MASSILLON, Ohio — The new year is a time when many people set new fitness goals for themselves, and gyms typically see an uptick in memberships. 

But with the pandemic continuing to rage on, many gym owners like Theresa Carson are not seeing that normal increase of holiday clients.

Carson owns ReZist Ohio, which is located in Massillon.

At ReZist, they specialize in resistance training group exercises for women. 

Over the last several years that Carson has operated her gym she has seen significant growth and even moved into a bigger space to accommodate for larger class sizes, but that all changed when the pandemic hit. 

“Typical class size in the non-New Years resolution-type of year is about 15 people now we have about half of that," Carson explained. "I would say it is the same as far as new memberships. Everything is about half (and) profits are about half." 

Carson and her staff got creative and took their classes online when all gyms had to shut down during the beginning of the pandemic.  

“An instructor would still come in here and live stream into a Facebook group so that the clients could still workout from home,” she said. 

Since then, ReZist Ohio has continued to host online classes as well as welcome members back to the gym for in-person workouts. 

"Being back in the studio, attendance isn’t real great," she explained. "We are doing extra things to keep people engaged, contests and little things like that.” 

The gym owner said even though her attendance numbers aren't back to pre-COVID levels, many of her clients have remained loyal throughout it all. 

"We are making enough to stay open," she said. "We have a lot of dedicated clients that will do whatever it takes so we don’t have to shut our doors.” 

You can check out ReZist Ohio's Facebook page to see their class schedule.