"Speakeasy gyms and underground gyms have always been around," he says, but "With the COVID-19 lockdowns, you are seeing an uptick in these types of gyms." "It goes to show the lengths people were willing to go to get a workout in during the lockdown," he says.īamba explains that the underground gym isn't actually anything new. One in particular had to hide its operation from a US National Guard troop and state officials at one point, Bamba says. Paul Bamba, a celebrity fitness trainer and owner of the gym Trifecta Strong in New York City, says his role as a fitness business owner in New York has enlightened him to several underground gyms in the area. In 2020, that risk is potentially contracting a deadly disease that's killed more than 220,000 people as of this writing. Gym owners all around the US took their operations underground and offered fitness classes or workout spaces to people who were willing to risk anything for fitness.
Working out in secret isn't anything new, but it's definitely more common thanks to the coronavirus. Read more: Is it safe to go back to the gym during coronavirus? The underground gym It just makes them do it in secret, public safety concerns be damned. Banning something people want doesn't stop people from doing that thing. In any case, history shows us that prohibition doesn't work - or, at least, it doesn't work well. Make it mandatory that everyone in the US lose weight, punishable by fine or imprisonment." In response, another user says, "These people know the risks associated with.working out in an enclosed space… Instead of attacking gym patrons, you should make candy bars and smoking illegal. As one Reddit user said in response to an NPR story about secret gyms, ".Gym owners caught doing this should be charged with murder when this is finally over.
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Gym bros longing for a muscle pump have squeezed themselves into tiny apartment gyms (where they don't even reside), professional athletes found workarounds to practice their craft, and across the city perhaps most obsessed with fitness, Los Angeles, an entire network of speakeasy gyms have emerged to fit the needs of those who want to work out, even though the city closed down fitness facilities.Īs you might imagine, opinions on this are strong. In a gym, you have people breathing heavily (either masked or unmasked), sweating and touching a lot of different surfaces - all things that can spread the coronavirus.ĭespite those safety concerns, people across the US spent several months doing something they weren't supposed to be doing - working out at a gym with other people. Gyms were some of the first businesses to close, based on the idea that the gym environment is more conducive to spreading germs than other spaces. In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses were closed to prevent groups of people from congregating in indoor spaces, where the coronavirus can more easily spread. In 2020, prohibition is not about alcohol - it's about fitness. In 2020, prohibition isn't about alcohol.
*Editor's note: Some names in this story have been changed to provide anonymity at the source's request. And they aren't the only ones going against public health restrictions. They hoped those precautions were enough to protect their clients.
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They took as many safety precautions as they could - limiting the number of people allowed inside their gyms, sanitized surfaces with rigor, required facial coverings and tried as best they could to keep air circulating without opening windows and doors, so no one would see the fitness classes running. They decided to pay their bills and their employees, despite the known health risks of congregating in groups while the novel coronavirus raged on. Michael and Samantha decided to reopen their businesses to survive. When that happened in early 2020, gym owners reluctantly closed their doors, hoping to reopen in two weeks when things went back to "normal." But, things have yet to return to normal, and many fitness professionals, who either didn't want to or couldn't afford to stay closed, secretly reopened their gyms against public health orders. The COVID-19 pandemic forced hundreds of thousands of businesses to close abruptly, including gyms and fitness studios.