Will gyms survive lockdown? Gold's Gym permanently closing 30 locations

[Xenom0rph]

This has got me worried. If social distancing becomes permanent law gyms will probably not survive. More frustrating is that price gougers are ripping off people on craigslist for basic sh1t like dumbells and kettlebells. I saw an ad charging $240 for a single kettlebell....

....absolutely absurd...

https://www.businessinsider.com/golds-gym-closing-gyms-permanently-list-addresses-2020-4

 

[Vantagepoint34]

The minute my gym close. My ebay shopping list for certain exercise machines went out of stock. Very likely nothing I was looking for in the past will come back in stock. Even a bolt on pulley is hard to find. Luckily I did my homework and bought one from a specific sites complicated checkout process... This is just the beginning.

 

[Focal core]

Had to do something about this as well.. Its hard to find the equipment i used to at the gym and become expensive, i didnt mind paying, but they nowhere to be found.

 

[darksprezzatura]

Look up resistance bands. Cheap and portable.

 

[Machine10033]

I have a home gym ironically I put my home gym in after I caught swine flu from some guy that was hacking and sweating all over the place at the gym I belonged to. I think commercial gyms are seriously going to struggle. In my state they are lumping gyms into the high risk category with bars and casinos. The local owners were already barely making it prior to this pandemic.

 

[logicallefty]

In September I moved from the country into town, 1 mile from a Golds, so I got rid of my home gym stuff. Really regretting it now.

 

[Xenom0rph]

The gym isnt just about fitness, the social aspect of it is what makes it enjoyable. I frequently play basketball with some guys at the gym after a lift session... I also enjoy relaxing in the sauna and Jacuzzi......

 

[Who Dares Win]

They close gyms and they will have plenty of men pissed off and unable to blow steam when needed.

A man cant just "jog", a man has to lift heavy and hard not only for the final result but for the process itself.

They cant say that beauty saloons are safe but gyms are not.

 

[Seductions_Mad_Scientist]

This has got me worried. If social distancing becomes permanent law gyms will probably not survive. More frustrating is that price gougers are ripping off people on craigslist for basic sh1t like dumbells and kettlebells. I saw an ad charging $240 for a single kettlebell....

....absolutely absurd...

https://www.businessinsider.com/golds-gym-closing-gyms-permanently-list-addresses-2020-4

It's temporary my guy, don't worry.

Keep in mind we've only been in "covid mode" for about 136 days as of May 15 2020 (time since first case)

I understand your worry but even if a large portion of gyms (and for that matter restaurants too) close new ones will open.

Think of it this way. If you own a gym, go bankrupt, sell your assets to cover your liabilities as much as possible that sucks for sure. However, someone will eventually buy the equipment, rent the space, adjust to payments you were unable to make.

At the medium time scale or larger its more of an asset reshuffling than a categorical decrease in total asset value. Even if globally the shape of the global economic change is more like an L than a V (fast decline and slow increase vs. fast decline and fast increase ) I dont personally believe that the long term economic impacts will be that bad.

As for the price increases of certain products I think it's just temporary inflation, cash flow crunches and rent-seeking behaviours.

I do think the responses to Covid have been economically harmful but not YET catastrophically so.

Keep your chin up.

 

[DEEZEDBRAH]

This has got me worried. If social distancing becomes permanent law gyms will probably not survive. More frustrating is that price gougers are ripping off people on craigslist for basic sh1t like dumbells and kettlebells. I saw an ad charging $240 for a single kettlebell....

....absolutely absurd...

https://www.businessinsider.com/golds-gym-closing-gyms-permanently-list-addresses-2020-4

Xeno mate, I'm deezedbrah lol. I love the gym. I swear I was conceived in one lulz not cereal.

I am more concerned about the ma and pa family biz. London is a a ghost town. Many places are boarded up sadly.

I was unaware of the gold gym closure. Insane. I am really enjoying home and backyard exercises. I miss park core workouts.

I don't envy anybody who has owned a gym atm. Honestly, if i did i would open and limit it to 50 ppl and for a hour max. Go full on Elon. Arrest me. Granted elon is planning to terraform mars.

Keep in mind, Elon is the archetypal James Bond villain.

 

[Xenom0rph]

Well, another one bites the dust.... 24Hr Fitness filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.... technically Chapter 11 is a form a debt restructure so it's not Gamer Over Man Gamer Over just yet.....

But with the way the world is going, with all this social distancing, I honestly don't know how 24Hr Fitness would survive.

It's a shame because I enjoy the convenience of being able to swim laps at 3:00 am if I felt the urge to do so.

And also, I feel bad for the guys living car life, these guys would use their 24Hr Fitness memberships as a way to have 24 hour access to bathrooms and showers. I feel for them.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com

 

[thinker]

@Xenom0rph this is just a temporary reduction, the surviving gyms will be doing better and at some point enough demand will build up so that new players will get in the game. From what I have read Gold's gym was having financial issues before the China virus, honestly if their is one good thing about the China virus is that it is going to take out some of the weaker competitors.

 

[Poonani Maker]

^^ where I'm from, you have to wear a mask into and out of the gym.. the fvck? they can't be serious. I can't breathe with that thing on doing TRX or whatever boxing pad work etc. Only 4 people allowed in at a time too. Used to be 50 or so. Only 4 time slots and you can't "share" equipment. I'd rather train at home anyway. My interval timer app will sometimes reset while I'm running 2+ miles in the middle of my workout, causing me to have to start over when I get back to my house, but I see it as a challenge of the gods. I have to complete a workout in the app so that it gets recorded or keeps track. Today I was a drenched sweat ball, just soaked. Lost about 3 lbs. even with the water drank. Could only do 7 pullups though, but a pregnant mother and her kids went straight towards me at the monkey bars and I had to get out of there anyway. I'm like wtf are they coming over here for?

