I have been training at a commercial gym since it reopened after an initial COVID-19 lockdown. Up to this point, I’ve felt ok about taking the risk of sharing an indoor space with others who are also exercising. I have been rethinking that position lately, however. Doing my best to maintain physical distance from other members and keeping equipment clean seemed like it mitigated the risk associated with training enough to make the risk of getting COVID worth it, considering how important training is to me. While I notice people cleaning equipment after use, some aren’t as mindful of physical distancing etiquette as id like and none of us have masks on because lifting with a mask on is intolerable. Nobody has decided that it was a good idea to train within a few feet of me, but sometimes people pass by unnecessarily close. Maybe I’m being paranoid. I live in an area of FL that has seen a significant increase in the number of COVID cases over the last month and I’m concerned about how safe going to a public gym is right now. On the other hand, not being able to strength train would make me sad.
I know that, in the end, it is my decision to make and I am not looking for someone to tell me what to do. Rather, I am looking for some perspective to help me evaluate this a little better. How concerned should I be about catching COVID-19 at an indoor facility? I’m 35, healthy with no preexisting conditions.
Less concerned than you are (or should be) when you go to the grocery store, but more concerned than you are about going to a public park to do cardio without a mask.
You’ll note the complete lack of numbers or specifics above, as I’m not sure what the exact risk is and how that should factor into your calculus for this decision.
Any particular reason to be more concerned about the grocery store than the gym? Naively, I would think that the grocery store (short time indoors, probably not close to any particular person for an extended period of time, essentially everyone is wearing masks, people are breathing normally) would be safer than the gym (longer time indoors, could be close to the same person for 20-30 minutes, people may not be wearing masks, people are breathing heavily). Is it the larger total number of people in a grocery store, or the difference in characteristics between gym-goers and grocery shoppers, or some other factor that’s not obvious to me?
Huge differences, yes. Think about the demographics here and, from a population level, what kind of risks we’re talking about.
I would not agree that heavy breathing is a risk factor for transmission or additionally, that social distancing is better in a grocery store than in a gym.
Interesting; thanks for the response. If I’m understanding correctly, the idea is that gym-goers are healthier and therefore less likely to be contagious? Is it possible that healthier people would be less likely to experience serious symptoms, making them more likely to still be out and about while infected?
Is there a specific reason why heavy breathing would not increase the risk of transmission? Intuitively, I would think that breathing more deeply and/or more frequently would increase your exposure to whatever is in the air.
Regarding social distancing, I was thinking more in terms of your exposure to a particular person over an extended period of time. When I’m in a grocery store, I’m usually not in proximity to any particular person for more than 30 seconds or so, while someone in the next rack over in the gym could be near me for 30 minutes. I was under the impression that length of exposure to an infected person was a major factor in risk of infection; is that outweighed by other factors here, or just not as significant as I thought?