Dear Spurling Fitness Family,
First off, thank you so much for your continued support throughout these unprecedented times. This has certainly been the most challenging thing we have had to face as an organization and as a community, but thanks to your amazing support and the dedication of our hardworking team, we continue to make positive strides forward.
As we make our transition back into the facility, please know that the health and safety of you and your loved ones is our highest priority. We will continue to follow the orders of the State of Maine and the Maine CDC, which as of right now has us part of “Phase Two” and reopening our physical doors on June 1st. In the meantime, we have also been approved to run outdoor workouts of less than 10 people which you can find on the schedule, in addition to the livestream offerings.
We also know that maintaining your health and fitness is one of the best things you can do to boost your immune system and to stay healthy. It is for that reason that we’re excited to get back into the facility with the following precautions in mind:
While the gym was closed we stripped everything down, painted every wall, cleaned every surface, and even worked on some nice upgrades to the lobby and bathrooms. We also installed a foot operated door opener on the entry door so you can enter the facility without using your hands.
We spent thousands of dollars on more equipment to allow you to not have to share equipment while we all take these extra precautions.
We have adjusted our programming and facility layout to allow you to have over 100 square feet of individual working space in your session, with more than 10’ of distance between you and the next client, marked off by tape or cones.
We will be limiting all sessions to 8 people to allow for more spacing and more individualized coaching (see below).
In addition to not needing to share equipment before disinfecting it, and physically distancing each client, we have hourly cleaning protocols in place covering every square inch of the facility.
We will keep sessions to 50 minutes to allow us time to clean the facility for the next session, in addition to the cleaning that goes on throughout the session.
Please use the provided wipes to disinfect all surfaces and equipment touched during your session.
We ask that you also wash your hands pre and post session as well as use the provided hand sanitizer.
We will take care of “checking you in” for your sessions for now so that we don’t need the ipad at the front desk.
We also ask that you only use the “hands-free” portion of the water fountain at this time
As of this writing we will make masks optional for clients. As the date of June 1st gets closer, the state will publish specific guidelines for our industry. Should masks be required we will let you know, along with any other protocols that we have not already put into place.
Of course, we ask that if you are feeling sickness of any kind, that you stay at home.
Although we are excited to transition back to in-person offerings, we also realize that some clients may not feel comfortable coming in yet, or you may have days where you can’t make it in due to kids, work, life, etc.
It’s for this reason, that for the month of June (and potentially longer) that we will be running a “hybrid” service model.
The new model allows us to serve clients for in-person sessions, as well as keep up the volume of online offerings.
We are organizing this new hybrid model into what we are calling “S5.”
To allow for better coaching, more customization, more personal attention, better results, and smaller session sizes, we are doubling down on our Small Group Personal Training service.
However, we also know that people may miss the “circuit” or “HIIT” style of Team Training workouts, and it is for this reason that although every session in the facility will be a “Small Group” size, they will have different “themes” to them.
S5 is built around five programs, three of which are the foundation of our small group personal training model:
STRONG: This is small group personal training like you knew it before. We’ll continue with monthly customized programming, an emphasis on strength and injury prevention, and great coaching and customization that you all know, like, and trust.
SWEAT: This is the Team Training style workout, but with a smaller session size (8 clients), it allows us to provide proper spacing, more customized cardiovascular programming, and better tracking of your history/performance within each session. Because of this, we can appropriately and individually push you more, and hope it becomes less-intimidating for those previously nervous of larger groups.
STRETCH: This became extremely popular over the last 6-7 weeks, and we are so excited to continue offering it. These sessions are a combination of yoga moves, mobility work, soft tissue work, and flexibility training. In the beginning, STRETCH will be offered online-only, but we hope to bring it into the facility in the near future.
These three programs will be the foundation of our offerings. Again, doubling down on a small group personal training format not only allows us to keep all of you safer and more spaced out, but also opens the doors for more customization, more coaching, and a less-intimidating environment. Especially those of you that were intimidated by/didn’t like Team Training. For those that loved Team Training, don’t fret, with 8 clients, we’ll be able to push you more at an individual level. Also important to note, although they all have focuses for the day, they are all custom full-body routines, meaning you will sweat in STRONG, and you will get strong in SWEAT.
So, if you’re coming into the facility, head into the app, and knowing that everything will be a small group format, simply pick your “focus” for that day. Do you want to SWEAT, get STRONG, or STRETCH?
One of the offerings we have seen more than double during this time is our STRATEGY Sessions, and that is the fourth pillar of S5. We conducted 418 of them in the month of April alone. These are 1:1 personal accountability meetings with a coach. You use this time to check-in, track habits, create a game plan, stay accountable, and for your in-person ones, we can also do an InBody body composition scan to track results.
We invite you to schedule as many of these as you’d like, and we have allocated 30 minutes per client per month on our schedules for these going forward. Which means, if you want to do one 30-minute meeting per month, or bi-weekly 15-minute ones, or some other combination, that’s up to you, and the coach will help guide that decision each month. These can be done in-person, over the phone, or video via Zoom.
Finally, we have seen the enormous benefit of having the flexibility and the convenience of having online offerings seven days per week. Although it’s certainly nice to have pre-recorded workouts, what I’m really talking about is the ability to join us LIVE with a coach so they can see you, hear you, and coach you. The frequency and results that our clients are experiencing right now is amazing, and it is for this reason that we are excited to launch STREAM.
STREAM will include daily LIVE workouts you can sign up for with a coach, just like you have been doing now, and we will duplicate the three core programs (STRONG, SWEAT, & STRETCH) that we will also run in the facility. All the workouts will also be recorded so that you can access them 365 days a year, 24/7, on a client-only portal. We also plan to continue our online game nights, seminars, and hangouts. All current clients will get unlimited sessions of STREAM at no extra charge.
As you return back to the facility, whenever you’re comfortable, we will meet with you individually to assure you are on the best membership, and we are also required to have all clients sign a new waiver.
As I conclude, I just want to say thank you. I truly can’t put into words how grateful my team and I are that you supported us throughout all of this, and continue to support this “new normal.” It’s thanks to your support that all of our employees remain fully employed, have been since this all started, and we are stronger than ever as we continue to make strides forward.
1% Better.
Dedicated to Your Success,
Doug Spurling
