Prior to the pandemic, Micheal Martin had built his gym Mad Apples CrossFit in Fort Wayne, IN from 30 to 100 members in the year leading up to 2020.
Then the shutdown hit, his lease ran up and he and his wife had just had their first child. Not wanting to put his family through financial uncertainty, Martin made the hard decision to close his doors and moved into a more “stable job” working as an IT manager for a software company.
He definitely misses gym ownership, but it was “the right choice for my family,” he said. Still, it was challenging emotionally and it took him nearly two years to join another gym.
“It was hard being so involved in a community and leaving to join another right away,” he explained.
While you might not expect Martin’s story to be a familiar one to the many gym owners who decided to close shop at various times during the global pandemic, most former gym owners say that, while they loved their community, they’re in a better place on the other side of gym ownership.
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