CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - One day after commercial gyms in Fort Lauderdale were allowed to open their doors for the first time in nearly two months, gym owners in the rest of Broward County are asking leaders to let them follow suit.
At USK Karate in Coral Springs, the only kind of lesson they’re allowed to give their young members is of the virtual kind.
But owners and staffers at smaller fitness studios in Broward County like USK said they need to reopen now.
Members of the Florida Gym Owners Coalition gathered at USK on Tuesday to deliver a message to county leaders: open gyms and fitness studios.
“We want action. We want our voices to be heard,” said Michelle Brown with CrossFit Vice during the meeting.
Gym owners said they’re willing to follow all necessary precautions to ensure their clients’ safety.
“All the CDC guidelines can be followed,” said Justin Brown the owner of CrossFit Vice.
Brown gave 7News a tour of CrossFit Vice, also located in Coral Springs, Tuesday night.
“There’s absolutely plenty of social distancing space. Today the mayor talked about 10 feet of space. Mayor, we can give them 50 feet of space,” she said. “There is plenty of room here.”
There might be plenty of space at many of these gyms, but owners of boutique and micro gyms in Broward said time is of the essence to reopen, with an added emphasis on social distancing, sanitization and crowd control.
“You can see we’ve clearly taped off,” she said as she showed how the gym will enforce social distancing restrictions.
“Because we can control the number of people, that also means that we can also control the processes within our facility,” said David Alvas with USK Karate.
Alvas said he will attain that goal by keeping the gym filled at below half capacity and by appointment only.
During Tuesday’s meeting, members of the Florida Gym Owners Coalition said they want to make the distinction between smaller facilities like theirs and the larger, sometimes corporate-owned, more traditional health clubs.
Brown spoke with 7News about the efforts to ensure all the county’s gyms are reopened.
“Allow our members to come back and to experience the benefits of being in our gyms, doing it in a safe manner, and allow for people to have some semblance of normalcy again.” he said.
In the current climate, gym owners said, staying fit, healthy, well trained and coached is needed more than ever.
“They need their coaches, and they need their community. They need the people around them, their support structure in order to follow through,” said Rick Davies, a trainer at Warriors Coral Springs. “Right now, people are sitting on the couches. They have cabin fever, and they’re turning to alcohol, and they’re turning to junk food, and that’s just making their mental state even worse.”
“We can certainly clean equipment. We have the ability to control the people, the amount of people who are coming in and out of our gyms, and we know who these people are,” he said. “At this point, we ask, we urge you to make a smart decision.”
While Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis gave the green light for gyms to open on Monday with restrictions, the situation in the rest of the county remains tricky.
“The distancing of 10 feet and shields, and those things probably ought to be put in place before we get there,” said Broward County Mayor Dale Holness. “We have to be purposeful and ensure that we have the right protocols in place, and it can’t be just today and tomorrow, I don’t think. I don’t think we’re ready for that at this point in time.”
Some of the owners of smaller gyms said they don’t have time to wait any longer. They said that if they wait longer than a week or so, or even a few days in some cases, they will go under.
“I think that a lot of those elected to be in power don’t understand the impact that this is having on small businesses,” said Brown. “We have no new members coming in. The economics of that for a small gym is absolutely crushing us.”
As of Tuesday night, Holness has not given a timetable for gyms to reopen.
Anyone with questions and concerns about the coronavirus can call the Florida Department of Health’s 24-hour hotline at 1-866-779-6121.
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