5 REASONS WHY STAYING FIT AND HEALTHY HELPS BEAT COVID-19

59% of gym goers miss going to the gym. This is according to one of the world’s leading international authorities on the commercial health club industry, IHRSA.

Here at home, the Planet Fitness SA team recorded 2.7-million check-ins through the entry turnstiles of our 47 clubs across the country between September 2020 and January 2021. The good news is that we are seeing more and more members come back to gym.

Interestingly our new member registrations are healthy and flourishing during the pandemic too! We feel it’s because we have consistently been able to show that gyms are one of the safest places to be because of the strict health and safety protocols in place. Combined with the positive research that keeps coming out from across the world, we hope that you will see why staying fit and healthy will help you and your family to beat the virus and is part of the solution!.

In the beginning, there was a concern that health clubs were a high-risk location for COVID-19 transmission, given heavier breathing during exercise and the indoor setting. However, data to date would appear to suggest the opposite: fitness centres operating with strict safety protocols in place are generally lower-risk venues.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, IHRSA has been compiling available evidence on modes of viral transmission, the relationship between physical activity, health status, and Covid-19 outcomes, as well as the impacts of Covid-related restrictions on physical and mental health. This evidence is compiled in the IHRSA Global Data Memo. They gave three key conclusions from available evidence:

• The newly released WHO 2020 Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour also highlights the negative effects of prolonged inactivity, which for a lot of people is hard to avoid. New research suggests even 30-40 minutes of moderate-vigorous exercise a day can mitigate risk factors associated with lengthy sitting time. This is especially important during the pandemic, as physical activity during commutes, errand running, and social events have been so severely restricted.

With all this research coming out, we are heartened by the fact that epidemiological evidence continues to suggest that physical activity is vital and essential for physical, mental and emotional health, and that health clubs are NOT primary drivers of Covid-19 transmission.

BUILD UP YOUR IMMUNITY
#WORKOUT @PlanetFitness

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29 January 2021
Written by:
Lisa Short at LSCommunications for Planet Fitness at 083 738 2811 / lisa@lscommunications.co.za