This week, new research strongly suggests that COVID-19 and the gym don’t mix particularly well. In fact, according to two new studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), indoor group fitness classes are a pretty effective way to transmit the coronavirus.
Both studies looked at COVID-19 outbreaks that occurred at fitness facilities in Honolulu and Chicago in the summer of 2020 – including one cycling class where each participant fell ill. That outbreak was discovered in an investigation by the Hawaii Department of Health. For the study, contact and case researchers linked 21 cases of COVID-19 to two fitness instructors who taught different classes in June and July 2020. They taught while they were contagious, but before they had any noticeable symptoms.
One of those instructors taught a 60-minute high-intensity indoor cycling course just four hours before his symptoms started later in the evening. The instructor and students were all at least six feet apart, but none of them wore masks while training, according to the facility’s protocol, and the windows and doors were closed. The instructor faced the class, “shouting instructions and encouragement,” the report says, and, presumably, released infectious respiratory droplets containing the virus. The following week, all 10 people attending the class tested positive for COVID-19.
Of those infected participants, one was also a fitness instructor, who would later be admitted to the ICU for a serious case of COVID-19. But before his symptoms showed up, he was teaching multiple classes, debunked, in a different facility – including one in-person training session and three small kickboxing classes, just 12 hours before his symptoms appeared. Of the 11 people exposed that day (five of whom had also been exposed to the instructor two days earlier), 10 would test positive for COVID-19 in the next few days. The two students who did wear masks the previous day and one of the instructor’s four personal training clients also tested positive.
Another CDC study looked at cases related to a Chicago gym operating at a 25% capacity in the last week of August 2020. Of the 81 people who attended intensive indoor classes that week (most of whom attended several), 55 would be diagnosed with COVID-19. Participants brought their own mats and weights, underwent symptom screening and temperature checks on arrival, and maintained a distance of 6 feet – but were not required to wear a mask while exercising. Of the 58 respondents, 76% indicated that they did not wear their mask often. (Perhaps more shockingly, 22 participants who tested positive for COVID-19 went to a class on the same day or after their symptoms started, including three who went to a class on the same day or after they got a positive test result. that some had gone to class earlier in the day before noticing symptoms later in the day.)
Neither report is surprising, of course, given what we know about the spread of COVID-19 and the gym. In both case studies, public health experts found that a combination of poor mask wear, high respiratory effort, lack of ventilation in an enclosed space, and prolonged close contact are among the likely factors that facilitate transmission. That’s all in line with what we already know about the coronavirus, which spreads mainly through respiratory droplets.
The safest way to exercise during this pandemic is at home or outside (alone or with the other members of your household). And while the risk of exposure from attending a fitness class with other people will never be zero, as SELF reported, it’s possible to make the scenario safer by moving it outside (or otherwise ensuring adequate airflow) and ensuring ensuring that everyone is using the correct physical distance. and wears masks.