LETTER | Not all gyms are the same, let some open

LETTER | The recent conditional MCO announcement has once again left us in the gymnasium business and fitness industry in a lurch. Once again, we are forced to shutter for what I can only hope will really only be a two-week period.

As the owner of a small Pilates studio in Kuala Lumpur, I believe I speak for many small-time gym operators and boutique fitness facilities that this recent MCO is disastrous.

We were only just about picking up the pieces of the brunt of the two-month MCO that hit some of us really hard; faced with depleting financial resources, yet we continued to bear operating costs as rent, utility bills and wages for staff still had to be paid.

Now another forced closure by another MCO will strain us further. We were a once-thriving industry and a large contributor to the economy and not to mention, we offered the community and the public facilities for keeping fit and well, physically and mentally.

I plead for the authorities to be reasonable and let us small-time gyms and boutique fitness studios operate under strict protocols. Many of us are boutique enough to run only personal one-on-one training facilities, therefore we have direct control of movement, population, studio hygiene and zero-hands-on contact when training is entirely possible so therefore we should be allowed to open.

As studio owners, we just want to maintain our operations and hope to at least break even while we ride out the effects of this pandemic. We just want to survive.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.