This news isn’t surprising, but it still bums me out. I love cardio dance classes and spinning. Since I’ve always worked from from home, going to the gym is one of the things I miss most during lockdown. Unfortunately those classes have been found to spread coronavirus much more than lower impact workouts like yoga and pilates. People Magazine reported on this recent contact tracing report out of South Korea, which linked over 100 cases to just one dance instructor workshop where 8 instructors got infected. Those instructors then went out into their communities to teach dance and spread the virus.

In a new report, researchers in South Korea were able to link 112 coronavirus cases with fitness dance classes taught at 12 different gyms throughout Cheonan, a city about 50 miles outside of the nation’s capital.

In a research letter published in journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, researchers wrote that they were able to trace all contacts back to a dance instructor workshop for “dance classes set to Latin rhythms,” which was held on February 15.

27 instructors attended the workshop, during which they “trained intensely for 4 hours” according to researchers. Although all were asymptomatic on the day of the workshop, 8 instructors later tested positive for the virus.

The instructors, who had mild symptoms, taught classes, which lasted about an hour and were held twice a week, for about a week after attending the workshop in February. They did not have contact with their students outside of class.

Before gyms began to close, 217 students were exposed to the virus, and 54 students went on to test positive for COVID-19.

Their findings led the researchers to warn against group exercise classes as the COVID-19 outbreak continues.

“Because of the increased possibility of infection through droplets, vigorous exercise in closely confined spaces should be avoided during the current outbreak, as should public gatherings, even in small groups,” they wrote.

The researchers said that there are several factors that may have played a part in the transmission of the virus, including “large class sizes, small spaces, and intensity of the workouts.”

“The moist, warm atmosphere in a sports facility coupled with turbulent air flow generated by intense physical exercise can cause more dense transmission of isolated droplets,” they wrote.

However, they did not report any confirmed coronavirus cases emerging from classes that had fewer than 5 participants. Additionally, there were no confirmed cases that resulted from pilates and yoga classes for between 7-8 students.

“We hypothesize that the lower intensity of Pilates and yoga did not cause the same transmission effects as those of the more intense fitness dance classes,” researchers wrote.

[From People]

Of course this makes sense, and it’s the reality check I needed not to go back to spinning or dance classes. My local boutique gym closed only at the last minute when the governor ordered it and they opened up as soon as possible. Their rooms are very small and they definitely took a lot of risks. They’re holding classes online simultaneously, but I’m not likely to go back anyway. I might go to an occasional yoga or pilates class, but I’m not as enthusiastic about those. They’re filler classes to me. I love the Peloton app and have been doing their spin classes on my bike at home. I need to mix it up more though. My son keeps telling me that the second wave of the Spanish Flu was the most deadly, so we’re still going to be cautious. (We did protest but we wore masks and social distanced. That’s the only time we’ve been around people.) At least I’m saving money on expensive classes.

Update: This article only states that there were not “any confirmed cases that resulted from pilates and yoga classes for between 7-8 students,” not that it is risk-free and I do not want to suggest that it is. (Thanks Cerceau.)

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