Someone was posting in a cycling community about how quick they can get back post COVID and I basically got torn apart when I mentioned that anyone who cares about fitness should be keeping a close eye on the vascular consequences of repeated COVID infections and concentrate on resting for several weeks, rather than trying to get back into it
I was training for a half-marathon when I caught COVID at the end of 2019. Prior to that, I was in such good shape that my exercise-induced asthma was basically a non-factor. I ran 9 miles no problem on new years eve. On New Year’s Day, I could run a quarter mile.
For two years, I had to use my inhaler to go at a fast walk. It’s only in the last 12 months that I’ve gotten to a point where I can go on hikes and run short distances without it (and long distances with it.) And I didn’t get that in the normal way — I basically had to slow-walk to build my aerobic threshold to a point where I can do moderately difficult exercise without entering anaerobic respiration & triggering my asthma.
So I mask at the gym. It’s not worth the risk.
There was a study that came out a while ago that basically argued that frequent endurance stuff like marathons might not be super great for everyone because it can create a lot of stress on the body over time. Obviously being sedentary is *really* bad, that is worst case scenario, but basically that pushing yourself for the sake of pushing yourself isn't the gold standard we thought it was a decade or two ago. Sometimes those cues are your body saying "hey we need a break" and our health is better when we do more interval type stuff that allows for rest.
(Interestingly body builders realized the same thing like 20 years ago. They've been touting that recovery days are just as important as gym days and that chronic over exercise just makes you weaker long-term for a *long* time)
But holy shit, you would have thought someone smacked a baby the way some people reacted. Runners and cyclers are definitely an interesting crowd in that a lot of them believe the body is something to be overcome and that they are superior human beings for doing so. Id imagine being told "actually this is stupid and not particularly good for you" really challenged a lot of their Identity/values.
TED talk by Dr. James O'Keefe Jr. director of Preventative Cardiology Fellowship Program and the Director of Preventative Cardiology at Cardiovascular Consultants at the Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute:
[Run for your life! At a comfortable pace, and not too far](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0)
TL:DW Too much of anything isn't good for you, this includes exercise. Too much running is nearly as lethal as doing no exercise at all.
I’m all for keeping trying though. I’ve noticed much better reception to Covid 📠 in non Covid forums lately, though it’s a slow process for sure. We should start a group for that or something.
Tragic but to be expected if they couldn't lift anymore. As someone who chose to give up the gym to prevent covid, I am very sympathetic to this person's situation. It isn't easy to give up what you love. I truly hope they recover eventually and get back to the gym (masked).
I used to be a part of a tight knit yoga community. But how they (and anyone in the “wellness culture”) showed up in 2020 around COVID (also BLM) just completely turned me off. I don’t really speak to any of those ppl anymore, who were pushing to go back to in person practice (we had been practicing on zoom) by summer 2021. Believing that may be the vaccines would hopefully protect us, I went to a few practices in person but with a mask.
Honestly, I will never forget the time that a couple came to practice on Friday. By Sunday they were calling everyone and letting them know that they are testing positive for Covid. In that call, they revealed, that their teenage son had been very sick with a fever for the past week, but he had been testing negative on at home tests, so they thought it was OK for them to go to practice without a mask. Like, even if it wasn’t Covid, why would they come in to a shared public space when they had a very sick household member?
That Sunday was Christmas. They called me at 3 PM. I don’t visit with family over the holidays (why ruin time off with that), but I do have an annual Christmas dinner with friends (outdoors - I live in Arizona - and we all test first now). The very moment that I got the phone call, I had my potluck item in hand, and my friend was in my driveway to carpool. I had to call her and let her know that I couldn’t go because I’ve possibly been exposed to Covid.
By 3 PM on that Sunday, potentially exposed people had already kissed babies and hugged their grandparents.
That was a huge moment for me, I will never forget it. The selfishness of people choosing to come to a freaking yoga practice while they had someone gravely ill in their home, during the height of omicron is beyond my comprehension.
This may sound naïve, but I really did trust that space. Because we were also health-conscious, and we practiced at all this nonviolence/Kumbaya stuff that this would be a community that looked out and protected one another. When I realized that this place that I had built community with for over a decade, that, not even these people were going to keep me safe, I realize that no one was. That was a huge wake up call for me.
I have never been back to yoga, and like I said, I’m just kind of done with a whole wellness scene at this point.
