Outdoor Fitness Spaces Offer Safe, Inspiring Workouts

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Natalia Espana was a full-time ER tech who guided group fitness classes in her spare time. Then the pandemic hit, and even though she viewed fitness as a passionate hobby that paid, the shutdown of the corporate health clubs where she had been teaching left Espana, and a lot of her fellow fitness instructors, in a state of limbo. From that uncertainty came the spark of an idea. Could enough regular class-goers be convinced to follow their favorite instructors outdoors in the interest of spacing and safety — even at the height of California’s COVID restrictions?

“When we set up a business plan, we were estimating maybe 20 classes a week — a couple in the morning, a couple midday, maybe a couple in the evening. But the response, the demand for outdoor fitness, has just blown us away,” says Espana, who launched GOAT Santa Cruz with her husband in August 2020. “Having more than 60 classes a week has exceeded our expectations by a lot. I mean, it’s amazing. It’s crazy. We’re still like, ‘Wait. What?’ ”

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