Follow These COVID Precautions When Returning to the Gym
If you didn’t go to the gym much during the pandemic, getting vaccinated (or watching vaccination rates rise in your area) may be enough to get you back. But how safe is your gym really? Here are some signs to watch out for to ensure your risk of contracting COVID-19 is minimal.
And yes, if you are vaccinated, you can assume that your risk of contracting COVID-19 is minimal anyway , but people have different risk tolerances. No vaccine is perfect, and there are cases where people got the vaccine but ended up getting a breakthrough infection . So we understand if you still want to be careful.
Look for proper ventilation in your gym
The virus that causes COVID-19 can hang in the air in small droplets , and these droplets accumulate in stuffy rooms. Ventilation is one of the most important ways to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus in a large public place such as a gym.
So, look for signs that air is entering and exiting the room. If the doors and windows are open on opposite sides of the room, that’s fine. If classes are held outdoors or if the gym has an open section, then even better.
You can also ask the gym management about what updates they have made to their ventilation system. If they use high quality filters, have a full turn of air every 10 minutes or so, or know their carbon dioxide readings, these are signs that they are serious about ventilation.
Other good signs, virus transmission expert Linsey Marr told the New York Times , are high ceilings, portable air purifiers, and people at least 10 feet apart. If you smell other people, it means that the air does not circulate well .
Masks still help when you are indoors, including at the gym
After the CDC announced that vaccinated people can safely walk without masks in public, many gyms that required masks dropped the requirement for vaccinated people. Some gyms have door plaques and honor systems; others track participants’ vaccination status and enforce the mask rule.
Ideally, people who have not been vaccinated should still wear a mask during exercise, even during exercise itself . Yes, masks make exercise uncomfortable, but when you breathe heavily, you throw more and smaller droplets into the air than when you stand in the lobby.
You can also wear a mask to protect yourself, even if you are vaccinated for added protection. While at the beginning of the pandemic we thought masks only helped protect others, there is strong evidence that they also protect the wearer .
Cleaning Protocols Are Not So Important To Gym Safety COVID
COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through the air and through close contact with other people (for example, face-to-face contact) and is likely rarely, if ever, transmitted through contact with surfaces.
However, this does not mean that cleaning and disinfection is useless. The gym should still clean surfaces regularly and provide participants with wipes to clean equipment after use. This applies not only to COVID, but also to other infections that can spread through surfaces, such as a skin infection known as MRSA .