The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered many local businesses including hair salons, flower shops, and restaurant dining rooms, but for one local gym owner things have surprisingly stayed close to normal with the exception of actually being in the gym.
The workouts haven’t stopped, and neither has many of his 50+ members’ desire and ability to keep paying their monthly dues.
“When I started getting messages or people telling me they weren’t going to cancel it tugs at your heart strings ya know that people would be willing to do that,” Elavus CrossFit owner DJ Elliott said.
Elliott, who formed Elavus in 2017, and opened their current location on the east side of Crawfordsville in the spring of 2018, has taken a positive approach to his gym being closed and many of his members being cooped up at home.
“You can come out of this quite good at something that you may have been really struggling with, because now you have nothing but the time and ability to focus on it,” he said. “This is perfect. It’s terrible for every other reason, but as far as if you’ve got one hour that you’re spending on your physical and mental health everyday, then who can come out of this being above the curve, and better at it then when we went in.”
Elliott has continued to post videos of instruction, and posting workouts every day to the Elavus members Facebook page in order to continue their togetherness as a group.
“It’s a little bit different,” Austin Earl, who is a certified coach and member of Elavus said. “People are posting what they’ve done and it’s encouraging, and still gives us that community aspect.”
Elliott has also lent out a good portion of their equipment, citing that 90% of members would have been left with no type of workout equipment.
“I lent out all of our equipment,” he said. “Some people were able to take a kettle ball and a slam ball, some people were able to take a medicine ball and dumbbell. They have some of the stuff to do the basics, and at least they had it available for them to take home.”
Members of Elavus were not surprised by Elliott’s generosity and willingness to keep everyone’s health and wellbeing in mind during these trying times.
“It shows that they’re more interested than just opening up a gym,” Earl said. “They have interest in people’s health and fitness. They care, and that’s what people sign up for.”
It remains uncertain when gyms like Elavus will be able to reopen for business, but Elliott and his members will be ready, because in more ways than one it will be like they never really left.