Santa Maria Valley YMCA membership picking up in Orange Tier

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Gym members are sweating bullets, and they’re loving it.

"It was great I’m glad to be back at the weights. It’s just nice not to be confined," said member Jesse Heck of the YMCA.

Since Santa Barbara County entered the state's even less restrictive Orange Tier of reopening, capacity for indoor gyms has increased from 10 to 25 percent.

While many enjoy exercising outdoors, others are excited to be in the Orange Tier so they can do more activities indoors.

"My first reaction was that I was very excited because now I can do more of the machines around here, and so far it’s going great," said member Abner Leon of the YMCA.

"We’re definitely masking, we’re definitely working out indoors, we’re definitely increasing in class sizes," said CEO Shannon Seifert of the Santa Maria Valley YMCA.

The new tier has also allowed the gym to open at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.

"Many of us are already vaccinated and 90 percent of our members are vaccinated too," said Seifert.

"My hope is we continue to go down the tiers and get this thing knocked out," said Heck.