For any fitness facility owners, having specific gym insurance is a must. When it is specific to gyms, rather than just for a business, it will cover the exact things that you would need to be covered for when running a gym.

As a gym owner, having the right liability insurance is crucial. It is vital to protect yourself against any costly claims, such as injuries to your customers, or when there is a claim of negligence against your gym business.

Either of these areas can lead to some enormous costs if you are not insured.

The costs and coverage that is required for a gym can vary from location to location, as there are things to consider such as staff size and your gym’s specific coverage needs.

A gym with personal trainers as employees will have a different rate for insurance than gyms that have self-employed personal trainers working there. The trainers will need to insure themselves, so there are different costs depending on needs.

What kind of coverage is needed for a gym?

There are several different coverage levels that will be needed for gyms. Again, this will depend specifically on your gym or fitness facility.

One of the basic gym insurance coverage that you will need is general liability insurance.

Basic commercial gym liability insurance covers any accidents that happen in the gym itself, such as a customer slipping on a freshly cleaned floor in the changing room that wasn’t marked up with a sign saying that it was wet.

This kind of insurance also helps to protect you against any lawsuits that could occur from these kinds of accidents.

Professional Liability Coverage

Professional liability insurance is also a basic consideration for gym insurance.

This kind of insurance helps to protect you and your gym business against any claims of negligence.

For example, if you have a customer that injures themselves because of advice given by your employees, or under the supervision of your employees, then they could sue.

So it can be a must to help you to protect your gym.

Cyber Liability

There are several other kinds of coverage that you might need for your gym. One of them is cyber insurance.

This is insurance that helps to protect you against any damages that can happen because of data breaches or cyber threats.

Due to the nature of a gym business, you have a lot of customer information on file. You will have their personal details, as well as their bank account information.

If you store this data, then making sure that you’re covered in this way can be important. 

Business Owner’s Policy (BOP)

You could also think about getting business owner insurance as a gym owner.

This will help you combine any general liability insurance with insurance for commercial property damage coverage, as well as other related additions that you can choose with the insurer.

Alongside this, getting worker’s compensation insurance can be a must if you have employees, rather than contractors who are self-employed themselves.

This kind of insurance policy will help to protect any of your employees against illness or injury that occurs as a result of being at work.

You could also think about getting insurance coverage for areas like coverage for tanning, abuse and molestation coverage available, crime and fidelity coverage for when there is any employee dishonesty, along with excess umbrella liability coverage and business auto insurance if vehicles are used for the gym business.

Risk of COVID-19 in a gym environment

With the ongoing global health crisis, there will be some changes that need to be made to gym and fitness facilities in order to make sure that your customers are safe and healthy, as well as your staff.

COVID-19 is a virus that is spread when people are in close contact, and can be passed on when people cough or sneeze, touching surfaces, and then this is touched by others.

So it really is important to take steps to mitigate your risks to this as a business. An outbreak in your workplace can impact your business through your reputation and your employee’s absence, so steps need to be taken.

Your customer’s health is a priority too, and you won’t want to open yourself up to the risk of being sued because you weren’t taking any necessary precautions.

As a gym and fitness owner, your workforce could be exposed to the virus if steps aren’t taken.

They could get exposed to the virus when they are in close contact with an infected person, or when they touch or handle surfaces that have been touched by an infected person.

To help to reduce the risk of it spreading in your gym, then there are some actions that you can take.

• Carry on following your state and local regulations for gyms
• Assign a workplace coordinator from your staff team to oversee risk assessments for COVID-19 and how it can be controlled. All staff should be considered from those at the front desk, to lifeguards, personal trainers, class instructors, cleaners, and so on.
• Plan out how to communicate with your gym customers what they should do and what you expect of them (such as not attending a training session if they have a cough or temperature). 
• Look into having some flexible sick leave for your employees as they will want this to be supportive. People will come into work regardless if they think there will be a reprisal if they don’t come into work. 
• Think about daily checks that can be done, such as temperature checks at the door for staff and customers, as well as other screening options.
• Put signage in place that ensures that customers and staff will be spaced apart when in the gym, and use screens where necessary. Moving gym equipment around, putting some out of order, and moving desks in the gym office around can be required to ensure spacing of customers and staff.
• An updated and more thorough cleaning process should occur, after use of all equipment, rather than just at the end of the day. You could discontinue things like locker rooms and showers at the gym for now, to encourage people to leave right after their workout.

For any other help or guidance in this area, we can help. We have a team of experts that can answer your questions, and help you with a gym insurance quote. Get in touch with us today.