GREAT FALLS — Under Governor Steve Bullock’s guidelines, gyms were allowed to re-open at 50 percent capacity on May 15th with strict sanitation and social distancing guidelines. Employees must sanitize equipment, and machines will be kept six feet apart to ensure members keep their distance.
While pools and locker rooms can be used, group fitness classes are not allowed which means some fitness centers that rely on group-based fitness classes won't open until a later date.
Some of the facilities reopening Friday included Big Sky Crossfit, Access Fitness, and Hi-Line Climbing Center. However, several gyms, fitness studios, and recreation centers will wait to reopen until Monday, May 18th, including Peak Health & Wellness Center and the Great Falls Community Recreation Center. Still, many others will continue providing virtual services instead of reopening their doors, like Studio Barre Great Falls and Planet Fitness.
While resuming operations is fairly simple for large-scale exercise facilities, Big Sky Crossfit in Great Falls explained how they're going to be converting the group-style high intensity workout class to suit social distancing needs. It re-opened on Friday with several changes, such as spaced-out workouts, smaller class sizes, and breaks between classes for sanitizing.
Owner Ryan Smith explained why he chose to open Friday as opposed to waiting until Monday as many other fitness centers opted to do. “We chose Friday because basically we were given the go-ahead and I know a lot of the members that came in today so far were super jazzed,” Smith said.
Although classes previously allowed up to 18 participants, now classes are limited to 6 members to allow for appropriate social distancing and ensure that no one shares equipment during the class.
Smith explained how this new class structure will work. “I’m not running them through workouts. I'm just basically telling them this is what it is. You guys have the decision basically of how you want to go through it but we have to be out the door at this time for this next set of people and then give me time to clean as well,” Smith said.
Big Sky Crossfit is located at 327 9th Street South in Great Falls; click here to visit the website.