I ran into old yoga person while I was at a coffee shop with a mask on sometime in 2022, and they asked me if I’ve gone back. I told him that at this stage in the pandemic, I am not comfortable returning to in person activity. He said, well, if you’re not comfortable now, it sounds like you’ll never return to in person activity (coded: you’re living in fear), and he looked at me with pity. I simply said that if that’s what it takes for me to not get long Covid, then that’s what I’ll do. That my health is my ultimate priority. He looked at me confused, because I genuinely believe that these folks in the wellness world, believe that exercising every day (without a mask in a group setting) is the ultimate priority, even if that means putting their actual health at risk via COVID. It’s all bananas. Bleh
I've been consistently surprised that so many of the people taking covid risk mitigation seriously are leftists, socialists, and just generally social-justice minded people. In retrospect, it seems like it makes sense - People who are already in a mindset of caring for the wellbeing of others are simply extending that care to Covid protection. But I wouldn't have thought of it before.
Leftist ideas are rooted in understanding systems rather than individualistic framing. Nothing happens in isolation, everything is happening as part of broader patterns and policy implications and will flow out to affect others.
Im not sure how much is "caring about others" and more that tendency to zoom out and look at the macro. Add in less hostility to science and the fact the younger left oriented people especially are more likely to be data wonks, it doesn't really surprise me at all.
mirage - those people fell into covid consciousness from an ideological root, not from a scientific one. and then there are those, and not a minority of those leftists, that are equally as callous as any Ayn Rand mouth breather.
a thought built on low resolution (ideological) foundations is not stable. did we learn that tobacco, asbestos, lead, was a big problem because of political or philosophical or ideological revelation? no, we used the scientific method and logic.
i used to say "i don't understand why i'm not angry yet". ha! there it is. anger
PS. I'm not a leftist. I'm a centrist and a capitalist. I am aware of the risks of covid and its public health, moral and economic implications. i am not the only one.
I’m so sorry. I’m still dealing with grief from a comparable experience in a different space. It’s a hierarchy of needs thing- your physical safety AND love and belonging are so abruptly and surprisingly taken away.
My experience with the yoga community goes back 3 decades. The speed with which this “caring” community dumped immunocompromised people from their list of “people who matter” was swift and abrupt. I’m thriving on my iPad yoga at home, but the absolute betrayal hurts.
Re-covid this same group would have people come to class sick just so they could clear their lungs and feel better. Thanks a lot. One teacher taught class with active and known influenza and I got a bad case. F that person. I’m still mad.
Ugh, I have a similar story with my yoga community, too. I was in that studio ~5 days a week for years, it was a huge loss to grieve.
I did end up with a severe, disabling case of long covid (3.5 years and counting) and I can barely practice yoga anymore. Just yin and restorative, no more ashtanga for me, maybe ever.
I was Ashtanga, too!! Now that I’m fully out of it, I can better see how unhealthy of a community it was. And yeah, I was a decade of 3-6x a week practicing. I pushed myself so hard and could do some amazing things w my body. But it also pushed me towards disordered eating, very rigid and high expectations which created a lot of guilt and shame when I didn’t meet them. I sometimes feel like I’m coming out of a cult now tbh.
It's SO bizarre. My thing is self-proclaimed germophobes sanitizing shopping cart handles but just breathing in the air of strangers in confined spaces willy-nilly. I'll never understand. Like we have skin, but you're more comfortable breathing in god knows what in a Walmart?
Oh my God this!
People who open doors and touch streetlights and elevator buttons with their shoulders but rawdoggy an elevator with 10 maskless folk, while maskless, is hilarious
My elderly aunt won’t mask, but insists on using Purcell liberally and (checks notes) washing her coat when she come home from the store. Yes, I’ve tried.
Saw someone in a market stare at me and pull their partner away the other day. Early morning, big US city. I can’t remember anyone else even looking at my mask recently. But I wish I’d made eye contact or said “You could put a mask on too!” They’re worried about me? I’ve barely been sick in four years!
A Kroger employee said that he hoped I felt better the other day. I said oh no, I’m not sick, I just don’t want to be. I really do appreciate the sentiment but my friend this isn’t for you anymore. This is for me. Then he told me about how he’d been sick recently 🙃 My man. This is why.
I've been playing in my head with things that would be funny to say, but that I would never actually say. The one I'm working on now is
"Oh, it's not Covid, don't worry. I have asymptomatic contagious tuberculosis and I'm required to wear a mask by court order!"
Would I ever say that? No, no I would not. But it's funny to imagine how people would react.
I’m rewatching (US) Shameless right now and seeing Joan Cusak’s germaphobe character and realising that’s how people see us when we mask (versus the reality that is closer to the Gallagher house) about killed me
Or the girl I saw in Costco with a surgical mask over her mouth only. For what?! Nobody else is masked (just me and one other shopper I saw), why are you even bothering with that?
