Alyce Benson was devastated when Lismore’s latest lockdown was called at 6pm Thursday.

As manager of Stepz Fitness 24 hour gym at Lismore Central Shopping Centre, her plans for the business’ first birthday celebrations this Saturday came crashing down – now postponed for a second time, as another Covid lockdown period rolls through.

It’s been a challenging and frustrating year for the health, wellness and fitness industry – which is reliant on working with people, often in group settings.

Despite the challenges, local fitness business owners and mangers Kate Cairnduff, Matt George and Alyce Benson have stepped up and used their Covid downtime to create online resources and deliver online classes.

Zoom

Alyce said that during lockdown, she was running live Zoom classes four days a week to keep members active, engaged and motivated, as well as online one-on-one personal training sessions.

“Members also had access to an online fitness workout platform that we created as well with lots of classes they could choose from,” she said.

“Since we opened a year ago, we have had such an amazing response from the community.

“Our memberships have been growing month by month and it's so great to see so many people working on their health and fitness goals.”

As far as keeping her staff in jobs, Alyce said the Government’s disaster payments gave employees income from week to week, so they were not stressing about how they would survive.

You can visit the Stepz website at https://stepzfitness.com.au/location/gym-lismore

Fitness Manouvers

Fitness Manouvers owner, Kate Cairnduff, opened her boutique personal training studio on Dawson Street in November last year - after the last lockdown.

Almost a year later, she’s coming out of a five week lockdown - only to head back into another one, less than a week later.

“I’m disappointed and extremely frustrating as a small business owner,” Kate said. 

“But my business was born out of a Covid lockdown.

 “I always was aware it needed to be Covid compliant - with social distancing, air flow and one on one training.”

During the last lockdown, Kate used the time to develop an online training program for her clients, Called Fitness by Kate.

“It has audio assistance and I talk to them as they work out,” she said.

 “The first day I offered it, I had 15 people jump in.”

While Kate kept busy through lockdown, she said the financial hit she took was massive.

“I went from an income based on over 60 clients a week to living on the government’s JobSaver subsidy,” she said.

“It gave me peace of mind and helped me to keep paying my mortgage, business rent, insurance and electricity costs.”

Beyond Blue

It wasn’t all easy sailing though. Kate said there some pretty stressful moments when she wondered if and when she would get to reopen her business again.

“I took up a free Beyond Blue six-week counselling course,” she said. “It was the best thing I’ve done. As a business owner, it helps you to help you deal with anxiety, depression and the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Her advice to other business owners is: It’s alright to ask for help.

“Business is stressful, but it doesn’t have to be a brick wall – if you are doing something you love, you should get tools and strategies to deal with those stresses - passion is the easy bit.

Business awards

Kate’s Fitness Manouvers business was given a highly commended in micro-business award in the recent Chamber of Commerce 2021 Lismore App Business Awards.

Kate said her business was all about building relationships and creating a safe space for people to come, be healthy and keep moving.

Her motto is “ make movement your new normal”.

“I have NDIS clients and people aged 15 to 80 year old coming to see me for personal training sessions,” she said.

“Everyone wants to be healthy and move – it’s not about beauty – it’s about being able to sit at your laptop and function in day to day life and with the self motivation to keep moving.

“It’s been a hell of a year, but I’ve done a lot.”

You can visit Kate’s website at https://fitnessmanouvers.com/

Summit Sports and Fitness Centre

 At Goonellbah’s Summit Sports and Fitness Centre, manager Matt George has taken the ongoing lockdowns in his stride.

“We’ve been offering free Zoom classes for the whole community,” he said. “We want to keep people positive and moving and keep members engaging with staff.

“We’ve also been productive with staff development in lockdown.”

Matt said that when the gym opened on Monday this week after the five week close down period, “the place was pumping”.

“It was so much fun and everyone was so happy to get out of the house,” he said.

“We know this latest lockdown is temporary and like always, we will stay positive and get through it.

“We are all hoping we can get back to business as usual after seven days.”

Summit has been named as a regional finalist in the Chamber of Commerce 2021 Lismore App Business Awards and will go on the big NSW business awards to be held later this year.

You can visit the Summit website at https://summitcentre.com.au/