortly after posting this update.

 

Gym Capacity

• Below you can see a little tester I did using small bits of wood all placed 2 metres apart. In this test I actually managed to fit 10 in the studio, and 12 in the front gym. Now today the government have announced they are scrapping the 2 metre distancing and adopting a 1 metre rule, obviously if I followed the 1 metre rule we could fit loads more members in but I have to also bare in mind how members feel & how I would personally feel so I’ll be sticking to smaller classes for a period of time despite what the actually rules are.
•  I count ourselves lucky that at the lodge we have 2 large open planned rooms to help scatter members around, so when I stick to lower class number to start with I’m happy that all members will feel comfortable with plenty of room around them.

Renovation –

This is well underway…

• The hallway has been repainted & new brighter lights have been installed.

New Classes Upon Opening –

• Barre Class
• Body Pump
• Pilates

 

After all of this, I feel very positive about the future, with trainers more than ever excited to get back. We have new trainers you have seen online but never met in person which I know you will all love & will very much fit straight into teamlodge.

New classes give members more options and upgraded facilities helps aid a fresh new start.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone, team and members for all the consistent support, I feel very proud to be helping and supporting such an amazing group of people.

Fingers crossed the next announcement will be WE ARE BACK! 🙂

Please all stay safe & look forwards to seeing you all again very soon.

Kind regards,

John Lodge