San Mateo's F45 gym works out through pandemic

“I honestly don’t think I would work as hard as I worked if I didn’t love the people so much and love what I do so much because it has been a labor of love,” she said.

Since the pandemic began, she has done everything possible to provide her members with the best possible environment at her gym at 24 42nd Ave. In the spring, she switched to Zoom classes and decreased the number of classes each day from nine to six. She loaned out her weights to members and applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, or PPP, to stay afloat and pay her coaches, now down to three from the six before the pandemic. For her first three months, she was able to maintain about 80% of her members. However, after about six months, her membership dropped to about 50% of pre-pandemic levels. When restrictions were relaxed, she moved outside to teach classes. COVID-19 changed everything for her business, and she has adjusted ever since.

“I really had to pivot very quickly,” Jampolis.

Her biggest change was setting up an outdoor gym in the parking lot near CVS, with her landlord’s approval, so she could continue to have classes. When she started outside, she began with six small tents before moving to four 20-foot by 30-foot tents with a storage unit. She has around 24 people socially distanced during classes, and she has designed all the workouts for the outdoors. She takes precautions by having people take hand sanitizer and get a temperature check. She installed rubber flooring, costing around $2,500, so people could be comfortable and feel like they were getting the most for their membership. She has done her best to include as many perks as possible that members would get indoors. Twice a day, she sets up rowing machines, bikes, weight benches and other weights for her classes.

“I didn’t want it to just feel like a parking lot. I wanted it to feel like an experience for them,” Jampolis said.

Client reaction

Shelly Kim, who has been going to Jampolis’ classes for a couple of years, said the outdoor classes are fantastic. She said the outdoor classes had been a similar experience to indoors because all the same equipment is available. Kim believes that Jampolis’ outside classes work because of her dedication to making the experience as great as possible by providing different workouts and equipment to help each person.

“Every time there’s an issue, she figures out a way to solve the problem,” Kim said.

Rena Korb, who has taken classes at F45 for over three years with Jampolis and other trainers, said being outdoors has helped her connect with her gym friends during a time when she can’t hang out with as many people. She had never taken an outdoor class before the pandemic but has found them fun and challenging. She appreciates that Jampolis has put time and effort into making outdoor classes possible for people who want to train in a group.

“It’s a nice sense of normalcy during this time of complete abnormality,” she said.

A community

Jampolis still tries to make people feel part of a community when many people are stuck at home without talking to other people. She believes part of what made her studio so successful was the connection she and other members have with each other. Jampolis still does a member of the month, involves members on social media and celebrates their birthdays.

“All those little personal touches that made us the community, we’ve kept,” she said.

When Jampolis opened the outdoor gym and had to pay for the upkeep, people who supported her donated $7,000 to help her pay for some of the equipment and costs of setting up the outdoor gym.

“The community of people that have stuck by me has been amazing,” she said.

She decided to continue the outside classes even when she could return inside for safety reasons and not wanting to move back and forth inside based on restrictions.

“But I’ve really always had to think two steps ahead to be prepared for any scenario, which is what I’ve done,” she said.

She has always had a passion for fitness and studied physical therapy in college. She left a corporate job in biotech to start a fitness career because of her love for exercise and training. She began training people out of her garage at her house, which eventually became an outdoor exercise class and eventually led to her F45 studio. She is using those experiences to get her through the pandemic. If a stay-at-home order from San Mateo County occurs in the next few weeks, she will return to Zoom classes. She has prepared for the possibility of returning to smaller classes and has done her best to prepare for all possible scenarios.

“If I can make it through all of this, I can make it through anything,” Jampolis said.

New orders

The county entered into a shelter-in-place Thursday, Dec. 17, possibly making it harder on her business. Jampolis said that based on her research, outdoor gyms are considered essential and her gym would stay open. She doesn’t have plans to make major changes to her outdoor gym other than asking everyone to wear masks, which would be required under the new orders. She plans to buy masks for her members so they can all participate. She has been conservative in her approach to meet all possible standards and has not tried to overextend openings. She said she went to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, website for her information on the restrictions.

“I’m just going to follow the CDC guidelines,” she said.

Jampolis has decided to leave the F45 Training gym franchise when her contract ends in the summer, but she still plans on staying in the building. She still isn’t sure what the future will hold due to all the uncertainty. Her business model might change even when vaccinations start because she doesn’t know the comfort level for people considering going back to gyms.

“I don’t think everyone is going to be just jumping to come back, and so I have to be OK not knowing,” Jampolis said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102