SAN ANTONIO — In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott announced he was issuing an executive order to re-open salons and gyms this month.
Salons have the green light to open on Friday, and gyms can resume operations May 18.
When the coronavirus pandemic forced his CrossFit gym to close, Mike Martinez said he was already making plans to help his clients.
“We actually loaned out 100% of our equipment to our members at no charge,” he said.
Martinez has owned CrossFit Optimistic for nearly 10 years. With two locations, the business is the sole income earner for the family.
“From me, my wife and our four kids, and they're all involved in the business,” Martinez said. “This business does actually take care of my family, quite literally. And also another full-time coach and a bunch of part-time coaches.”
Martinez said that, at first, they were able to withstand the closure.
“At that 30-day mark, that's when I would say the slow bleeding started to begin,” Martinez said. “We've lost about 40% of our revenue due to the coronavirus.”
Martinez said he’s grateful to the members who’ve helped him in the last few weeks, including some who have privately donated to the business and others who have increased their membership level.
He said those relationships are what make CrossFit so special.
“That's why CrossFit is so awesome. It's a fitness regiment, but it's a community, (with) lasting relationships,” Martinez said.
It's also what made closing down so difficult.
“Because when you have a box, you see your members day after day. You can reach out and touch them. You can give them their dose of fitness, give them the social interaction, give them the mental push they need or whatever they're going through in life," Martinez said. "When you're closed down, you lose that element."
So, on Day 47 of the lights being off and the fitness equipment gathering dust, Martinez said he was excited to hear about the latest steps in reopening the state.
“We're not at all nervous. And I'm going to tell you why: because we're prepared,” he said.
Martinez said he’d actually starting working on a safety reopening plan the night before the announcement.
He said some of the things they’re doing to follow the order includes shaving class sizes, maintaining six feet between class members and disinfecting the gym between classes.
Martinez said they’ll also be checking everyone’s temperature before they enter the gym.
“They'll definitely be new rules to abide by and we're going to adapt to those things,” he said.
Also ready to reopen her doors is salon owner Latasha Crawford. When she had to close the doors of her business, Crowned by Crawford Her Salon, she said her clients stepped in to help her make end's meet.
“It was definitely a shock. A drastic change in lifestyle and just going from income every day that we work to none at all,” Crawford said. “It just brings me to tears just to see how big peoples' hearts are right now.”
Crawford said she’s always dreamed of owning her own salon. Her grandmother owned and operated a beautician school, and her mother was a cosmetologist and instructor as well.
“It's just in my blood,” she said. “It's just a family legacy that I wanted to keep going.”
But now, brighter days are ahead. Just a day after the one-year anniversary of opening her salon, Crawford will be able to reopen for her clients.
Crawford said she will also be following the order, seeing one client at a time, wearing a mask and disinfecting the salon.
“I have the responsibility of keeping my clients safe, myself safe, and my son safe,” she said. “We're trained on how to keep everything disinfected and everything clean, so I'm just going to practice everything that I know to do in the salon.”
Crawford said she could only keep a positive attitude to get through this difficult time.
“That's the only thing that's gonna push us through this. We're all in it together."
Martinez said his outlook has been nothing but, well, you guessed it—optimistic.
“I think what this has taught everybody is to be grateful for everything you have," he said. "That we can open our doors again and be a part of our community, that's just icing on the cake, because we're not going anywhere."
RELATED: Coronavirus SA Timeline: May 5