Why are the gyms closed?

[epythymy]

When so little spread has been attributed back to them? I read it was 1% but if anyone has other statistics let me know.
When obesity is such a significant factor in morbidity?
When other non-essential businesses are staying open (such as garden centres)?

It just absolutely baffles me. My gym is a small, privately owned studio that is unlikely to make it through a second lockdown.

Many of us have trained hard and made good progress over the last several months. This is possible to do at home but much more difficult without the space or machines for weight training. Plus with the cold and the rain, motivation to go out won't be particularly high whereas a run on a treadmill isn't quite as difficult to talk yourself into.

And why is spread in gyms so low when they are generally closed spaces filled with sweaty, panting people?

yes you can exercise outside or at home but for many people those options are limited. It's now dark in an evening, our local parks are all unlit and many women don't feel safe pounding the pavements alone in the dark, or for those who live in rural areas it's not really safe on unlit roads with no pavements. Many people in cities live in flats and don't have garages or gardens to have their own gym equipment and not everyone wants to, or can do, bodyweight stuff with Saint Joe Wicks. There's a lot of older people swim and do aquafit because it's all their joints can handle! For the sake of my mental and physical health going to the gym is a risk I'm willing to take given it's usually the only other people I see all day.

Big factor probably that you can't wear masks in the gym, and people are likely to be breathing more rapidly and deeply

When compared to something like going into a shop/takeaway/church it would be considered riskier

@Foliageeverywhere122

Big factor probably that you can't wear masks in the gym, and people are likely to be breathing more rapidly and deeply

When compared to something like going into a shop/takeaway/church it would be considered riskier

You wear a mask between machines and stations and only take it off when you're exercising, which in my gym was always 2m away from anyone else

@CodenameVillanelle

Under section 3

I feel thoroughly miserable without the gym, last lockdown I jogged. Not my first choice of exercise. Now it's cold wet and windy there is zero appeal. No space for an Olympic bar sadly

I did a 10k today. Hated every minute.

Also currently using pumpkins as medicine balls xx

You wear a mask between machines and stations and only take it off when you're exercising, which in my gym was always 2m away from anyone else

^^ my gym was the same, cleaning stations everywhere so people can clean equipment before and after use

@Lindy2

Because the virus spreads much more easily inside.

A prolonged period of being inside with other people (even spaced out) is a lot more risky than being outside.

You can still exercise but it needs to be alone and outside. Going to a gym really isn't as essential as food shopping. There are other options for exercise.

And yet it's not spreading in gyms. There is actual evidence to support this. All the hypotheticals about how and where and when it COULD spread. Look at the evidence. It's barely spreading in gyms. Where people don't wear masks and where people are breathing heavily. The risks of not going to the gym on health massively outweigh the risk Covid presents.

You couldn't make it up could you.
In an already unhealthy nation, well over half of which is overweight or obese, with a PM who has accepted that one of his risk factors was obesity and promised to tackle that.
They've also stopped kids' sport - including girls' academy football. Still, apparently 'we're all in it together, because the virus doesn't discriminate' (except we're not and it does). It's infuriating.
What an absolute shower.

I don't know what the right answers are. Everything could claim an exemption or to be low risk, it seems. And most of those places are correct. It's possible to make most things low risk. But, if everything is allowed to stay open, will we cope? Maybe we would, I honestly don't know. But I don't think you can make exceptions for some 'non essentials' and not others. Because different things are essential for different people. I've been having a similar argument to this with a friend about church. She is going to genuinely struggle without being able to go and thinks it's safe. But, for others, a church is ludicrous luxury and the gym is essential. And for someone else, both are needless and they'd really like to able to have coffee with a friend as their 'essential'. It's too hard and has to be all or nothing.

The real inequality is in education being open, I think. I work in a private school and we have Saturday school which has stayed open because it's school and 'education'. But Saturday is our enrichment timetable. I've had a ridiculous amount of fun for a lockdown day today and it's just not fair on others. I've run a musical theatre workshop and a Shakespeare workshop. Other children have done yoga, nature walks, synchronised swimming, fencing, Spanish, fitness training, arts and crafts, baking, creative writing, basketball, coding, debating and probably some other things I've forgotten. Just because it's our school time and therefore 'allowed'. That is really unfair on other children.