 

[SW15]

I think gyms will survive the COVID crisis because of the obesity crisis. We're too fat collectively. We need to lose weight.

In the short run, some gym companies will have problems. I heard that 24 Hour was considering bankruptcy, and Gold's is restructuring. I'm curious to see how class based studios like Orangetheory, Soul Cycle, Title Boxing, etc survive this.

 

[stovepipe]

Corporate gyms might but I do not see a lot of small independent gyms surviving. My prediction is we haven't even begun to see the true economical damage this lock down will have on business's. Come 4-6 months from now you're going to see a lot of empty commercial real estate.

When everything opens there is going to be some really ridiculous sanitation and post covid safety rules in place like wearing masks, plastic dividers on treadmills, maybe close showers temporarily, close every other locker to social distance. Some people are not going to like it that they'll cancel their membership.

Then you have a group of people who invested in some form of a home gym during the lockdown. Those people have now adapted to them to the point they see no reason to go back on top of the monthly savings. Then the people who live in fear who might wait a year from now before stepping foot in a gym.

I think gyms will survive the COVID crisis because of the obesity crisis. We're too fat collectively. We need to lose weight.

In the short run, some gym companies will have problems. I heard that 24 Hour was considering bankruptcy, and Gold's is restructuring. I'm curious to see how class based studios like Orangetheory, Soul Cycle, Title Boxing, etc survive this.

Most obese people sign up on New years, go for a month to brag to their friends, then stop going. Obese people have now adapted to walking outside as their main form of exercise or doing things like online at home workouts. Also with the huge number of unemployed people, they arent going to have the extra income to spend for a while. It's that's gap of getting up financially that's going to cripple gyms on top of fear.

 

[SW15]

Corporate gyms might but I do not see a lot of small independent gyms surviving. My prediction is we haven't even begun to see the true economical damage this lock down will have on business's. Come 4-6 months from now you're going to see a lot of empty commercial real estate.

When everything opens there is going to be some really ridiculous sanitation and post covid safety rules in place like wearing masks, plastic dividers on treadmills, maybe close showers temporarily, close every other locker to social distance. Some people are not going to like it that they'll cancel their membership.

Then you have a group of people who invested in some form of a home gym during the lockdown. Those people have now adapted to them to the point they see no reason to go back on top of the monthly savings. Then the people who live in fear who might wait a year from now before stepping foot in a gym.

Most obese people sign up on New years, go for a month to brag to their friends, then stop going. Obese people have now adapted to walking outside as their main form of exercise or doing things like online at home workouts. Also with the huge number of unemployed people, they arent going to have the extra income to spend for a while. It's that's gap of getting up financially that's going to cripple gyms on top of fear.

My gym, a small independent one, just opened up this week and the sanitation and safety rules are insane! I'm only going because I need to be there to do approaches. And even doing approaches at the gym is difficult with mask wearing. It's difficult to read body language without seeing a smile due to a mask covering. Nevertheless, I did get one approach in at the gym this week.

I agree that the true economic damage isn't showing up yet because a lot of people are artificially being kept afloat on the supplemental $600/week of unemployment. If you're getting $600/week from supplemental unemployment + $300-$550 in standard state unemployment, you're doing ok for now. The jobs that are coming back in the latest jobs report are the low wage, service sector jobs. The white collar people with $45,000 - $85,000 annual salaries who were laid off aren't getting hired. White collar hiring isn't happening.

I would like to think that the low end gyms chains like Planet Fitness and YouFit, which are typically like $10-$20 month, will survive just because they are so cheap. LA Fitness and 24 Hour Fitness are typically like $25-$35/month. People should still have enough $$ for that.

 

[Lynx nkaf]

Fitness centres open here, tomorrow the 8th.

 

[SW15]

I think gyms will survive the COVID crisis because of the obesity crisis. We're too fat collectively. We need to lose weight.

In the short run, some gym companies will have problems. I heard that 24 Hour was considering bankruptcy, and Gold's is restructuring. I'm curious to see how class based studios like Orangetheory, Soul Cycle, Title Boxing, etc survive this.

24 Hour Fitness filed for bankruptcy

 

[Xenom0rph]

24 Hour Fitness filed for bankruptcy

They also permanently closed 100 of their gyms...... They're now requiring people to reserve workout times in 60 minute blocks.... This will certainly p1ss off more members and cause more people to cancel memberships....

The purpose of a 24 hour gym is to provide members the convenience of working out ANYTIME they want. If members have to make reservations to work out in blocks of 60 minutes per session, and if 24hr fitness branches only are open from 4AM to 12AM every day, then that defeats the purpose of why people signed up for a 24 hour gym....

This is ridiculous....Lockdown was the most idiotic approach to this scamdemic.....

 

[SW15]

They also permanently closed 100 of their gyms...... They're now requiring people to reserve workout times in 60 minute blocks.... This will certainly p1ss off more members and cause more people to cancel memberships....

The purpose of a 24 hour gym is to provide the members with the convenience of working out ANYTIME they want. If members have to make reservations to work out in blocks of 60 minutes per session, and if 24hr fitness branches only are open from 4AM to 12AM every day, then that defeats the purpose of why people signed up for a 24 hour gym....

This is ridiculous....Lockdown was the most idiotic approach to this scamdemic.....

I agree that there was a massive overreaction on the part of government and business to the pandemic.

My gym, which is not 24 Hour Fitness, did the reserve workout blocks time, reduced hours, and reduced access to equipment upon re-open. They've ended the reserving workout times.