FLOWER MOUND, Texas — It seems that after more than a year of masking, distancing and staying at home, a lot of people are finally comfortable lacing up their trainers again and returning to the gym.

Many gyms and fitness centers are putting up special offers right now for people to join up and some report that the crowds are quickly returning as a lot of the precautions of the pandemic are eased. 

“Us, we’ve noticed a big uptick in customers coming back,” said Jesse James Leyva, owner of Jesse James Fit in Flower Mound and several other North Texas gyms that carry his Outlaw Fit Camp brand.

Leyva’s gym had a steady stream of clients in for training session on Wednesday, and most looked like they were back to the workout they knew pre-pandemic with no masks in tow for the trip.

Leyva said his gyms were by no means immune from the pandemic.

“Because of COVID, we were shut down and it was kind of scary,” he said. “I was freaked out and didn’t want to open up the same way that we were.”

After the brief closure they did reopen but with a number of new safety measures in place, both voluntary and state-mandated. For months Leyva’s staff had to wear masks at all times, they had to deal with occupancy limits, and they had to rework their gym to allow for extra social distancing.

While Leyva didn’t require his clients to wear masks during their workouts, many other gyms throughout the state and the country did. Some even required additional safety measures like gloves for people to reenter during those tense months when COVID-19 was spreading rapidly.

Leyva said when the state’s mask mandate was lifted, and now with the CDC’s guidance changing to allow vaccinated people to go without masks in most places, that seemed to be the point he and many of his fellow gym owners and workers saw membership really start to rise again. Although, Leyva said he doesn’t believe it’s the loss of the masks or the precautions themselves that are encouraging people to focus on their fitness again; rather, he thinks it’s the comfort people are finding in seeing those mandates and recommendations lift; the feeling that it is finally "safe" again to do things like work out at a large gym with other people.

However, Leyva said he is taking some lessons from what the pandemic did to the gym industry, and he hopes he’s not the only one.

“I think one of the biggest mistakes gym owners can make is them getting comfortable and going back to their own habits,” he said.

Leyva actually plans to keep several of the cleaning precautions he put into place when he was allowed to reopen during the pandemic. At that time, he also developed a new system for his Outlaw Fit Camps that has clients complete several of their workouts in their own marked-off areas - what he’s dubbed "jail cells" - before wiping down that area and swapping with another client. He said the feedback on that system has been so positive, he’s decided to keep it as their new standard and continue to provide that extra layer of personal space and comfort for people looking to get in shape.