Bosses of gyms in Norfolk forced to close over coronavirus have frozen memberships and planned exercises for members to do at home.

Owners and managers of gyms including Pure, which has three venues in Norwich and one in Wisbech, The Gym, which has two in Norwich, and Bannatyne’s, also with two in Norwich, had all hoped to stay open.

Many had introduced measures to slow the spread of the disease, but now have had to close their doors until further notice following the government’s decision.

Simon Hill, who owns independent gym Complete Fitness, on Heigham Street, said he was almost speechless.

“We’re in a strange, uncharted territory for all of us,” he posted on social media.

Many gyms were busy putting in place guidance on what happens to memberships going forward. Pure will not charge members while the gyms are closed - it has automatically stopped payments and when the gym is back open, will credit members’ first payment with any outstanding amount from current monthly subscriptions.

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Jason Elves, manager, said: “At PureGym, the health and safety of our members, colleagues and self-employed personal trainers is our number one priority. While the closure of your club is a difficult situation for us all, we will continue to do everything we can to help our members. While we are closed, we will work hard to ensure your club is clean, safe, and ready for your return.”

Pure is bringing out a range of work-outs, on-demand classes and ideas for nutrition and wellbeing through its app.

The Gym also reassured members they won’t be charged. It posted advice stating: “At this stage we don’t know how long we’ll be closed, we’ll only reopen again when it’s safe to do so. We have frozen all membership payments.

“There may be a delay for some members while their bank processes the freeze request. The value of the remainder of your current monthly subscription will be deducted from the first payment taken after we reopen your gym.”

It is also planning to provide exercise content for people to do outside or at home.

At Bannatyne’s, where its spas are also closed, it stated it was freezing all memberships with no further payments taken.

For updates on coronavirus in Norfolk see the Facebook page here.