MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There’s a solid argument around whether gyms and training facilities should be open: It’s not unknown that they have some of the strictest cleaning and disinfecting regimens of any business. However, that’s neither here, nor there. Rules are rules, and right now those places aren’t considered essential.
It’s because of that one of Morgantown’s most popular businesses, Viking Performance has closed its doors.
“This is new territory. I’m can’t think of anything similar,” said Jerry Handley, Viking Performance owner and former WVU strength and conditioning coach. “From the gym perspective, not much needed a change in terms of sanitation or cleaning because a lot of that is carried over. When you’re dealing with 500 athletes, like at WVU, you’re worried about anything from passing the normal cold to the more serious things like staph infections. Especially when it comes to things like sweaty equipment. From the other standpoint, college competitions don’t tend to get canceled but we still had changes happen to our schedule all the time. As a strength coach, we would expect, say eight open weeks of training then halfway through a coach or someone would completely change the calendar and the plan.
“That’s been a lot of the reliance and skill I’ve learned before, just taking that part in stride well. No matter how many of these athletes and clients were training up to this point, everyone now has this new path. We need to make sure we can continue progressing from here and make it a segue back to normal training once this is all over.”
Even though Handley and his staff aren’t able to work with their clients in person, they’re still able to coach from afar. Viking’s online training and workout routines have helped its clients – from high school athletes to Olympians – maintain control of their fitness needs.
“A huge majority of them still wish they were coming to the gym in terms of motivation, sanity and routine, but even because gyms are a place that you’re getting healthier [which] helps fight viruses,” Handley said. “The biggest thing with my clients, it goes two ways. Adult clients want stress relief, continuing to make the progress they were working on before and hit those fitness goals. For the student-athletes, they’re still doing our training online from home. We have either bodyweight workouts or custom workouts based on what they have available, but the biggest thing for them, now that we’re getting into week six and seven, is the motivation.
“With the school year closed and the likelihood of summer sports getting canceled very day, a lot of it is keeping their eyes on what they want to achieve to have that chance later since they can’t have it now. That’s been the toughest thing for a bunch of them.”
You’d think not being able to get on Viking’s equipment would hurt clients, but because of Handley’s expertise and formulated, personal workouts athletes are still meeting their goals. He’s heard from many clients who are reporting results, which, even though he had full trust in his process, is keeping his spirits up.
“How grateful most of them are to still be able to do these workouts, that’s by far the number one [thing that’s stuck with me],” he said. “Every time I see one of those texts come through, it reenergizes me and I know from talking to my coaches it’s the same way. Another big example is athletes who were scheduled to start coming to the gym, whether coming back or for the first time, this has been their re-training mode and they’ve loved it. As crazy as the situation is, they feel like they’re getting better and being able to do what they wanted to do at this time.”
Further, certain clients had specific goals that could have taken a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but even they are still meeting their goals. Trinity Christian senior football, soccer and basketball player, Fletcher Hartsock is one of those athletes still benefiting. Learning how to eat responsibly a few years ago, Hartsock’s goal was to put on weight heading into college. According to Handley, because he’s been stuck at home with healthy food he’s gained 30 pounds since the end of the Warriors’ basketball season in March.
“It’ pretty neat seeing a lot of gratitude and seeing a lot of athletes happy they’re still able to train,” Handley said.
Even though Viking Performance has seen some hits from the pandemic, Handley isn’t shy about the fact that he’s a small business. Rather, he embraces that and hopes that after the pandemic is over people maintain the support they’ve shown for small businesses while being thoughtful and aware.
“I hope people get a better understanding of what money is supposed to be, in a sense,” he said. “It’s an exchange for something you consider more valuable – you’re not likely to give up $100 for something you think is only worth $100. You’re much more likely to pay $100 when it feels like it’s more worth that to you. I hope that people take that to heart and start helping out different businesses that came through this focused on continuing to help people and wasn’t trying to eke out everything they could with the least amount of effort.”
Another good thing Handley sees coming out of this pandemic is a larger interest in fitness. Even if people aren’t paying for his services, there is an influx of home workouts. While he sees a large spike coming after stay at home orders are lifted, he knows it won’t last forever at that level.
“I think we’ll see revitalization for a while, but I’m not positive on how long it will last,” he said. “The trends before this for a long time [showed] people were less into fitness. As things return to normal, it’s going to become more of a conscious choice to stay into it. I do think the numbers will stay higher even when they settle, but we will see more people focusing on their fitness than we have in a long time.
“A lot of people will focus on motivation or boredom first, and as they get busy those things will fade. It’s the people that focus on making it a new habitat that will stick with it.”
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