STARKVILLE — Cynthia Mutch readily admits she’s no internet wizard, but as the Marketing and Membership Director at the Frank P. Phillips Memorial YMCA in Columbus, Mutch has adapted to her new role as the czar of the gym’s highly-successful YouTube workout channel.
“I’m kind of new to this, so I have to kind of look, but there’s some analytics here that I can access if I remember where they are,” she said through a laugh.
Moving toward more online content, the Columbus YMCA and other local fitness entities have moved increasingly more digital in an effort to reach their normal clientele as the COVID-19 pandemic has put restrictions on gyms across the state. Having created the site in recent years, Mutch said it remained relatively dormant until the pandemic hit, but with gyms shuttered due to Mississippi’s “shelter in place” ordinances, the channel offered a perfect way for the YMCA’s trainers to reach those who normally attend their workout classes or those who might be looking into a membership.
Among those activities listed on the gym’s YouTube page are legs and abs workouts, seated fitness options and a 20-minute morning stretch.
“What we’ve found is the videos are getting a lot of views and a lot of response,” Mutch said, referring to the over 500 views the site has received. “People were commenting and saying they were using the videos everyday and they were really thankful for us so we’ve been making more videos.”
Patricia Cartwright, the owner and operator of Get Right With Cartwright in Starkville, has also moved her practice increasingly online as her ability to meet with clients in home gyms and other areas has become more and more difficult.
Cartwright said she saw an initial lull in her business with the transition to more virtual workouts, client numbers have stabilized as users grow more accustomed to her practices.
“It’s been very uncertain and kind of crazy, but I was able to transition pretty seamlessly to online training, also known as virtual training,” she told The Dispatch. “I’ve done this with my classes; I’ve done this with my personal training clients and then my already online clients who do not live in the Starkville area, things were unchanged for them.”
While Cartwright and the YMCA have moved digital and anticipate continuing to do so into the future, the pandemic hasn’t been easy on others in the fitness business. Shawn Berry — the owner of Anytime Fitness in Columbus — has seen a mass exodus of employees as his doors have had to remain closed in recent weeks. Working in a more corporate structure, Anytime Fitness has offered some online tools at a more national level, but with few employees on the ground in Columbus, Berry said it will be difficult to maintain the previous practice he had running.
“We wanted to do our part and try and curb (coronavirus) and hopefully get rid of it,” he said of closing his doors initially. “But bottom-line is, it’s killing our business.”
While some gyms will face hardships in reopening, those that have embraced the digital have seemingly found a new way to reach current and future members, one YouTube channel or online transition at a time.
“Now that we’re open, we don’t want to just stop,” Mutch said. “We want to continue uploading videos to our YouTube channel.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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