OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Gyms in and around Kansas City, Missouri, are slowly starting to reopen. Planet Fitness announced several of its locations opened for the first time this week since shutting down due to the novel coronavirus in March.
Life Time opened its fitness centers in Johnson County, Kansas, right after Memorial Day. And Genesis Health Clubs have steadily reopened recently as well.
Greg Gilbertson, the senior general manager of Life Time’s location in Overland Park, walked 41 Action News through some of the major changes people using the gym will notice.
First, employees have their temperature taken upon arriving to work. Any employee with a fever is sent home.
The front desk offers free, disposable masks to clients, but clients are not required to use them while working out. Friday morning, we only saw one client wearing a mask while exercising.
Staff members are now required to carry a rag and bottle of Prokure disinfectant with them wherever they go. Life Time continues to retrain the staff on the best sanitizing techniques.
Life Time asks clients to wipe down equipment before and after use and has provided sanitizer at several new cleaning stations throughout the facility.
Workout equipment is spaced six feet apart to maintain social distancing.
Gilbertson said clients have steadily returned to the gym over the past two weeks and it is nearly operating on the same occupancy it was prior to shutting down.
Life Time’s CEO Bahram Akradi was part of a team of corporate business owners that helped President Donald Trump create guidelines to reopen the economy.
Planet Fitness installed contactless check-in at its locations and is asking clients to give one another thumbs up instead of high fives, among several other changes.
Genesis Health Clubs takes the temperature of everyone who enters the facility and installed high-tech purification systems in the busiest parts of their clubs, which kill airborne viruses, including the coronavirus.
