The reopening of gyms today is a key milestone in rebuilding the physical and mental health of individuals say industry professionals.
A recent poll conducted by healthcare charity Nuffield Health revealed lack of motivation, being tired of life in lockdown and general pandemic stress are the biggest obstacles people face to looking after own their health and wellbeing in the most recent lockdown.
A spokesperson for the charity revealed feedback across its social media channels since the re-opening date for gyms was announced has been “extremely positive”. “We can’t wait to welcome our members back to our fitness and wellbeing centres,” the spokesperson added.
Ahead of reopening, the charity also revealed it has introduced a ‘Nuffield Health Covid 19 pledge’ to give members additional peace of mind in addition to earlier work it carried out with not for profit leisure industry association UKActive last summer on a framework for reopening gyms.
Measures to keep members safe include encouraging them to sanitise their hands at reception and additional hand sanitiser units throughout centres, social distancing signs around the gym, including a one-way systems where possible, limiting the number of members in each area, such as the gym floor and studios and a reduction in the amount of equipment available.
Nuffield has also added an enhanced two-stage cleaning process, using detergent and disinfectant, to sanitise all gym equipment throughout the day and clean clubs overnight.
The spokesperson adds Nuffield has also developed its connected health service offering since the start of the pandemic to enable members and customers to access connected health services virtually.
This includes the launch ‘Nuffield Health 24/7’ which enables members to access fitness and emotional wellbeing classes virtually and online emotional wellbeing services providing a range of flexible, effective psychological therapies via remote methods including phone, video or email.
There are also online physiotherapy services including the ‘My Physio’ app connecting patients needing rehabilitation with one of 550 chartered physiotherapists.
And to support families, the firm launched online hub the Kidswellbeing hub with free downloadable content and resources to aid both physical and emotional wellbeing.
Meanwhile health and life insurance and investments provider Vitality revealed it has adapted to Covid-19 by providing members with increased access to digital GP services to ensure it could meet higher demand and introduced a Covid-19 Cashback Benefit of up to £500 per day for those who are hospitalised due to infection.
It has also facilitated remote consultations where appropriate with musculoskeletal (MSK) clinicians, mental health practitioners and specialist consultants.
The firm has also announced a new partnership with virtual psychology clinic My Online Therapy to provide members with greater flexibility in how they receive their treatment.
Vitality has also introduced an enhanced form of benefits to support people to stay active at home including its Vitality at Home benefit which includes additional ways for members to get active from home with access to exercise classes through Peloton and Jennis, as well as a discount on healthy food at Waitrose.
And to reward members for being active over the week, a Rakuten benefit is on offer to give people access to some of the latest film releases at home.
Meanwhile a spokesperson for AXA Health told Health & Protection it offers its members 50% off an annual membership at PureGym to encourage them to lead healthy, active lives.
And a PureGym spokesperson revealed it has made significant operational changes to ensure its gyms are safe places to work and safe places to work out.
“We call these our TrainSafe protocols. We have also taken steps to accelerate our digital offer and have made changes to our tech in only weeks or months that ordinarily would have taken us years. Our app has increased functionality allowing members to plan their visit based on capacity and we also made our PureGym app free so that members and non-members could access 400+ workouts from home…
“We are reopening our facilities largely on the same robust basis upon which we operated our gyms in the period from July-October and in December 2020. Our protocols were approved by SAGE, implemented across our gyms and then checked in real-time by hundreds of environmental health officers. These protocols were shown, through careful data tracking, to have been highly effective in eliminating the risk of infection in our gyms and across the industry.”
And after such a long period of closure, Tara Dillon, CEO at gym sector professional body CIMSPA (Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity), told Health & Protection it would be wonderful to see indoor gyms and leisure facilities in England reopening from today.
“I know that many of our sector’s dedicated and highly trained workforce will be excited to get back to working with their clients and customers indoors once again. Being able to exercise indoors will be a huge boost to the physical and mental health of millions of people and I also look forward to seeing indoor group exercise resuming soon.”