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.

Ha ha ha ha! at someone reading "short break" and interpreting that as "family picnic".

Do u guys eat every hour? Is this due to heath condition?

Pass the smelling salts, someones had a picnic 😂

Really don't see the problem, especially if you're brief and away from other people. It's within the rules as long as its in proportion to the total time you spent being active. It doesn't matter whether that food is a cling wrapped ham sarnie out of a carrier bag, or in a wicker basket for a family of four.

I hope over time more and more people start calling out the 'you can't do that brigade' because it's getting fucking old. As long as people are within the parameter of the rules, more power to them. Life is shit as it is

People are doing what they want anyway, it isnt a lock down like any other in europe

It's just an excuse for a picnic really isn't it with a bit of a walk before and after ?The problem is harder for people to social distance if multiple families are picnicking in the middle of their walk ,we went a walk to.a local beauty spot yesterday ,we drove there ,we have a child with severe autism and learning disabilities so under government guidelines are allowed to drive further for exercise , i won't be going again as there were just to many other people flouting the rules ,sunbathing ,picnicking etc which makes it harder on everybody

I find this baffling. Why do you WANT to do this in the middle of a pandemic? Can’t you just go for a walk after lunch or before lunch? Why would you want to eat somewhere you can’t wash your hands first? Why do you need to eat so often? I just don’t get it.

@Bargainhuntbore
I have no issues with people exercising mire than once a day. I do it myself. But a picnic?

if u warrant urself the ability to break the rules by exercising more than once, and having no issues with others doing it, im sure u can excuse the picnic?
oh sorry, u dont do picnic, so shouldnt the others.

The double standard are worse.

My neighbour used to go to her mother's house each day to have lunch, now she goes to her mother's home each day to 'provide care' despite the mother going to her mother's home each day to 'provide care' and the neighbour's sister who lives 25 miles away regularly is parked in my neighbours drive these past few evenings. Before lockdown she would visit for tea, but now I guess she is also 'providing care'. It seems some people are carrying on as normal. We're ignoring them but it's frustrating when DH and I haven't been able to go to work or see our friends and family since lock down began. The rules should apply to everyone but I've no idea how the police or government could enforce that.

I mean, think logically. If a family of four went out for a walk, stopped for something to eat, and they each had a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a bag of crisps and a drink, that would amount to a lot of food. It wouldn't be unreasonable to put it in a basket. One could describe it as a picnic maybe, but only because four people are partaking. It's not a big deal and I think normal people would care less.

Good on you, I agree with your interpretation of the rules and don't see any harm in stopping to eat during outdoor exercise. As long as you use a blanket and take your rubbish home where's the problem?

I think a bigger problem just now is all the black and white thinking going on is the Clap for Carers brigade who are going out on Thursday nights to stand in mass groups clapping like fucking loons in London Bridge and the like.
Too thick and set in their ways to see the irony in their actions, it's absolutely cringey and complete madness.

I really wouldn't fancy eating anywhere that I can't wash my hands thoroughly before and after. Let alone subject my kids to it.

Then again, I'm another one who's baffled as to why a kid can't go for a short walk (which an hour is, especially to a child), without parents shoving food at them.

@Hannah021 with due respect, where i live, i see no-one. Not a soul. Ran 10 miles this morning and no one. Ran last night, no one. Walk tonight, no one. I live in the middle of nowhere with no direct neighbours.

We are in lockdown and meant to go out only for a minimum amount of exercise. Enough to give people movement/fresh air/wellbeing so the lockdown is tolerable, but not to progress your marathon training or have all day outings. More than 5 minutes.Less than 2 hours. I'm not quoting anything here but this is my interpretation of the general idea.

So the police have now said (reasonably) you can drive a short way to take your exercise, e.g. to an open space/local park and you can stop for a short snack/rest. Both of these are helpful if you have small children or are elderly for example.

To extend this to "this means we can go on a hour's drive to spend all day in a beauty spot and have a full picnic" is pushing it and you know it. That's not lockdown. That's having a day out.

The OP refers to guidelines in the UK.
England Golf definitely instructed all golf courses to shut when lockdown was announced.
I assume the other regional golf bodies did the same.
Many golf courses have public footpaths running across them so cannot be closed off.
My own club has a lot more people walking across it than usual as there is no danger of being hit by golf balls!
There have been reports of non members sneaking on to courses to play but most Clubs would sanction a member who tried to do that.

OP is a selfish idiot - family picnic indeed.

We shouldn’t be debating this, and glaring at our fellow citizens. We should be glaring at the government, and quizzing them on testing; empty hospital wards; exit strategy; and why they’re taking so long to pay self-employed people whose livelihoods they’ve snatched away.

The government loves us frothing about this between ourselves, because in a way, it lets them off the hook.

Still people are unable to mind their own business. It's none of your business why people want a drink or a snack while out for a walk. It's very entitled of you if you think you should have an explanation.

Just sort out yourself and your family and let others do the same.

We're turning into a nation of busybodies and it isn't pretty.

sod it lets all go out and have a picnic-who said all the kids are being made to stay at home

my dsis takes her kids out every day for a walk for about an hour they dont all sit round eating aswell though

Wales- are you NOT allowed a picnic.
Therefore preaching to ‘everyone’ is wrong- you will give some posters the incorrect information.

Anywhere else I have zero idea lol

' ha ha ha! at someone reading "short break" and interpreting that as "family picnic".'

Indeed. Oh op, of course in isolation it sounds harmless but if everyone stopped to have a family picnic it wouldn't take long for groups to build up then it gets busy. Go for a walk, stop for a drink of water for a few minutes then carry on. The reason people glare is because they are doing what they are told and get irritated when others aren't.

This is exactly why the rules need spelling out for people.

Just to clarify for Welsh posters

The rules say you can do pretty much whatever you want so crack on but don't complain to me when this pandemic keeps kicking us all in the backside.

wanderings absolutely and they could tell everyone to stop having picnics if they wanted to and choose not to. That doesn't mean that they care about the health of me or my family though.

I wish people would get it through their thick skulls that the bloody virus is not an intelligent life form. It doesn’t know or care whether you are out for 20 minutes or 5 hours. It doesn’t know whether you have gone to the supermarket for “essential” food or a bottle of gin. It doesn’t fucking know whether you work for the NHS or you’re unemployed. It doesn’t know whether you are doing the shopping for 10 elderly, disabled, shielding neighbours or for yourself. IT MAKES NO BLOODY DIFFERENCE.

All the justifications people come up with for why their reasons are better than anyone else’s reasons are just tedious bollocks at the end of the day.

I love that you've quoted the wording and still don't get that you've done something wrong

Except that she hasn't.

I love it that you've tried to be censorious and shown yourself up through lack of appreciation of the precise point that OP is making.