Staying safe and fit during COVID-19: A Playbook for Exercising Outside
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Health is not just the absence of disease, but mental and physical well-being. While going outside can increase your risk of exposure to coronavirus, there are also many other benefits that can be gained. How might we make it easy and enjoyable for people to stay safe while exercising outside?
PROJECT LEAD: Ana Reza-Hadden
PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS: Margeaux Akazawa, Dominic Peralta, Christian Rose, MD, Brian Salay, Lisa Yan
PROJECT CONTRIBUTORS: Claire Jacobson, Sam Wassmer, Illustrations - Dorothy Monares, Playbook Graphic Design - Page Hadden
AUTHORS: Margeaux Akazawa, Christian Rose, MD, Lisa Yan
Physical activity is important for keeping your body and mind healthy. This is especially important during stressful times, like during the uncertainty of a global pandemic. But COVID-19 has raised a number of challenges to exercising. With shelter-in-place orders in effect and most gyms and recreational centers closed, many people are searching for alternative ways to stay fit and active.
One of the ways people are staying fit during the pandemic is by going outside - to run, cycle, or walk around their neighborhoods or local parks and trails.
To better understand people’s experience with exercising outside during the pandemic, we used human-centered design to learn about people’s fitness challenges and to co-design ways to help them safely and enjoyably stay fit outdoors.
We spoke with over 25 people between May and June 2020 about their experience exercising outside during this time. They represented a wide range in age (19-80), community settings (urban and suburban), and outdoor exercise preferences (walkers, runners, cyclists and dog walkers).
What we learned:
Overall, the people we spoke with expressed confusion about how to apply social distancing rules and public health guidance while exercising outside.
“Do I need to wear a mask when I am running or cycling?”
“What is the risk of catching the corona virus while outside?”
“What does 6ft look like and does the safe distance change if I’m running?”
From the interviews, we identified three key areas where people requested more guidance to help them feel safe and less confused when they exercised outside:
Wearing a Mask: When do I wear a mask outside and why?
Social Distancing: How do I stay a safe distance away from others when exercising outside or create space if none exists?
Etiquette: How do I interact with others, and what are the new etiquette norms when sharing outdoor space with them?
Not only was there general confusion regarding the protocol and etiquette surrounding outdoor fitness, many interviewees also expressed concern regarding the lack of uniform guidelines and cooperation within their own communities. Without a clear and established set of rules, many found themselves feeling isolated and upset at neighbors who were not taking proper precautions.
“Right now it (exercising outside) is lawless. There is a lack of shared expectations. If everyone is on the same page, it would be so much easier.”
~ Urban cyclist
Stay Fit: An Educational Playbook and Checklist
Using the insights we learned from our interviews, the team created an etiquette and safety best practices playbook. It was designed to address how we can interact with each other when exercising outdoors in a safe and harmonious way.
We spoke with medical experts and consulted published public health guidelines to inform the final content in the playbook. We then brought this back to end-users to test the content with them and make sure we got it right.
Download the playbook here!
What you can do to “StayFit” - A Call to Action:
If you have been exercising outside or want to start exercising outside, this playbook is for you. Here are some ways you can use and share this playbook:
Print out this checklist and hang it up on your refrigerator or front door to remind yourself of things you can do to stay safe before, during, and after you exercise outside.
Spread the word - not the virus! Share these materials with friends, family, and neighbors or with your local recreational exercise groups (running groups, cycling groups, hiking groups, dog walking groups).
Post the materials on social media or on websites and blogs.
Disseminate these materials to your relevant community locations like local running and cycling shops.
This is an open source effort and we welcome your creative ideas to apply this playbook to your exercise routine and share this guide with your community. So please let us know what you think! We would love your feedback, ideas, and thoughts on how we can continue to help people stay fit and safe during COVID-19.
A final insight we heard from a number of our interviewees was how grateful they were to be able to exercise outside:
“Being able to go outside and exercise feels like a lot of freedom. It’s been valuable to have the freedom to go outdoors and exercise and it's one of the things that makes this quarantine less restrictive” ~ Suburban runner
Hopefully this playbook will help encourage a sense of community and a shift from the "me to we" culture that will help us keep each other safe as we navigate the outdoors during these stressful and uncertain times.
Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay fit!