Fitness awareness workouts held at Badlands Training Centre (photo courtesy Ross Lavigne)

By Chantal Wagner

"fitness is essential"

Local gyms disappointed they can’t fully reopen

Feb 1, 2021 | 4:54 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – It wasn’t exactly the announcement many Albertans were hoping for, but some COVID-19 public health measures could be slightly eased as part of the province’s Gradual Step Approach one week from today.

That includes indoor fitness centres, school sports, restaurants, and bars.

For now, only one-on-one training will be permitted in fitness gyms, dance studios, and skating rinks.

Chat News spoke with Badlands Training Centre to hear how they’re feeling about the limitations, during free outdoor awareness workouts they held on Monday.

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The workouts were approved by Alberta Health Services while following current health guidelines.

Jared Kilkenny is a personal trainer at Badlands; he believes the government is hugely overlooking the mental health aspect of fitness.

“If you can acquire alcohol, tobacco, or even cannabis freely and easily, you should be able to access your mental health (outlets) and physical well being as well,” Kilkenny said.

For now, gym-goers can only get in a workout if they book an appointment for a one-on-one session with a personal trainer.

Trainers say while this is a step in the right direction, it’s an unrealistic expectation and can be out of reach financially.

“The rules set in place has really tied gyms down to really not opening,” Badlands GM Dallas DeMan said. “If you don’t have a proper facility to do one on one training and spread yourself out, it’s really tough to get things done.”

Kilkenny adds the overall message of today’s awareness workout is the belief that physical well being and mental health are essential.

“Right now the fitness industry has been a little quiet in standing up for our beliefs. So we wanted to take this nice weather and opportunity after the government’s unfortunate lack-luster announcement on Friday and try to stay within our parameters of what they gave us to work with, and show that we believe fitness is important,” he added.

Gabrielle McKinley is a fellow trainer at Badlands, she says it felt amazing to have an in-person group fitness class.

“I think fitness has always been our normal and always should be part of our routine and our daily life because fitness is what makes us stronger,” she told Chat News.

Badlands says they will do what they can within this set of guidelines and will be offering one on one training starting on February 8.

But they can’t wait for gyms to be fully open for their clients.

“I really hope that our government officials realize today how important it is for our mental and physical health just to have gyms open and be able to interact with everybody,” McKinley added.