Fitness Studios Offer Free Online Classes Amid COVID-19

To keep their market connected amid the coronavirus pandemic that has made many of them shutter because of stay-at-home rules, fitness studios throughout the country are tapping into digital platforms. Boutique classes are, for the most part, providing complimentary sessions, and, as a result, classes are not providing firms and instructors with money, CNBC reported.

Barry’s, in one case, started to provide complimentary Instagram Live workouts on March 17. It typically has a fee that ranges from $25 to $38 for each class. Barry’s CEO Jerry Gonzalez said in a statement per the report, “Innovation is at the core of everything we do, so pivoting from in-person to social media to host live-at home workouts was instinctual for us.”

Rumble, for its part, has also had complimentary workouts each day on its Instagram page. And Orangetheory provides digital workouts each day on many platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and its own app. The company is not intending on a required fee for classes but is mulling classes based on donation.

Studios are uncertain when they will have the ability to bring in their typical revenue and open their locations to clients again.

President Donald Trump has made social distancing guidelines last to April 30 to stem the spread of coronavirus, which has made a minimum of 245,500 individuals ill as of Thursday domestically. The coronavirus pandemic, however, could extend into summer, with studio locations remained closed.

The news comes as SoulCycle has cut positions and started a 25 percent pay reduction due to its studio closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company will furlough certain staffers without pay over the 30 days to come beyond the pay cuts. This will let them ask for unemployment benefits as the worldwide company’s 88 studios downsize.

The company, for its part, was started in 2006 and has studios in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

ClassPass, for its part, has worked to create a service customers can keep utilizing through digitized offerings. Members of the service can now tap into their credits to buy access to these services instead of going to a physical class in person.

The company has also brought a donation button onto its site so consumers can help their favorite instructors. To make that effect stronger, ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman told Karen Webster in a recent PYMNTS interview that it will be matching those customer donations for the first million that are contributed.