Thorbeckes Athletic Club Takes Exercise Outside as It Starts to Reopen

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For the first time since March 16, when Gov. Jay Inslee announced that gyms across the state would be required to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus, there were weights to be lifted and gains to be had at Thorbeckes Athletic Club’s Chehalis location on Tuesday.

Over the weekend, when Lewis County was permitted by the state to move to phase two of the Washington’s four-phase reopening process, it allowed gyms like Thorbeckes to return to business with safety precautions in place.

Thorbeckes has taken a creative spin on how to make sure their facility is safe while also providing a space that allows more than five people to work out at one time.

If you go to Thorbeckes’ Chehalis location, instead of seeing the parking lot full of cars, you’d see half of it filled with cardio equipment situated 6 feet apart from each other and the other half with parked cars of customers eager to get back in the gym.

And around back in a gated-off, turfed area, free weights were available to be used under the sun.

Thorbeckes’ return is still very regimented, said employee Dylan Ferrians, who was checking in customers near the street.

If you want to get a workout in, you can’t just show up and hop on the equipment, you have to make a reservation online, Ferrians said.

Customers can make an appointment as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 7 p.m. — pretty much when the sun is in the sky — that lasts 45 minutes.



Reservations can be made to use the outdoor equipment or to get a spot in the classes that are available inside which are limited to five people per class.

According to Ferrians, the appointments start at the top of the hour, go on for 45 minutes and then are followed by a 15- minute sanitizing period. Reservations can be made online at Thorbeckes.com.

“All the time slots are online, you just punch in your name and it’s yours,” he said.

Pam Hager and Coleen Ferris came to Thorbeckes Tuesday evening to get in some cardio outside and also to participate in a weight lifting class inside. Hager was ready to get back in the gym after a three-month hiatus, but Ferris was a little more skeptical. 

Ferris manages an adult family home called My Blue Heaven in Centralia and cares for six women all in their 90s. At first, the risk seemed daunting. But after Ferris had gone on some walks with Hager and read Thorbeckes’ safety precautions online, she said she opened up to the idea.

It was leg day for Seth Moceri, a recent graduate of Rochester High School, and Jamison Cody, an incoming senior football player at RHS — the first one with a real squat rack at their disposal in a while.

The two said they would have had more concerns about returning to the gym, but Moceri is an employee at Thorbeckes, which gave him a good idea of what the layout was like and the precautions being taken.

Moceri said it was a productive 45-minute workout. He repped four squats at 280 pounds.