Hard Rock Gym Class

Harden’s own Hard Rock Gym has been battling COVID-19 restrictions just like any other small business.

But as a health facility, the gym must abide by strict regulations that have large grey areas.

For instance, gym goers must wear a mask at all times, except during strenuous activity.

There lies the question, what is defined as strenuous activity in a gym? Isn’t that almost every exercise?

These restrictions seem somewhat counter-intuitive to the environment of a gym setting.

But gym owners Glen and Ros Stewart have constantly been willing to adapt and overcome these strict rules.

“One of the hardest things is that we’ve had to cut back the classes because people aren’t interested in doing classes with the masks on,” Glen said.

“We had 18 classes running, but there’s only 6 going at the moment.”

Glen admitted memberships at the Hard Rock Gym have marginally decreased since the latest COVID-19 restrictions.

“There’s nothing extraordinary happening business wise, but we haven’t gone too far backwards,”

“We have been fortunate to pick up more NDIS personal training jobs which has been a lifesaver for us.”

Glen and Ros have continued to update their clients with the revolving updates provided by NSW Health, to remain as transparent as possible for their clients.

“We’ve got a blanket rule that during an intensive exercise you can take your mask off,” Glen said.

“You’ve also got to take into account personal spacing as well.”

Loyalty and dedication to their clients are values the gym is built upon.

“Hard Rock Gym has been in business coming up to six years, and we’ve kept member-ship costs the same the whole time.”

Steve Rowan teaches Kumai Ryu Martial Arts classes at Hard Rock Gym.

Steve has been running his classes for five years now, split between Harden and Coota.

He runs two classes a week for each town, with classes consisting of Karate, Muay Thai, KP Weaponry and Little Ninjas.

Prior to teaching his classes, Steve has been training since 2011 and this year is heading towards his second-degree black belt.

Steve admitted while COVID-19 has impacted his business moderately, he was still receiving record numbers at his classes.

“I’ve lost a couple (clients) through Covid,” Steve said.

“But this is my biggest class for our ladies Muay Thai.”

Hard Rock Gym is currently closed to abide by the current NSW statewide lockdown.

The gym’s standard opening hours are between 6am – 12pm and 4pm – 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Saturday’s opening hours are between 8am-12pm.

Hard Rock Gym memberships start at $25 per fortnight through the direct debit option. Prices are inclusive of internal classes.

Tim Warren