Gyms and fitness centers are among the list of Pennsylvania establishments which have to shutter for the next three weeks.
They were shut down for three months this year, when Pennsylvania lingered in the red and yellow phases of the shutdown.
And Thursday's announcement that they must shut down again is another tremendous blow, "This is a huge speed bump and it's going to change everything," said Matt Pribonic, who owns four fitness centers in Erie including I Rock Fitness, Red Level Boxing, Iron Oxygen Fitness and Fitness U.
And while he was expecting the news all week that he would have to close all of his doors again, it's still a punch in the gut, 'It's a tremendous disappointment."
But Pribonic says he's more concerned about his employees and the hundreds of others in the service industry, who will be out of a job during the holidays, "This is the hardest time of the year for any business or employee to be out of work, and I understand the risk, but I fear for employees everywhere and I really hope the unemployment benefits come through quickly and not like last time where there was a huge delay for some people," said Pribonic.
When gyms were allowed to re-open in June, Pribonic had instituted lots of safety measures to keep people safe as they worked out, meeting all CDC guidelines, he had hoped that would be enough to keep his businesses open.
But like many, he's also had to adjust, embracing the virtual world as we navigate through this pandemic, "We began producing virtual workouts on the second day of the total shutdown, and for us that was a huge accomplishment and we learned a lot about how to make a virtual experience really great for people," Pribonic said.
Pribonic has worked with another company to design an outdoor exercise program, called Outfit. It offers group fitness workouts outdoors and they host the classes in the parking lot of Iron Oxygen, you can download their cell phone app to join, and it's free.
Pribonic also owns a fitness center in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, the Buffalo fitness center has been closed for a few weeks now because of New York state regulations, so the only gym he will still have open for business right now is in North Carolina.