When will gyms reopen?
On Monday afternoon, Boris Johnson unveiled his “roadmap to recovery” for lifting lockdown restrictions across England after weeks of a third nationwide lockdown that began in January.
The roadmap was revealed to MPs in the House of Commons, and will be announced to the public in a televised broadcast at 7pm.
The Prime Minister was keen to prioritise the return of all pupils to classrooms, and has announced a four-step plan that could see England could return to something close to normal life no earlier than 21 June.
Mr Johnson said there will be “at least” five weeks between each of the four steps.
Read more: Lockdown roadmap: What is reopening and when?
Step one will happen from 8 March.
Describing his plan as a “a one-way road to freedom”, Mr Johnson cautioned that measures could be paused at any time if the data makes clear that relaxations have increased the danger from Covid-19.
“The threat remains substantial,” he said. “But we’re able to take these steps because of the resolve of the British public and the extraordinary success of our NHS in vaccinating more than 17.5m people across the UK.
“There is no credible route to a zero-Covid Britain or indeed a zero-Covid world. We cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental wellbeing and the life-chances of our children.”
While we’re aware of the physical and mental health benefits of exercise, many people are keen to know when they can return to the gym once more.
So, when will we see the reopening of gyms?
When will gyms reopen?
The government has prioritised outdoor exercise over the reopening of gyms. Mr Johnson said: “Outdoor activity will be prioritised as the best way to restore freedoms while minimising the risk.”
Gyms, indoor leisure centres and indoor swimming pools will reopen in step two of the plan “but only for use by individuals or household groups”.
With five weeks between each of the four steps, this means gyms should reopen from 12 April at the earliest - but group classes are unlikely to go ahead until step three (17 May, at the earliest).
Until then, gyms will remain closed with exercise options limited to outdoors with just one other person outside of your bubble.
What about outdoor sports?
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said outdoor sports will return on March 29, including organised team sports and outdoor swimming pools.
“The simple way to look at this is that outdoor is safer and therefore we prioritise versus indoor,” he told LBC.
“Outdoor sports - tennis, golf, outdoor organised team sports, grassroots football - will go back on March 29.”
He added: “At the moment, it's outdoors versus indoors. Outdoors is the priority because it's where the transmission rates are much, much, much lower.”
What has the fitness industry said about the closure of gyms?
UK Active, a non-profit organisation for the physical activity sector said in January that the closure of gyms and leisure centres put the nation’s health under “major threat”.
The fitness industry trade body said that the closure of these “essential services”represented a major blow to individual wellbeing.
Chief executive Huw Edwards said that the government “urgently” needed to deliver a “credible plan” to keep people active, saying the closure of facilities threatened “our nation’s health, and resilience to conditions including COVID-19, obesity and some cancers.”
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