Wodonga CrossFit TMA owners converted its classes to online workouts in a matter of days after gyms closed their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Owners Zak Rogers and Scott Foley had one goal in mind – "Continually improve the lives of our members".
“A lot of members reached out quickly and said they were happy to retain their membership if they could still train,” Mr Rogers said.
The gym, which opened on January 3 in Church St, covers four business pillars including one-on-one coaching, group coaching, nutrition coaching and mindset coaching.
The online training involves members downloading an app for the ‘workout of the day’ which is a video of the workout, as well as a video demonstration of each move and a written explanation of the workout.
“We have filmed ourselves doing each movement so our members can see how each move is performed correctly,” Mr Rogers said.
“On top of that, we have retrospective coaching where our members can film themselves doing a workout and send to us for feedback.”
The gym has a strong membership base which has slightly increased with the change to online classes.
“We have put on about eight new members and only lost a couple and that’s just because of their loss of income during this time,” Mr Rogers said.
“We have also been able to hire out our equipment.”
The business even thought about how to keep members motivated during this time.
“We have created a Facebook group with those who are doing our online classes and there’s a huge amount of conversation, encouragement and accountability that has come out of it,” Mr Rogers said.
“Some members are communicating daily, even up to three times a day, and asking the coaches questions about a range of things like how to stay motivated.”
Mr Rogers said they were now working on a plan to bring people back into the gym safely and efficiently as to avoid overcrowding and keep in line with government restrictions.
“We love our job as coaches and part of that reason is that we get to talk to people each day,” he said.
“We want to get back to being around people and help them with their fitness goals.”
Mr Rogers said the gym would continue to offer online classes when gyms reopen.
“Fitness clubs will never be the same, you have to adapt and overcome this,” he said.
“We will keep the online programming as part of our business as there will be those who will want to continue with online classes.”