FITNESS junkies are "beyond excited" to get back into the gym, after an opening date was set for fitness facilities in new regional COVID-19 restrictions.
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Gym owners say the re-opening announcement desperately needed to keep their businesses afloat.
The government announced on Sunday that regional gyms would re-open from Tuesday night, as part of a suite of changes, including religious ceremonies as well.
Personal trainer Lani Grant said the last six months without the gym had been long and lonely, for her and many others.
Ms Grant would normally spend more than 40 hours at the gym each week, working full time plus her own training.
She said it would be a relief to get back inside again.
"I am just beyond excited, and relieved. It's just amazing," Ms Grant said.
Ms Grant's gym had run classes on Zoom, then outdoors training one-on-one, and later in groups of 10, but she said it was hard with rainy weather.
Ms Grant said she was keen to help people get back into training.
"Just that community vibe, seeing a few people I haven't seen for a little while, and the guys I work with, it'll be so good," she said.
"My phone has gone crazy, clients messaging.
"We're ready to go, ready and pumped."
Bendigo gym TKO Fitness owner Ryan Jeffrey said it was relief to be able to re-open after nearly six months without anything resembling normality.
He said hopefully gyms would not have to shut down again, because many would not survive a third closure.
Mr Jeffrey said it was frustrating to watch up to 40 people boozing at the pub across the road, without being allowed even one person inside his gym.
Reaction from clients had been really good, with more than 100 messages in the first few hours after the announcement, Mr Jeffrey said.
"People are itching to get back into it," Mr Jeffrey said.
"It's been a long hard road for a lot of people. It's just been frustrating for us looking at people's not just physical health, but mental health, decline."
Gyms will be able to re-open with a density quotient of one person per square metre, and a patron cap of 10 people per space. Venues may only have 20 people at any one time.
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Anytime Fitness co-owner Larissa Ettwell said the business would jump on the re-opening as soon as possible, most likely opening its doors 9am Wednesday.
Ms Etwell said she was stoked to have a business again, to go to work and have purpose.
She said the last few weeks herself and her husband had fallen in a hole, wondering what they were going to do.
"If the gyms weren't going to open soon, we were in a really stuck situation," Ms Etwell said.
"Because at the end of this month ... our clubs would have been stuck [closed] for six months this year.
"At the back-end we've still got things ticking. We still need security, we've still got to pay for electricity, we've still got bills coming in, if we've got no revenue, what do we do?"
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