The Foster Recreation Center is Missouri State University’s largest gym and has been open to students for eight years. It’s also open now, during the COVID-19 pandemic. KSMU asked what the rec center is doing to prevent users from contracting the coronavirus.
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The gym is usually considered a place to go to get healthy, if we’re to believe the promotional pictures of rippling biceps and toned abs. But now, a gym visit can put people in danger of contracting COVID-19.MSU’s campus recreation director Lauren Easter says Foster Rec made a few big changes to reopening this fall during the pandemic. The gym is operating at 50 percent capacity, and social distancing is enforced through black floor tape, meant to prevent crowding. Easter says staff and visitors must wear masks any time they’re not exercising, and she estimates about half of people in the gym wear masks while exercising.
“The other 50 percent are wearing it as often as possible," she says. "We do get the occasional person that forgets to put it back on.”
The gym closes three times a day for an hour for staff to clean equipment. When asked if there is a threshold of on-campus case numbers that would make Foster consider closing, Easter says the gym is more worried about having enough people to keep the lights on.
“Our biggest concern is not necessarily the number of cases on campus but the number of cases within our student staff and our staff members. From time to time it has become difficult to stay open because we don’t have the man hours.”
Easter’s advice to students who want to limit exposure at the gym: Come in the morning, and wear a mask during exercise. More information from the CDC on gym practices can be found here.
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