COVID-19 Safety Measures

Clay is currently offering in-person personal training appointments and reduced-size group fitness classes at the studio on Berkmar Drive.  To keep clients and staff as safe as possible, please review our procedures for all in-person services during this phase of the pandemic.  (Updated 11/15/23.)

Our responsibilities:

  • Equipment will be thoroughly wiped down with disinfectant after use.
  • Your trainer will wear a mask the whole time you are being trained.
  • Your trainer will maintain at least 6 feet of distance between him/herself and you for the duration of your time together, other than brief closer approaches as necessary for getting you set up or demonstrating something.
  • Your session/class will be held in an indoor space with as much natural ventilation as possible – ample doors will be open and commercial overhead fan running. (Dress appropriately for the weather, as if you were going for a run outside.)
  • If your trainer develops any suspicious symptoms (fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea), they will alert you immediately so you can decide if you are comfortable keeping the appointment, would like to arrange to train with another Clay trainer, or would prefer to cancel. If you would like to cancel, there will be no cancellation fee.  Your trainer will get a COVID test as soon as possible, and you will have the continued option to cancel until they have a negative test result.
  • If your trainer learns they have been exposed to a known case, they will notify you and refrain from training you until they can be sure they haven’t been infected.  (Let them know if you would like to train with another trainer in the meantime, and we will try to accommodate that request.)

Your responsibilities:

  • You will wear a mask while you are training if you are in a class, or if more than one personal training client is training in the studio at a time.
    • If all clients training are members of one household, masking is optional with trainer approval. 
    • If you are the only client (or household) training, your masking is optional with trainer approval.  
  • If you are aware of having come into contact with any verified positive case, you will notify your trainer immediately and cancel your training session until you can get a negative test result. You will not be charged a late cancellation fee for this.
  • If you develop any suspicious symptoms (fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea) you will notify your trainer immediately and cancel your appointment until you can verify that you are not infected. You will not be charged a late cancellation fee.
  • You will listen to your trainer’s instructions regarding where to stand/sit/rest when training indoors, to minimize contact/exposure and allow for optimal and appropriate risk-mitigating ventilation.
  • If you are non-symptomatic, but feel any unusual sensations DURING your training session (tightness in your chest, significant/unusual levels of trouble breathing or unusually high heart rate, etc.) you MUST notify your trainer and stop exercising immediately. (Healthy, fit, asymptomatic young people with no preexisting conditions have dropped dead during exercise due to heart attacks because they were infected and didn’t know it. There are some SERIOUS implications of exercising when infected, so we are taking this extremely seriously for your safety.)

If you or a trainer test positive for COVID, the following must occur before in-person training resumes:

  • 10 day quarantine
  • Negative PCR test (not a quick test)
  • No symptoms present
  • If we or you feel it is necessary to cancel your appointment for any of the above reasons inside the 24-hour cancellation window, you will still be granted a full credit for missed classes, and/or your account will not be charged for a canceled personal training session.

If you have thoughts on other policies or procedures that would make you feel more comfortable, or hear of a best practice that you’d like us to consider, please reach out. We are constantly evaluating and adapting. We want to be able to keep providing this service to you, and for it to work we all need to be responsible, responsive, honest, open and communicative. There is a large amount of trust involved in this, not the least of which is being able to trust each other to communicate our needs, wishes and comfort level.


Beloved Clay community,

We have been apart for two long years, aside from Zoom classes and park workouts for the brave few.  That changes now.  The build-out is done at the new location on Berkmar Drive, and we are all moved in.  Working out at the new studio with the doors thrown open has been utterly delightful.  I can’t wait for everyone to get to experience it.

I want to take a moment to explain the safety features/protocols we have in place to keep everyone as safe as possible for workouts during the remainder of the pandemic.  

Our main lines of defense are:

  1. Ventilation (lots of doors that open wide, 22′ high ceilings and a 10′ industrial ceiling fan)
  2. Vaccination (all in-person​, indoor clients must be fully vaccinated)
  3. Separation (10′ of space between all clients working out at the same time who aren’t housemates)
  4. Masking (required inside the studio.  Step outside to de-mask for a sip of water or a mask break.)
  5. Purification (iWave air purification system on the HVAC, and an Alen BreatheSmart true HEPA purifier)
  6. Disinfection (doesn’t really help against COVID, but it keeps us safe from colds, flu, etc, and it’s just yucky not to wipe things down after using them in a gym anyway)

We will continue to let science dictate our safety precautions.  I have chosen to attempt to make Clay the safest gym to train in during while the pandemic continues to play out.  We have older clients, clients who are immuno-compromised, clients with immunocompromised family members, and clients with children too young to be vaccinated.  We are prioritizing keeping our whole community safe.  Yes, working out in a mask is harder than working out without one.  We can do hard things.  We do hard things in the gym all the time. If you feel you can’t train in a mask, we still have some streaming Zoom classes, and we can also accommodate you by letting you work out in the outdoor space just behind the studio during group classes.  (With the garage bay door thrown open, the indoor and outdoor spaces flow together and trainers can work with indoor and outdoor clients simultaneously.) Feel free to ask questions if you have them. 

We have a variety of classes with a variety of instructors, in a variety of formats available for everyone.  As we get re-established, we’ll build back up a larger clientele and be able to offer more classes.  Please help us out by telling all your friends about us and encouraging them to come check out some classes.  

As always, I love and appreciate all of you.  You make Clay the phenomenal community that it is.  Your support over the years has kept it going even through a pandemic.  You are amazing and I look forward to many, many more years of helping you be strong, healthy and fit.  Let’s keep finding joy in movement together!

Love,
Eve and The Clay Fitness Team

Address

3000 Berkmar Drive Charlottesville, VA 22901
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