Local gyms have weathered the pandemic so far. Despite a surge, they appear poised to stay open.

While it seems intuitive the pandemic might have been a devastating blow to local gyms, that has not been borne out – they have survived, even thrived.

Andrea Cornejo, a manager at Gold’s Gym at Del Monte Center in Monterey, says her gym has actually seen an increase in memberships, because when other gyms were temporarily shutting down in March 2020, Gold’s was able to stay open by moving all of its equipment out to the mall’s parking lot, where it stayed until March 2021.

“We had a big increase in memberships from people coming from other gyms,” Cornejo says. (The gym has retained about 80 percent of those new members.)

With the current surge in Covid cases, members have become more diligent about adhering to the gym’s mask mandate, because they want to ensure the gym stays open, Cornejo adds.

Frank Foehrenbach, owner and manager of First City CrossFit in Monterey, says his gym has been uniquely capable of weathering the pandemic: like Gold’s, there is ample outdoor space at his Garden Road gym, and the gym itself is spacious on the inside, and has garage-like doors that can be opened to provide ventilation, as well as rooftop vents.

Initially, his gym saw about a 25-percent drop in membership, which he attributes to some members getting laid off, as well military-affiliated members getting transferred elsewhere, and their replacements not exactly keen to join a new gym during a pandemic.

But First City saw about a 10-percent increase in memberships last summer, and even in 2020 when his gym was shut down, members who didn’t see a drop in their income largely maintained their memberships.

“It’s an indication of the strong community we have,” Foehrenbach says. “It’s a community-focused gym.”

The Monterey Sports Center, which is owned and operated by the city, has not fared as well: Andrea Willer, who manages the facility, says memberships today are only 40 to 45 percent of what they were pre-pandemic. The number of staff has also been reduced drastically, from 28 full-time staff pre-Covid to only five full-time staff – including Willer – at present.

But there are signs of recovery, despite the current surge. Willer says December was their busiest month since the Sports Center reopened last August, and members have also become more diligent about adhering to the facility’s mask mandate, which has been in place since it reopened.

“I’m hopeful in the next few months that we get through this [omicron] variant and rebound even stronger,” Willer says.