For those of us who were keeping up with exercise during circuit breaker, we’ve been jogging or going for walks at the park, doing calisthenic home workouts and following our favourite fitness influencers. But there’s no denying that we did miss the gym and its perks.
Now that Phase 2 is here, our favourite gyms and fitness studios have been progressively reopening to the delight of fitness enthusiasts and anyone raring to sweat it out outside of their homes.
This is not given unconditionally, though restrictions have been eased to allow for group fitness activities to resume. An advisory by Sport Singapore covers a slew of measures related to all sports and physical activities in consultation with industry players, and all private operators are to adhere to it.
With nearly three months of pent-up energy from members, coupled with significantly reduced capacity, gyms, fitness studios and other facilities may be overwhelmed with demand.
Slots at major gyms and fitness studios such as Pure Group and Yoga Movement are almost fully booked the moment they are opened, especially for classes by popular instructors. It’s back to the fastest fingers game, except that now, the pie has shrunk.
Cassandra Lau, co-owner of Actualize CrossFit, is psyched to get back in action, but she’s approaching with caution. “We are facing a high volume of members rushing to join the classes. To this end, we have limited each member’s booking to a maximum of three classes a week. We are also continuing with online classes for those who prefer to work out from home,” says Cassandra.
As you start packing your gym bag, be prepared for a new ball game. The preventive measures put in place will change the nature of your usual workout – making it less enjoyable or even (horrors!) rendering it not worth pursuing at this point until measures are relaxed.
And let’s not forget, the safety concerns of sweating buckets in an enclosed area with strangers – and possibly sharing equipment with them – are still there.
Before you decide whether to join the (hopefully controlled) crowd or wait it out, let’s take a look at the main measures and what they mean for us, in terms of enjoyment and safety.
