The Human Mechanics moved to take their training groups online the same day it was announced gyms would be forced to shut as part of COVID-19 restrictions.

Chief executive Arj Perera said the challenging decision was important for people's mental and physical health.

"We were lucky. I was driving back from Canberra, when the announcement (to close gyms) came through," Mr Perera said. "It was mayhem. I pulled over the car, got my laptop out and created three new Facebook groups and wrote an email template for members.

"We wanted to move everybody online. We use Zoom, call everybody regularly, are running programs virtually and are now growing."

Mr Perera said the face-to-face aspect of online training was important for a lot of people.

"It's a mental health thing. People can't catch up at the moment and we enjoy that connection with our clients and like to interact in a more personal way," he said.

"The idea was not to just give things and hope for best. In making the decision I put it to team that we can either close or dig in and try to capitalise. They worked hard but to make it special.

"Business rely on communities to survive. We could not have have survived without our landlords and our client base's support. They had to dig in with us and it was reminder that we are doing a good job because people are backing us."

Mr Perera said the changes were challenging with not all members wanting to go online.

But the changes are an extension of a service Mr Perera already operates for elite athletes in all parts of Australia.

"We use (virtual training) for athletes around the country. It provides a great way to give effective feedback and the clients can see you," he said. "There was always going to be some issues with people wanting to (put memberships) on hold. Some debits had already run and we couldn't do anything about that.

"It's been challenging, the unknown. But I like the challenge of exploring something new. It's a good challenge as business owner to innovate and look after clients at same high standards while diversifying. The way we're going, the goal is to create another arm of the business, which creates more jobs."