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Gyms, fitness facilities in Memphis and Shelby County can reopen under 25% occupancy May 4

Pyramid Athletics in Bartlett is one gym that plans to open its doors on first day allowed of ‘Back to Business’ framework

BARTLETT, Tennessee —

As early as May 4, Memphis and Shelby County will start phase one of its back to business plan. Grocery stores, restaurants, and retail stores will be allowed to open under restrictions and capacity guidelines. Gyms and churches will be allowed to open the doors too.

Local 24 News spoke to Eric Ingram, owner of Pyramid Athletics. He says his staff has been waiting until they can reopen since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve been checking every day. We knew we were part of phase one, but we didn’t know when phase one was going to start,” said Ingram. 

“A few days before we got shut down we started changing our classes and limiting them to 10 people and doing extra cleaning between each class.”

Once the gym closed, it offered virtual workouts online, which will continue until the end of the month if people aren’t quite ready to come back.

Under Memphis and Shelby County’s “Back to Business” plan, fitness facilities must limit occupancy to 25%. Workouts should only be 45 minutes and the equipment layout must meet 6 feet of separation between users.

RELATED: Phase 1 of the 'Back-to-Business' plan begins Monday, May 4th | Here's what that means for everyone living in Shelby County

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We’re going to have taped-off areas of the gym, we’ll say ‘hey this is kind of your area let’s kind of stay in that spot.’ and we will fill the class from the back in so everyone in the back gets their stuff first, make it back to their spot,” Ingram said.

The gym has kickboxing classes, CrossFit and Jiu Jitsu, but Ingram says they won’t be facilitating any contact sports at this time. Under this plan, restaurants and retail stores can open Monday at half capacity.  Churches, libraries, and fitness centers have to maintain 25% capacity. 

“We see all the guidelines and we go okay if the guideline is here, how can we take it up a notch just so that we can really make sure we are doing our part,” Ingram explained.

Hair salons and nail shops in Shelby County will have to wait a little longer under this plan. If COVID-19 cases continue to decline in the county, phase two of the reopening plan could start as early as May 18.

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