To remind people of the exercise rules

[Orangeblossom78]

Keep seeing all this stuff where people are making up their own rules and telling people off! we were even glared at while having a family picnic on a long walk yesterday! Please stop with telling people off when they are within the guidelines.

Here is the current situation, as updated about a week ago.

What are the current rules when it comes to exercise in the UK?

Daily exercise, including walking, running, cycling, tending to an allotment or doing yoga is allowed.

You are allowed to drive somewhere to take your exercise. The guidance says, ‘it is lawful to drive for exercise.’ However, ‘Driving for a prolonged period with only brief exercise’ is also deemed ‘not likely to be reasonable’. The rule of thumb? You’re allowed to drive somewhere to go for a walk or run as long as you spend much more time walking than you do driving.

Exercising more than once per day is likely to be allowed if you have a ‘reasonable excuse’ for needing to leave your home.

You are allowed to sit and take a break from exercise, say, on a bench or sitting down in a park. However, this must be for a short time only and, as before, you must spend markedly more time exercising than resting.

I have a garden to enjoy, I say to my neighbours who live in apartments, go for that walk, if you tire sit on a bench, if hungry eat something. Do whatever it takes to get through this.

In England you get two lots of exercise a day, in Wales one. We are still coping in Wales.

Our council have removed dog shit bins, so now the bags are hung up on trees, walls, etc. Umm.. excuse me please just take it home. People can be disgusting but what are the council thinking of, the result was pretty predictable. Maybe they think bags of dog shit will stop people wanting to go for a walk.

Just done the maths. 6000 acres of green space = 24,000,000m2 for 225,000 people is around 1000m2 per person. Think we’ll be ok!

Um.... no.

6000 acres = 24,000, 000 square metres.
That's about 10 square metres per person, not 1000! About 3m by 3m. You'd just about be able to maintain recommend social distancing but you'd need to be careful.

The rules are ableist. People with disabilities have just as much right to go somewhere nice for their exercise as anyone else, even if they might not be able to walk for as long. It's a breach of (at least the spirit of) the Equality Act 2010, which some police will be aware of in practice but it's a shame isn't explicitly said, as a few police might be overly rigid.

Apparently at one of our local parks the benches are/were closed off, making it completely inaccessible for people who can't walk far.

I also don't see anything wrong in having a picnic tbh, as long as you're a reasonable distance from other people. I plan to have one at some point on a lovely hill I've found. Not many people pass there.

I voted YABU, purely because you started another thread to join the 4,567,789,656,000 that there are on here about exercise and 'the rules'.

You keep saying "a long walk". An hour is NOT a long walk.

It is for me, and many others in my position. Stop being such a twat.

I am sick to fucking death of lockdown vigilantes

Tough shit. If people don't like it they should stop being dicks.

Yes. The vigilantes should indeed stop being dicks. I'm glad you recognise that :)

I plan to have one at some point on a lovely hill I've found. Not many people pass there.

Yet anyone who does wish to pass on their allowed exercise will be prevented from doing so by you sitting there eating.

These posts get worse.

Isn't there something to be said for following the spirit of guidelines rather than trying to find loopholes and justifications?

One would hope so, but apparently not. For some people it's all about what they can get away with.

Don’t worry, the lockdown will be lifted soon, the indirect deaths will start to outnumber covid deaths....exercise however you like for as long as you like

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/two-new-waves-deaths-break-nhs-new-analysis-warns/

YABVU and selfish; you shouldn’t be stopping for a picnic and attempting to interpret the guidelines to fit what you want.

I wouldn't worry about stopping for 20 minutes for a picnic it's the people that are mixing households I'd worry about .
Stopping for a picnic is fine I see no issue with it as long as social distancing.

I think personally the problem is that people are behaving as if this is something that's being done to them rather than to keep them safe and yanno, alive. This shit is going to drag on because people feel entitled. They see it as unreasonable and will find ways around it because of that deep set entitlement.

This isn't being done to punish.

If your picnic has sausages rolls and cheese and pickle sandwiches it’s fine. Otherwise very very selfish.

(Source - imperial picnic college, slough)

Oh, FFS.
No, sitting having a picnic doesn't pose a risk to others.But if enough people stop for a picnic, nobody can exercise within safe guidelines because there's not enough open space available. I have limited mobility myself so I can see there's a need to be able to stop and rest, maybe have a drink in warm weather, but who needs to take an actual meal with them for a short period of exercise?

We might drive ds to exercise and he will only walk for a couple of minutes or we might not get out of the car at all if getting out of the car will be unsafe. We still have reasonable excuse for being away from home. The time walking further than driving 'rule' applies to those with normal circumstances.

No where in the real world would an hour be described as a long walk.

Sitting down and having a picnic is taking the piss. Surely your family can survive 2 hours without food?

Yes have a rest and some water but sitting down for half an hour and whipping out sandwiches isn’t on. If everyone did that, there would be no space for others to get round you all.

We went for a family walk today and ate when we got back.

Does anyone know how long the virus lasts on grass? I did a quick Google and couldn't find anything. Just reading this thread got me wondering. I'm not going to argue the semantics of where a short break to eat something becomes a picnic but my thought is that you don't know if someone was sitting on your same patch of grass 5 minutes before you sat down on it, same as a bench to be honest. You could be transmitting / catching the virus because of your interpretation of the rules.

Surely, common sense says that unless absolutely necessary (such as if you are elderly or disabled or even maybe if you have kids and live in an apartment block), you should just go home and minimise contamination by not sitting on the bench or the grass. For me, it's not about whether I can interpret the rules to fit what I WANT to do, more looking at the situation as a whole and thinking do I NEED to do it. Can I not take the kids out for a lovely walk and exercise yet time it so I am home in time for a nice picnic in the garden?

That way, there is more room for those that really do need it, and possibly less virus on any surface. Just my random thought.

I carry my picnics in a lovely wicker basket, however I can understand your frustration of people breaking the rules if the picnic is in Aldi bags......

No where in the real world would an hour be described as a long walk.

It's a bloody long walk for me.

Assuming someone is able bodied, an hour walk is not something I'd think of as long either.