New Management Guiding Enfield Fitness Center Through Coronavirus

ENFIELD, CT — The coronavirus pandemic has caused numerous difficulties for most area businesses, with restrictions changing seemingly by the hour. One of the industries hit hard has been physical fitness centers, and one longtime Enfield workout center is doubly hampered by its complete lack of visibility from the road.

Healthtrax Fitness and Wellness, which has existed in various incarnations at 3 Weymouth Road since the early 1970s, has brought an experienced new general manager on board at its Enfield location. Silvestro "Sly" Manente has been with the company for four years, and came to Enfield in August following a reorganization of upper management. The company has 15 locations in New England, including seven in Connecticut.

Manente, a native of New York, is a former U.S. Navy Seabee who did two tours in the Middle East, and retired in 2013 after 20 years of service. He dabbled in several jobs, including security sales and insurance, before "I found fitness again and fell in love with it," he told Patch in a recent interview. "I love what I do. So there's my retirement gig."

He came to Enfield in the midst of the pandemic, which is nearing its 11th month. With the constant sharing of equipment and proximity of clients to each other, restrictions on fitness centers have been particularly stringent.

"The biggest changes we've seen since COVID happened is trying to fit everything within the boundaries of the rules set by the state," Manente said. "So within the rules, we've had to change where we put equipment, we had to mark off spaces where people can stand to move around where people train. The number of people we can have in a group class has to be managed. So everything's been on a sign-up schedule. We just don't take extra precautions; we're taking an extra step, the extra mile to make sure that we're safe. So we take the strictest rules that they have, and we apply those and then making sure we're well within compliance."

Constant cleaning has become a top priority for Manente and the staff.

"We're cleaning the equipment three, four or five times a day, as well as making sure members are cleaning the equipment wearing their masks, kind of policing the members, making sure they're doing the right stuff," he said.

Economic woes of residents brought on by the pandemic have filtered down to area fitness centers, which were closed by Gov. Ned Lamont from mid-March through mid-June. Manente admits gyms are a low priority for cash-strapped consumers.

"Our competitors aren't other gyms; our competitors are the phone bill, the light bill, the cable bill - all the things that people spend their money on, besides the rent," he said. "So we have to try to make ourselves as important as those things to them. And it's a struggle. The first thing that people cut is the gym when times get tough, but this is a time where the gym is most necessary."

Manente said the toughest challenge in his new role has been "getting people to understand that the gyms are safe, but you have to take care of yourself is what it boils down to. Even during non-COVID times, you can catch things at the gym. At the cleanest gyms in the world, you still have some people going in that are not wiping down after themselves. My biggest advice is protect yourself. Clean the equipment before and after you use it. You clean it before for yourself, and after as a courtesy. When you're done working out, take a shower or wash your hands. Good hygiene will keep you from getting sick most of the time. Is it foolproof? Absolutely not. Nowhere is foolproof, no matter the number of cautions you take. But we have done our very best to mitigate the risk, to minimize that risk."

New membership is going quite slowly at this point, and management is trying several different approaches to remedy that situation.

"We're reaching out to as many former members as we can, finding out what we can do to make them more comfortable," membership director Tanya Hughes said. "We're getting quite a few former members back in, we're getting people through Facebook leads and we're looking to partner with local companies. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going on misinformation."

Admittedly, Healthtrax is not the least expensive fitness center around, but Manente believes it has the most value.

"Are we the cheapest? No, and we don't want to be; we want to be the best," he said. "And we believe that we're worth every dollar that we charge. The biggest thing is making sure you know people see the value and see that we are safe. This is a struggle to get people to come back, especially with so many people being out of work. It's just a matter of trying to get them to understand that fitness is one of the best ways to protect yourself from any kind of disease."

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