With Mumbai allowing gyms to reopen, will the fitness industry get back into shape soon?

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After months of fitness training online, Mitchell Mathew, who resides in Mumbai, visited a gym for a workout session. Gyms in Mumbai were allowed to reopen from October 25.

The standard operating procedures (SOPs) for gyms in Mumbai are in line with what the Centre has proposed. They include gyms operating at 50 percent capacity, use of face masks at all times, maintaining a six-feet distance between those who are working out at gyms, among others.

As for the sanitisation process, gyms are spraying disinfectants on equipment and machines after every slot, and the sanitisation process goes on for around 30 minutes. Also, at a time, around 9-10 people are allowed, depending on the size of the gym or the fitness studio.

“The feeling of working out at a physical gym or fitness centre is refreshing. While I was working out at home, and using online fitness sessions, the gym has its own set of equipment and machines that can only be availed at a physical fitness centre," he said.

Like Mathew, there are many who have flocked to gyms in Mumbai, one of the biggest markets for the gym and fitness industry.

“Currently, existing members, with long-term membership, are coming. Right now, we are working at 50 percent capacity. Out of that, on the first day, we had around 40-45 percent footfalls. We are seeing around 70-80 people coming to our gym in a day. Before the pandemic, we used to have 200 member footfalls a day,” said Badal Makwana, Managing Director, Anytime Fitness, a gym in Khar and Andheri.

Makwana said that members at his gym are happy to be back and this is why he is confident that the footfalls will increase in the coming days.

Vaibhav Keshav Pawaskar, Marketing head, Reset Life, a gym in Mumbai, pointed out that many people are not coming to gyms currently because of the festive period.

This is why Reset Life saw less-than-expected turnout in the first few days.

“It was lower than our expectations. We expected 150 people to show up, but for the first two days, we saw around 90-100 people coming to the gym. Most of our members are out of town. In the pre-COVID period, we used to see, on an average, around 200-220 people in a day,” said Pawaskar.

He also added that, currently, members at his gym are opting for cardio sessions. “There are people who are doing body type workout. So, around 10-15 percent of our members are asking for personal trainers and these customers were with us pre-COVID also through online sessions.”

Hybrid model the way forward

This is why most gym owners believe that the hybrid model will be the way forward and they will continue offering online fitness classes.

“While gyms and fitness centres have reopened across India, virtual fitness services gaining prominence with the consumers will help gym businesses recover sales. Hybrid fitness services will co-exist and contribute towards the recovery of the fitness industry,” said Rajvee Gandhi, AVP Marketing, Fitternity, a fitness discovery and booking platform.

She added that virtual fitness consumption in metro cities contribute 54 percent to Fitternity's overall business, whereas other cities contribute 46 percent. Before the pandemic, physical fitness consumption in metros contributed 87 percent to the overall business.

While it has been only a few days of gyms reopening in Mumbai, gyms in Bengaluru restarted operations in August. Since then, the number of people coming to gyms have increased but the pace remains slow.

“Footfalls have not been significantly high. We have our regular clients coming. When we started in September, we had just about 25 people coming to the gym in 18 days. But now the number has changed. It increased to 35 members and now to 45 members in a day and this should increase further,” said Shashank Sharma, owner, F45 Training, a fitness centre in Bengaluru.

Turnout of female clients comes down

He added that before the pandemic, the number of female clients coming to the gym was high. Their turnout has come down now. “Business dynamics have changed. The challenge we have right now is to get people out of their comfort zones. Many people are relying only on online fitness classes,” said Sharma.

However, one surprising aspect for Sharma in the last few months since reopening was seeing new walk-ins coming to his gym.

He shared an incident about adding a new member to his gym. ‘There was a person from Kolkata who came to Bengaluru for work but got stuck here because of the (Coronavirus-led) lockdown. He was once passing by the gym when it had reopened and he came in. He was like an impromptu member for us and he took a one-month membership,” he said.

Yet, Sharma thinks that footfalls in his gym will marginally change by March next year.

As for the Mumbai gym owners, they are more confident about getting more people back. While Makwana thinks that business will be back to pre-COVID-levels by December, Pawaskar expects the same to happen by March next year.

There are challenges for gym owners in terms of SOPs which do not allow the use of wet areas, saunas, shower. As a result, gyms are operating only at 50 percent capacity.

The restriction in number of people coming to a gym is resulting in gym owners focussing on existing members only.

“Our priority for the first weeks are existing members. We first want to manage the crowd for our members," said Pawaskar.

Makwana added that they are letting people come to the gym only after members have booked slots on their website.

But getting back consumer confidence is key, said Makwana, who added that there are many who aren't coming to gyms because they are still assessing crowd control and hygiene norms.

Prateek Sood, Director, Grand Slam Fitness, distributor of fitness equipment is also optimistic about the gym industry."Gradually things will get back to the normal routine as fitness enthusiasts are just waiting to hit the gyms and get into their normal regime."