SASKATOON -- On Monday, Phase Three of Re-Open Saskatchewan will commence, allowing gyms and fitness facilities to re-open to the public.

It’s a day that Adam Lorenz has been waiting for since his gym closed in mid-March.

“It’s a community right,” said Lorenz, who owns Modern Martial Arts Center in Saskatoon. “We’re really excited to get everybody seeing each other again more than anything.”

Under Government of Saskatchewan and public health order guidelines, no more than 10 people will be allowed into one of his classes at a time and they’ll be required to show up in exercise clothing—skipping the change room.

A period of 15 minutes between classes will be used to thoroughly clean all surfaces before the next group of 10 is brought in.

All classes are now by appointment only.

Focus Fitness owner Garret Blackwell is focused on keeping his gym clean.

“Making sure there’s always somebody monitoring high contact surfaces, doorknobs, equipment,” he said. “Members are expected to wipe equipment before and after use, we plan to have staff going throughout the gym as well.”

Blackwell says he isn’t expecting to be overcapacity when his gym reopens, but added with a large space like his, keeping physical distancing with a higher number of people will be easier.

“It’s exciting, causes a little bit of anxiety I suppose,” he said. “In my head it’s kind of like throwing a house party, you hope everybody shows up, but they all get along and have a good time.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, gym owners know not everyone will be in a rush to head back to a public gym, and some that have been providing online services will continue to do so.

“I used to never work out at home, and now that’s all I do,” said Grace De Witt, a personal trainer at Freedom Functional Fitness in Saskatoon. [I] jump around in my basement all day.”

De Witt began posting exercise videos to Instagram to when the pandemic began, and that led to the creation of Unbroken with Heather and Grace - Facebook and Instagram pages entirely dedicated to the videos.

“It started out with us just posting workouts for free,” she explained. “But in May we did a whole challenge, like a 30-day challenge, so every day was a new workout, and we had a bunch of people joining for that.”