Kirkcaldy fitness studio prepares to re-open as restrictions ease

Mind and Body Studio based in the town’s Kinghorn Road, partially re-opened its beauty department at the end of last month, but due to restrictions on fitness classes indoors, it has not been unable to offer all its services.

Owner Susan Simpson said the pandemic has hit her business hard this past year.

She said: “The impact of a full closure, just like in March 2020, has set us back massively.

"We were beginning to gain clients’ trust to return to group exercise classes and to book in for beauty treatments, and slowly but surely people were returning. They were confident in our COVID plans and devastated, especially those joining our fitness classes when we moved to tier three and had to stop our classes again.

“The beauty team was hoping that the lockdown announced before Christmas would last for a matter of weeks, but again it has found itself on furlough leave for four months.

“We closed on Christmas Eve and it was only on April 26, we could partially re-open our beauty department, as many restrictions still remained in place in this sector.

“We have continued with live online classes since November 13, which has been exciting and difficult all at the same time, and have been able to offer Reformer Pilates drop in sessions for two weeks now.”

Susan is planning a soft launch on Monday:

“We are kicking off with a bang though and have set up a really exciting timetable of classes that we hope will attract old and new clients.

"The impact of working from home on peoples’ mental and physical health has been significant and we will be addressing this in our classes and with the well-being activity we have planned. We will continue to offer a handful of online classes - we’ve built up a reasonable ‘on demand’ video library that we hope clients will make use of.

"We are also moving much more in to the personal training arena and have amazing PTs and experts to support people’s well-being needs.”

She continued: “We will have less space for customers which financially is a huge impact. However, we believe if we can get through this period and social distancing reduces, we will come back stronger than ever.

"We cannot wait to re-open. It’s been such a long, difficult period for so many and we know that connecting with others is fundamental to us as humans and we will have the space and resources to be able to provide this environment."

She added: “We need the support of our regular members to succeed and that may be tricky given the disparity that online classes has created.

"However, we believe by offering an amazing, well researched offer of classes and well-being options that many of our clients will return.

"We are also looking to attract new clients who we know will benefit from the services we provide within the Studio, which is a great asset to the town and surrounding areas.”

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