"When the virus hit, we kind of slowed business down," said co-owner Carrie Flowers, "you know, they said 50 people at a time and they went down to 10 people at a time and then eventually they kind of closed us down."
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Flowers handles the financials at Warrior Tech, which continues to pay two full-time trainers. But needed help from the government stimulus program has yet to show up. Flowers has positioned the gym to survive this crisis, just not indefinitely.
"Supposedly the stay at home is over on the 29th or the 30th of this month and we should be able to open by May 1. If we can do that, we should be fine, we should be OK. If we can't, and we're extended into the summer, that's going to be a little bit of a problem for us," Flowers said.
A second location for north Raleigh was in the plans for this summer but now an already approved bank loan for that has been inexplicably held up.
Fifty gym members have maintained their memberships as a show of support and co-owner Tim Saguinsin designed T-shirts to sell. The outpouring has been emotional.
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"I was bawling my eyes out because people didn't just write their sizes, they wrote us messages," said co-owner Kim Saguinsin, "telling us that we can't wait till we reopen. We can't wait to ninja together with these shirts on. Hang in there, guys!" Saguinsin clutched her heart as she spoke.
ABC11 was on hand Wednesday as they made a delivery. Tim talked about how the way forward is going to necessitate new behaviors.
"We're such a touchy-feely community. We like to high five, we like to give hugs. Now it's going to have to be six feet apart," he said.
Kim remains resolute: "It's just another obstacle. That was something we stated when we were trying to open up our doors and every single obstacle came at us. This is no different."