Lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak has impacted the fitness industry, especially the business of gyms and fitness trainers. The episode features the news of the formation of All India Gym Association which will be an organized body to take industry specific issues to the government and collectively reach a solution of the prevalent problems of the industry.

The industry has come together to give the issues of the fitness industry particularly gyms’ and trainers’ a voice, featured in the video where stalwarts of the industry appealed to the public and the government to extend their support to the industry which has given a lot to the nation which includes good health to the public.

Cult Fitness has recently slashed trainers’ jobs in huge number citing the lockdown economy crunch and lack of funds with the company. Trainers have been left jobless with no notice period and no choice either, this has created a lot of unrest among the community and social media has been thronging with messages of the ‘unfair’ move by the renowned fitness chain.

The bulleting was followed by a webinar session with Chirag  Sethi (Founder, Classic Fitness Academy), Vikas Jain (MD, Anytime Fitness) and Nikhil Kakkar (COO, Gold’s Gym). When asked about what plan of action have gyms come with, to proceed after lockdown, Nikhil Kakkar opinionated that right now there is a lot of uncertainty, gyms will be opening with government guidelines and of course, till then and afterwards also there will be an increase in the options of getting online training by personal trainers from the gym’s side. Vikas Jain also added to Nikhil Kakkar’s statement that members are willing to come back, but when they do, there will be options for them to for online training session when they are unable to come to the gym in person. Chirag Sethi gave insights on how the field of education has changed worldwide and people are getting trained online. But despite all that, in India he has noticed that going for online courses online is successful only when no or little fee is involved. In this scenario, it is a challenge to get people to enroll in bigger courses which cost more. He is positive that slowly, this will change and people will start paying for big courses and it is just a matter of time and the factor of newness with them right now.

More such questions of importance were put up by Body and Strength host and journalist Jinnie GC. To catch more news in action, watch whole episode of the Fitness Weekly | Lockdown Files: Gym (Episode 1)