Ray Ortiz knows what it means to overcome imposing obstacles. A year ago, as a 56- year old, he bench pressed 601 pounds at the Mr. Olympia competition in Las Vegas. It was a new world record for his age group.
The type of dedication he needed to accomplish that goal set himself apart from his other competitors.
However, now, just a year later, Ortiz is going to have to show the same type of grit in an entirely different battle. This fight is to keep his business alive. Ortiz, who is an officer for the Cameron University campus police, is also the owner and operator of the HIT (Heavy Intense Training) Gym in Lawton. He reopened just under a month ago along with most gyms throughout the state after being closed due to the spread of COVID-19.
“We were worried about what we had to do to be in compliance,” Ortiz said. “Before we actually opened the doors to everybody, [me] and a couple of the members came in and ... scrubbed and cleaned everything we could.
“People are going to put their hands on everything. We have plenty of cleaning supplies out so that when a member uses a certain piece of equipment, they were able to clean it before and after use.”
Ortiz has noticed his regular customers haven’t rushed back.
“I’m still waiting for the majority of them to make their way back,” Ortiz said. “I’ve gained some new people. I’ve had some that are more competitive athletes, so they needed to be in there. And then while everything was going down, I [loaned] out a lot of my equipment to ... the more serious lifters who compete so they can keep up with the training and wouldn’t lose what they’ve already gained.”
But it’s the everyday member who Ortiz has found is hesitant to stick their heads back into a gym while the pandemic is still causing havoc throughout the state and nation.
Ortiz doesn’t blame them too much because he believes he contracted the coronavirus around the same time his gym was forced to close. Even though he tested negative, he said he has the same symptoms.
“I’m still having problems with my breathing, so I’m going back and forth to the doctor about that,” Ortiz said. “I just hope it didn’t cause any major damage to me being sick. I just don’t get sick, and it just floored me. It took the legs right out from under me.”
Yet, Ortiz also knows part of the reluctance of his members to get back into the gym is human nature. After long periods of not working out, the prospect of restarting a regimen is not attractive to some.
“I think eventually they’ll come back,” he said. And you’re going to lose some that maybe have lost interest in what they were doing because of the time that they spent out doing nothing.
“A lot of people just say, ‘well, screw it. I’m not going to want to go back to the gym and start back’ because they remember how sore they were their first day, the first week or so after training. A lot of them will say, ‘you know, I don’t really want to go through that again.’”
This has been a problem for many fitness centers across the country. Even the nationwide franchises have seen a drop in memberships as people have rediscovered working out at home.
However, it hits a business like Ortiz much different than a Planet Fitness or Gold’s Gym.
“We’re kind of a unique gym where we’re on the old school style gym,” Ortiz said. “It’s not a fitness center. I train powerlifters mainly.
“Some of those big gyms do those automatic withdrawals out of your [bank account] and they continue to withdraw people’s money, even though they weren’t able to work out. Well, mine’s not like that. Mine is a cash-only and if I don’t get the cash from them, I can’t pay my bills.”
That is where Ortiz found himself during the two- month shut down because he was unable to collect any membership dues.
He was also unable to get help from the government.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the ones that were able to get any additional health monies from the government, because I’m a single gym,” Ortiz said. “I don’t have any employees. That threw me out of the whole mix. I’m out there by myself, swimming.”
When it came time to pay the rent on his gym, Ortiz knew he wouldn’t be able to do it.
“It was hard. I’ve never been late on my rent and my landlord’s just the building next to me,” he said.
“He’s helped me out quite a bit, and the day he knew they were thinking about closing everything down, I went next door and told him that my doors are locked until they said I could open them again. He said ‘well, let’s just worry about when this was all over.”
Ortiz said at the time he believed if it weren’t for his landlord being understanding, he didn’t know if he could have reopened.
“I was able to pay the rent on time and everything,” he said. “And I told him some of it came out of my own pocket to make it. But that was okay, because in the end, he was just happy I was able to open the doors and stuff.”
Ortiz opened HIT Gym five years ago and he has seen it grow despite knowing very little about running a business.
“This was my first business. I mean I was scared to death to even do it in the beginning, but I was talked into it,” Ortiz said. “You just got to dive in. If you succeed, you succeed, if you don’t, then you tried. So, I just became one of those who just dove in. But I mean, I’ve never had to worry about the rent. People paying on time and then got the rent in and just carried on.”
Ortiz is already looking ahead. With the talk of a possible second wave of the coronavirus coming in the fall and winter, he wants to put himself in a better position to withstand another shutdown. But even that might not save HIT.
“I’ll just keep my head up and keep going forward, save some money in case it happens again,” Ortiz said. “I’ll know what to do this next round if they’re suspecting another wave to come through. If another wave comes through, they’ll definitely shut everything down like they did before. I’ll be more prepared this next time. Andifitcomestoit,I may just have to pull out.”