Spartan Health Club: How my gym died in a pandemic and why I’m pissed

I joined The Spartan Health Club, in Kingston, Jamaica, over 5 years ago. A gym that opened its doors in 1976 and developed a rich history, associated with the Miss World Pageant, its many beauty queens, professional athletes, and many fitness enthusiasts like myself. This same history caused Spartan to develop a reputation for being a gym of the elite, ‘the weight-lifters gym’, ‘the place where the uptown, rich and corporate go’, which in some ways did bear some truth. In any single gym session, you could see the likes of a Usain Bolt or a Romain Virgo, and so many other prominent and notable Jamaicans. For this reason, though not a stranger to fitness, I did enter the gym with a little anxiety, and never being a really muscular guy, there is always that ‘Smaller Guy Syndrome’ that can imposter you while in a gym with real bodybuilders.

Over the years I truly came into my own, improving my lifting technique through the advice of trainers, such as Dwight, and other experienced members; learning the intricacies of STEP aerobics from Karelle and Dave, and simply just becoming so comfortable in my fitness journey that I never cared if a professional bodybuilder stood beside me lifting their heaviest. In any case, this post isn’t so much about my journey at Spartan, but I wanted to illustrate my evolution from mild anxiety, to deeper learning, to comfort, and eventually a feeling of being at home and a sense of family. This family would be destroyed on October 31, 2020, and it would have almost felt like we weren’t family at all.

THE SUMMARY

Somewhere below you will see the actual screenshots of all the communications that were officially sent via email to members, which will give you further clarity as to what ensued. For those of you who don’t love to read, here is a summary of the events that led me to be moved to write this post and expose the gym for the absolute disregard that it has had for its clients. I hope this will also serve as a lesson to businesses in customer service, and also in business crisis management. In this case, our crisis is the COVID-19 pandemic.

MARCH 5 — COVID-19 safety measures instituted.

MARCH 14 — Notice of temporary closure and start of a freeze on all memberships based on increased COVID-19 cases in Jamaica.

MAY 6 — Indication of an intention to reopen and the addition of more safety measures in the event of…