Hemel Hempstead gym helps members stay active with online classes

A gym in Hemel Hempstead has been helping members keep active with online classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Energie Fitness, in Marlowes, is run by cousins Roberto Correa and Andres Pavia and they have moved the classes online to help their members keep busy during the lockdown.

They have been doing classes and work out sessions on Facebook, Instagram and Zoom and have also been posting healthy eating ideas on their social media channels.

Roberto said: "We are trying to be as active as possible and we have increased our online presence.

"We have always been active on social media, but even more so now

"We have been doing classes every day, sometimes five or six a day for our members, we do it through Instagram, Facebook, Zoom, different platforms so we can reach everyone.

"We want to help people stay active, my cousin and I spent about 80 hours a week at the gym, we know our members and there was a real community feel and we wanted that to continue.

"We have had a really good response to the online classes, we are really grateful for our members who have continued to support us.

"We opened the classes out to everyone, we want to help the whole community, not just our members

"We are posting workouts, classes, exercises, healthy eating ideas on social media."

On Sunday, May 10, Boris Johnson said people should return to work if they can't do so from home - but they should try to avoid public transport for social distancing reasons.

Garden centres and golf clubs across England also reopened from May 13, with social distancing measures in place.

The Prime Minister also said there would now be no limit to the amount of exercise allowed, and people were allowed to meet with one other person from a different household while our exercising.

But there is no date yet for when gyms will be able to reopen.

Roberto said: "I think the government is doing a fantastic job, it is not possible for them to have all the answers, we just have to wait and see what happens.

"Following the Government announcement we are hoping to open in July.

"Of course we want to go back to some sort of normality but the health and safety of people is more important.

"We already started carrying out measures before lockdown was introduced to ensure the health and safety of our members, which will be continuing when we are allowed to reopen.

"We increased the cleaning at the gym and made sure there was hand sanitiser and we stopped the use of some equipment so people could keep their distance.

"We do not want everything to open and then the country sees another peak in cases and deaths from coronavirus.

"We will continue to follow government guidelines when we do open and we will continue to clean regularly as we were before lockdown and we will have sanitiser available and we will carry out social distancing.

"I imagine the government will have rules set in place and we will also be following those.

"I think classes will not be possible for a while as it will be difficult to maintain social distancing."

For more information visit: www.energiefitness.com/hemel-hempstead.