Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Intense fitness classes can lead to rapid spread of COVID-19, report shows
Intense fitness classes can lead to rapid spread of COVID-19, report showsBy Rachael Rettner - Senior Writer
Read it here: https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-fitness-dance-classes-south-korea.html
(snips)
The researchers noted that the classes involved many people engaging in high-intensity exercise in a small space — a pretty ideal environment for COVID-19 spread.
"The moist, warm atmosphere in a sports facility coupled with turbulent air flow generated by intense physical exercise can cause more dense transmission of isolated droplets," the authors said. The number of people in a class also appeared to play a role in disease spread: Typical-size classes, with up to 22 participants, resulted in disease spread, while small classes with fewer than five people did not result in any spread of COVID-19, the report found.
Interestingly, one of the infected instructors also taught yoga and pilates, but none of these students became infected. The authors hypothesized that the lower intensity of these activities did not result in the same level of transmission as the high-intensity fitness classes.
Overall, "because of the increased possibility of infection through droplets, vigorous exercise in closely confined spaces should be avoided during the current outbreak," the authors concluded.
"The moist, warm atmosphere in a sports facility coupled with turbulent air flow generated by intense physical exercise can cause more dense transmission of isolated droplets," the authors said. The number of people in a class also appeared to play a role in disease spread: Typical-size classes, with up to 22 participants, resulted in disease spread, while small classes with fewer than five people did not result in any spread of COVID-19, the report found.
Interestingly, one of the infected instructors also taught yoga and pilates, but none of these students became infected. The authors hypothesized that the lower intensity of these activities did not result in the same level of transmission as the high-intensity fitness classes.
Overall, "because of the increased possibility of infection through droplets, vigorous exercise in closely confined spaces should be avoided during the current outbreak," the authors concluded.
Fitness gyms opening around the nation is bound to result in many new infections. Fortunately, most gyms in my area (north central KY) show "temporarily closed" on Google maps, although at least one chain outfit shows open.
KY.........
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
