CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Right now, gyms are one of the many businesses still closed under the Gov. Roy Cooper's Phase 2 reopening plan here in North Carolina.
Some gyms are finding a way around things though.
Saturday mornings for Meredith Fehr lately have been looking a little different. She'll throw on her headset on, turn on some speakers, and work to get ladies in shape using rowing machines.
Typically, her class would be held inside, but under Phase 2, lshe must teach her rowing classes outside.
Cindy Bickman is Fehr's boss, and owner of the gym Row House in Charlotte.
For the last 15 years Bickman worked as an attorney, but decided to take a leap of faith and open her own gym this year.
Unfortunately COVID-19 had other plans.
“I was starting to get people canceling and just calling everyday saying 'are you open, when are you opening'…nervous that we wouldn’t open,'" she says. "I had coaches on board since February and I wanted to get them out staring to teach classes.”
Since her members and coaches couldn’t work out inside, she decided to move things outdoors.
“It was really a way to get people starting to build community, starting to move again, (and) starting to get a fitness routine again," she says.
Tara Kelbaugh has been coming to these outdoor classes, and says it's something she’s missed since the pandemic began.
“I wasn’t able to go anywhere to a gym or anything, so to be able to have a class and a gym that’s able to hold you accountable when you need to work out, is what I needed during COVID," Kelbaugh says.
While Cindy and other gym owners wait for the governor to announce Phase 3, she plans to keep offering these outdoor classes to those who need them.
Bickman says her plan is to officially open her gym sometime in September, and try to open two more gyms in Charlotte in the near future.