The latest fitness centre shutdowns, work-from-home arrangements and self-imposed isolation have added 5.5kg to my weight. To say I’m frustrated only scratches the surface of my emotions; for too long I’ve been paranoid about what I can and can’t do and pessimism abounds with the roadmap for relaxing Covid-19 restrictions announced by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
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This is, after all, a government that has fumbled and flip-flopped its way through the more than two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, with disastrous results for the livelihoods of many businesses and people. Removing the ban on flights from nine countries, lowering the hotel quarantine period to seven days, letting restaurants stay open longer and gyms and the like reopen largely rolls back the clock to the early days of the fifth wave of the virus in January.
Our health and well-being are apparently what this is all about. But for me and a number of others I know, the rules have had the opposite effect. As a result of doing as the authorities have advised and staying at home as much as possible, I have added kilograms, developed lower back pain and had swollen feet and ankles. This is what I presume life would be like under a lockdown for city-wide testing, which Lam has thankfully suspended.
Walking the 20 paces from my desk to the front door and back numerous times a day is no compensation for going to the gym for an hour four or five times a week. Even once restrictions are lifted, it won’t be possible anyway; my gym, Fitness First, has closed permanently due to lost business caused by months of rules contending that people exercising in proximity can easily spread the virus.
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Hong Kong gyms struggle to stay afloat as Fitness First chain quits city over Covid closure
Hong Kong gyms struggle to stay afloat as Fitness First chain quits city over Covid closure
Science should be guiding the Covid-19 battle. Everyone in the health and fitness industries know that regular exercise is necessary for a healthy body and mind. I learned in high school five decades ago that keeping active is necessary to maintain and strengthen the body’s immune system to fight illness.
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Preventing or restricting that from happening through gym closures, shutting down sporting facilities, stopping people from swimming and limiting the ability to do even moderate exercise by requiring mask-wearing in public is surely counterproductive.
