You Can Help Save The Fitness Industry

Health clubs, YMCAs, university rec centers, and parks and rec facilities are under attack right now as many city, county and state officials are faced with rising COVID-19 cases in their areas. To many of these officials, closing businesses—including gyms—sounds like a rational course of action to slow the spread.

For some businesses, it might be. But studies have shown that exercise not only helps improve immune systems, but also that being obese or even just overweight can cause more complications if someone contracts COVID-19. As much as virtual workouts helped people through the shutdowns of the spring, they often can’t replace exercising at a facility full of equipment, programming and trained professionals.

At this point, no studies have shown that since the intricacies of COVID-19 spread have been better understood that gyms have been the source of large-scale COVID-19 transmissions.

But the fitness industry needs data to prove this. Real, honest data. That’s where you come in.

MXM is asking operators of health clubs, studios, YMCAs, JCCs, parks and rec facilities, and medical wellness facilities to participate in its Fitness Industry National Visits to Virus Ratio Tracking Group. It’s a survey that requires just a few moments of your time, but that time will allow MXM to show the industry and government officials a breakdown of how many COVID-19 cases have been reported at health clubs compared to the number of check-ins.

No company or personal information will be shared in the reports, so if you have had people test positive, this is not being used to report you to officials. The data is held by MXM, not government officials. MXM will anonymized all results and aggregate the data by state to then put out communication to the industry, the public and officials so everyone can better understand that health clubs are taking the precautions necessary to keep their members safe. Again, no data will be shared identifying specific gyms.

The more club owners who participate, the more accurate and thorough the reporting will be. And the better that will be for the fitness industry.

So take a few moments now to go here to take the survey. You will be asked for some basic information first (to ensure no double reporting from facilities), and then the link to the survey will be emailed to you. You will be doing your part to help the fitness industry just by clicking a few keys on your keyboard.