BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he will release reopening guidelines for gyms on Monday. Gyms are among the last businesses to be allowed to reopen in New York.
Gym owners say they news couldn't come soon enough.
“It’s been five months, and it’s been a long five months," said Frank Berrafato, Managing Partner at Absolute Performance at the Eastern Hills Mall.
Berrafato said the gym is ready to meet any reopening protocols Cuomo announces.
“If he says that we need to be every 15 feet, we have plenty of space to accommodate that," Berrafato said.
The floors are already marked, and the gym will do appointments only to keep track of who comes in. Part of Absolute Performance's facilities opened under recreational activities
Unsure of when they could reopen Absolute Performance set up an outdoor workout area on Friday before Cuomo's announcement. Revolution in Buffalo has been holding outdoor fitness classes for the past couple of weeks, including cycling in Larkin Square.
“There’s just been so many bumps in the road, we’ve just had to pivot, pivot, pivot," said Kathleen Granchelli a Business Manager at Revolution.
She said the studio is ready to pivot to its next step. They have new schedules, cleaning procedures, and marked off workout areas with numbers that correspond to a treadmill.
She said she's most interested in hearing what Cuomo says about workout classes.
“Since we are allowed to have small group classes, I think that is great," she said. "We can contact trace, so we see who’s coming in, who’s coming out, we can control the size of the classes, so I’m really interested to hear specifically about small group stuff.”
There are no details on what the reopening guidelines will include, but the gyms say they've been ready since Phase 4 which was when they were initially slated to reopen.
Bowling alleys will be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity on Monday.
