Gyms and health clubs racked up their dumbbells and turned off their treadmills when COVID-19 lockdowns forced them to close their doors at the start of the pandemic.

Fitness fanatics raced to order gym equipment online so they could work out at home, leaving gym owners and personal trainers surplus to requirements and starved of income.

With society now reopening, the health and fitness industry has slowly started to recover and reinvent itself to protect personal trainers and gym-goers from contracting COVID-19.

In China, gym owner Wang Haonan had to shut his facility for two months, while London-based personal trainer, Terence Chambers, also spent several months out of work. CGTN spoke to both of them to find out how they've been affected and what the future holds for the industry.

Financial hardship

The sprawling city of Jinan has fared well in its fight against COVID-19 after implementing a strict lockdown in late January, meaning gym owners were allowed to reopen in April. 

But, with mortgages and rent to pay on their gyms and no clients coming through their doors, gym owners were faced with financial hardship.

"This year with the COVID-19 outbreak, we did suffer a lot, me and my co-workers, we lost our income for almost two months," Haonan told CGTN.

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"We offer one-on-one training as well as group sessions but since the group sessions require a lot of people gathering around in the gym, we did have to close the gym and group classes for a couple of months, so we lost our income and our clients had to stay at home and train on their own."

He added: "I heard in China here, a lot of my neighbours who run other gyms and studios, they never made it. There's an increase in used equipment on the market now because a lot of them had to be shut down."

Social distancing

Five thousand miles away, Terence Chambers continued to work with his clients until 30 March when the UK government enforced its lockdown. Gyms were only allowed to reopen their doors four months later, leaving many personal trainers struggling to make ends meet. 

"A lot of people are feeling it, I've spoken to a lot of personal trainers and they're feeling it and with no income, what can you do?" said Chambers.

"I work freelance, so I work in gyms, I go to people's houses, I go to their place of work. But at the time, before the lockdown I had a job at Lambeth council, I was working with people (aged) 55 and over. I was going to different housing schemes and training different people."

He added: "People are feeling the pinch. The government has had to send people money to help them out because they can't make ends meet."

While gyms in China and the UK have now reopened, things haven't returned to normal. Social distancing measures mean limited numbers of people can use gyms at the same time. 

Many people have also chosen to cancel their gym memberships and continue to keep fit at home or in local parks, meaning the industry has suffered a drop in income.

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"For the first two months we had to close, everything had to be closed for two months, but now we're slowly back to business," said Haonan. "But group classes are still closed, we only offer personal training and no more than two clients at the same time. 

"All my trainers have to put on their PPE, a mask, gloves and we disinfect everywhere, just to be careful, we don't want our clients to catch the virus."

For Chambers, much of his work involves working with individual clients in outdoor settings. "Some of them are getting brave now, they prefer to come out, they're bored in their house, they're getting depressed, I do make sure that they're two meters away, we have to adhere to the social distancing measures."

Staying fit at home

Despite being denied face-to-face contact with clients during lockdown, both Haonan and Chambers continued to offer exercise and nutrition advice to help people to stay fit from their own homes.

"I've been telling my clients, no matter what form of exercise you are doing, keep moving around, keep sweating, keep your heart rate increased," said Haonan. "It helps with your body. We have a large population who have been suffering from obesity and it's important that they track their diets."

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Chambers has offered nutrition advice to help his clients to maintain a healthy weight. "I tell them to try and stick to holistic foods because that way you're safer. Holistic foods means eating healthy, in other words, you're looking at raw food, you can eat foods without cooking it, for example broccoli, there are other vegetables you can eat raw, which are very, very good for you."

But not all of their clients have listened to their advice and may have to return to the gym to burn off their lockdown pounds. "One of our female members, she purchased a lot of soft drinks and she gained a lot of weight," said Haonan. "She complained about it and I told her she couldn't drink those, highly processed sugar drinks, these are the things that make you fat, you have to keep away from them, just eat the real stuff and you'll be lean and healthy."