While unused gym memberships are fairly common in the fitness industry even during normal times, COVID-19 is having additional impacts on foot traffic at Connecticut gyms, according to a new survey.
Only one in 10 gym members in Connecticut has visited to work out since fitness facilities were permitted to reopen in mid-June, which is the lowest return rate of any state.
That’s according to a survey by RunRepeat.com, an online retailer of athletic footwear, which found that 31% of gym members nationwide have returned to their gyms.
The survey contained other bad news for Connecticut gyms: 37% of respondents reported that they had canceled their memberships and 49% said they were considering it.Â
The survey results, announced last week, don’t include activity from the past month, as RunRepeat gathered its more than 5,000 online responses from people in multiple states during the first half of August. Of those, there were 145 Connecticut respondents.
Results varied widely, with Tennessee posting the largest member return rate, at 52%. Tennessee gyms started reopening on May 1, more than a month before gyms in
Connecticut were allowed to do so.
However, reopening timing alone doesn’t appear to fully explain the variation across states in the survey.
For example, in Virginia, where gyms were allowed to reopen around the same time as in Connecticut, nearly 35% of members reported having gone back to the gym, the survey said.
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