- The owner of Inspire South Bay
Fitness in Redondo Beach, California has set up individual plastic workout pods to enable customers to exercise in groups and maintain social distancing. - Owner Peet Sapsin told Business Insider that the pods took three days to build and are made out of shower curtains and PVC pipes. There are nine pods in total.
- Each pod is enclosed on three sides but has an open back and open top, which has led some customers to question how safe they are as an alternative.
The owner of a California gym has found an innovative way for customers to work out in a group while maintaining social distancing rules.
Peet Sapsin, who owns Inspire South Bay Fitness in Redondo Beach, California, reopened his gym on Monday as per state guidelines, cutting class sizes from 24 to nine, and implementing a new set of individual plastic workout pods.
The pods enable customers to take a group class in the gym, while working out, maskless, in the plastic box.
The facility does not offer open gym, only classes and personal training, the latter of which takes place in another area where the client and trainer wear masks and remain physically distanced, relying on demonstrations and verbal cues.
Sapsin told Business Insider that he came up with the idea for the pods after asking customers to test working out with masks. They said that they found it hard to breathe. As a result, Sapsin started to look for other solutions.
His wife had the vision, he said, and he constructed the solution.
The new pods took around three days to build and are made out of shower curtains and PVC pipes, a more cost-effective alternative to using plexiglass, he said. They are about six feet wide and 10 feet tall.
"Our clients are loving it," he told Business Insider in a phone call on Tuesday.
On arrival, customers are asked to hand sanitize and have their temperature taken with a touchless gun. Each customer is then assigned to one of the nine pods, which has all the equipment they need, like dumbbells and a bench, for the class inside so they don't need to leave.
Each pod is enclosed on three sides and has an open back and an open top, which has led some customers to question how safe they are as an alternative.
"This makes zero sense the pods are open from the top," one commenter said on Instagram. "You think the virus goes down."
"If this isn't a joke, you need to wake up!" another wrote.
But members have left rave reviews. One took to Yelp after taking a class yesterday, saying "the Inspire team did a fantastic job of providing a safe social distanced workout. Individual workout pods set up with everything you need for the class. Sanitizer for you and the equipment. Only thing missing from pre-covid was the hi-fives."
As restrictions have eased across the country, these businesses have been working out how best to reopen to the public in a way that keeps customers safe but doesn't hinder the workout experience too much.
Sapsin said that the past few months have been "extremely difficult." He lost aobut 50% of his clients when the studio first closed, and had recently invested in an expansion, making his overhead costs even higher.
"If we had to shut down for two more months, I don't think we could have reopened," he said.
Sapsin isn't the only one who's happy the gym was able to stick it out. "A lot of our clients have been quarantined for three months, they're restless, they're anxious, a lot them have gained weight," Sapsin said. "They were more than excited" to get back in a safe way.