Instead of organising a bad assed Christmas doo, posting exciting info about it and planning how smashed I will be getting Ash, I am talking to you all about a closed and empty gym! F**K you 2020!
I’m not going to be able to get the Xmas doo sorted to be anything like it typically is (maybe a bonus as I’m pretty sure I’m still a little hung over from last year), but we will do something.
However, I have had a positive beginning. There is a group of 120 Welsh gym owners who are fighting the government to add gyms to an essential service. When you think that in your local supermarket you can currently by chocolate but not pants, this might be slightly more fruitful.
At least it’s a step in the right direction. Keep everything crossed as a letter goes to the Government tomorrow (Monday)
If you are interested please see below for the reasoning, please keep everything crossed…
“As of 18.00 Friday we enter a 17 day “fire break” period where all but non-essential businesses will close across the entire country.
As a collective, we strongly believe that gyms are an essential service, and scientific evidence shows that active participation in exercise through establishments such as gyms relieves the strain on the NHS through the promotion of physical and mental wellbeing. In forcing the closure of gyms, the Welsh Government will be harming a large proportion of the Welsh population and we cannot stand by and allow that to happen.
Just as the Liverpudlian gym community fought (and won) against gym closures in its city, we are now going to do the same for our country. However, we want to take it a step further in getting gyms officially recognised as an essential service by the Government, as they have in other countries across Europe.
– According to ukactive, there were 22 million gym visits in England between July 25th and September 13th and they resulted in just 78 confirmed Covid cases
– The number of cases per 100,000 gym visits in this period was 0.34
It is widely accepted that suicide rates amongst gym-aged males increased during the first lockdown and subsequently. Although we are awaiting official Government data on this, some reports suggest a 40% increase, which if true is a national tragedy. Gyms are not only important for the physical wellbeing of their members but also their mental wellbeing which is just as important given the well-publicised (and significant) lack of funding in the NHS for mental health issues.
Finally, on top of the multiple billions in savings the fitness industry provides the NHS, gyms provide employment to tens of thousands of people.
The first lockdown put a great strain on gyms. When we were allowed to reopen, we each had to spend thousands on measures to make gyms “Covid safe”. The low transmission rates reported from gyms mentioned above are testament to the incredible job that gym owners have done.
It is no exaggeration to say that this further “fire-break” will put the Welsh gym industry in the most perilous position it has ever been in, threatening the employment of thousands of staff and self-employed personal trainers.
We are an industry that relies on our customers becoming members, and member confidence is at an all-time low as they are reluctant to join a gym when it may be forced to close at any point. We need certainty for ourselves and for our members, and being classed as an essential service will go a long way towards that.
Snap surveys across Welsh gyms have shown that gym members also fully support our request to remain open as an essential service and have given us their full backing.
We have a Welsh Assembly Member, Neil McEvoy, who is willing to fight alongside us and as a collective we directly represent tens of thousands of members.”
CrossFit Cardiff HomeFIt WoD
For time:
100 Devil press
Every minute, on the minute perform 20 double unders*
*starting on 0
These devils press are single arm, athletes can alternate as they see fit.
Please remember the class timings for zoom:
WoD: Weekdays: 07:30 - 08:30, 12:00 - 13:00 and 17:30 - 18:30
WoD: Saturday: 10:00 - 11:00
Yoga: 11:30 - 12:30
Get there and get your sweat on…
