As each state begins to roll out Phase 1 of reopening the country, we wonder if it is safe to go in to gyms and participate in team sports. The 2020 Summer Olympics have been postponed until 2021, as of now. All professional sports are currently shut down and there is talk of starting games back up with no fan presence in the stadiums and arenas.

The Missouri State High School Activities Association announced Friday it has approved changes to its summer bylaws. By doing so, it has opened the door for possible summer contests. 

Dependent upon approval from local and state health officials, the MSHSAA Board of Directors voted to make the summertime dead period and the summer limits on contact optional for summer 2020. 

The bylaws require member schools to establish a dead period of nine-consecutive days beginning on a Saturday and lasting to the second following Sunday, in which no contact can take place between school coaches and directors and students enrolled at the school. 

With Thursday’s decision, a school may choose to comply with the dead period or it can allow teams to hold activities. The decision also relieves portions of the by-laws which limits teams to 20 days of contact during the summer. Member schools can now allow teams to have more than 20 days of contact in which any coaching or instruction in skills and techniques can take place.

Nothing concrete yet, but it looks like USSSA will reopen play the end of May or early June! This too will be dependent on local sanctions.

Many gyms are looking forward to reopening their doors and are planning how they can continue social distancing inside gyms.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration released a three-phase plan to reopen businesses temporarily shuttered during the coronavirus outbreak. Gyms can open “if they adhere to strict physical distancing and sanitation protocols,” along with restaurants, places of worship, and movie theaters, according to the plan. 

Health experts have warned on the risks gyms pose during an outbreak.   “Gyms are like a petri dish,” Laurence Gostin, the director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told the Daily Beast. “People are close to one another, they’re sweating, they’re coughing and sneezing, they’re touching multiple surfaces, they’re sharing equipment, they’re indoors. Literally all of the heightened risk factors for COVID transmission are all entwined together in a gym.”

The Resilience Foundation plans to open their new facility by the end of Summer or early Fall. In doing so, we plan to stage our facility so that it is better able to handle outbreaks like the COVID-19 pandemic we are currently experiencing.

A few of the things we are planning to make your experience at the facility as safe as possible are moving machines further apart than what you may have seen in gyms and workout rooms in the past. We will be constantly cleaning and disinfecting machines and equipment.

We will be monitoring members and visitors as they enter the building. Currently, their are some options for this, but they remain bulky and time consuming. We do not want you to have to wait to come in and we will be looking for the most efficient way to do this.

Social distancing has also accelerated consumers’ adoption of digital fitness trends, and we will have options for this as well.  We realize that the trend is going this way for now. Remote experiences will not replace a gym membership, but it will enhance the ability to work out when you are unable to get to the gym.

The last thing we want is for our members to be exposed to a virus or contagious infection of any kind. Your health is our priority!