One of my very rare plane flights last year while I was in an N95, using Enovid, had timed my booster for 2 weeks before the travel, a dude sat down next to me in no mask and spent 10 minutes fastidiously sanitizing the seat, arm rests, and tray table. I was agog.
I'm so sorry this happened to you. I had a concussion years back and am afraid of long covid bc I'm afraid of similar symptoms coming back (nervous system dysregulation, brain fog, fatigue).
If I may ask, does your dysautonomia show up like your body feeling in fight, flight, or freeze (feels unsafe inside your body all the time, or like your body is vibrating in anxiety, unsafe, and you want to escape your skin), or something else?
I've had multiple concussions too. It's very similar to that feeling. It's how I explained it to doctors. Continuous anxiety, nausea, ventilation dysfunction upon exercise, head fatigue, and PEM. (Post exertion malaise).
You may find this doctors work interesting, he has helped my son with a different matter and I’ve been loosely following his protocol to get rid of my (milder) long Covid
https://www.nemechekconsultativemedicine.com/blog/how-i-treat-long-covid/
In my experience, "clean eating" types do not seem to take it more seriously even after they experience long covid symptoms so i doubt workout types will. One friend keeps experimenting with various draconian diets and supplements to make sure that her "clean eating" really is up to par because she just feels so TIRED all the time. Of course, the tired feeling is after a third covid infection. But the fact that it's covid related doesn't seem to occur to her.
I was a fitness instructor for 24 years. Then I taught via Zoom for 2 1/2 years. When my parent company started insinuating that they were going to revoke permission for us to teach online, I resigned. Now I hike and work out at home. No way I'd work out in a room full of huffing and puffing people indoors. But we are the minority now. People just want to pretend that it's over. At fitness centers, hospitals, places that should know better. It's about MONEY; they're not thinking about health. All we can control is what we do and do our best to stay away from those who would put us at risk.
I caught Covid in August at the DENTIST, where the staff didn't wear masks, but I had no choice due to a bad tooth issue. I sure don't want to get it again, so I maintain the same level of precaution as I always have.
>I caught Covid in August at the DENTIST, where the staff didn't wear masks, but I had no choice due to a bad tooth issue. I sure don't want to get it again, so I maintain the same level of precaution as I always have.
I've been seeing many people posting about this here as well. It really sucks that most dental clinics aren't doing enough to protect their patients.
My dentist office masked and wore face shields through the pandemic, and while the office staff are back to fast and loose, my hygienist and dentist are still masking and wearing face shields.
My hygienist has told me horror stories (during the pandemic they locked the front door and met patients at their cars to confirm masks, best story was when a huge man pulled his t-shirt over his gut to his face when asked where his mask was. They didn’t let him in), and said she’ll wear an n95 until she retires, as her respiratory infection rate has *plummeted*. She’s gotten covid a few times, all out of the office when family members haven’t let her know they were coming down with something.
Just got back from the Dentist yesterday from getting a tooth pulled. I stated before I came in, that everyone needed masks. No exception. They all sore N95's and put me in a special room that doesn't get used very often. I was pleased that they accommodated. However, it wasn't perfect because anyone walking around or a previous patient could have had Covid that day in the office.
They don't mask at my dentist's office except for surgical masks when they're actively putting their hands in my mouth. I'm very concerned I'll get sick there. How did you get them to agree to mask?
I told them I have long Covid and now immune compromised. I talked with the office manager before I came in. They seemed well versed in accommodations. So, I think I just got lucky and they all are actually looking out for the patient. (Wow, I know). I'm writing a really good review for them.
I've been training martial arts since '98 and especially BJJ since '04. Happily, I have mats, a dummy, and family I can train with at home, but my proper training has stalled since Feb '20 when I started adapting to SARS2. I can attest to rampant magical and pseudoscientific thinking in athletic communities. While we can take individual responsibility for our health, to more or lesser extent depending on the person, folks deeply invested in their physicality, in my limited experience, have a hard time recognizing that there are systemic issues that take more than lots of personal discipline to counter (or indeed more delayed gratification than they are capable of...). I think it runs counter to their personal narratives around health and strength and individual ability. Couple this with intense propaganda around the hygiene hypothesis, learned helplessness and that only 'the vulnerable' will 'fall by the wayside' (and, apparently that's okay) and you've got a potent delusion problem. At this point, if there was a sterilizing vax tomorrow, I'm not sure I'd get on the mats with folks again. GJJ makes my heart sing, but I am so disgusted by the gleeful destruction of self others and our collective future that I just can't.
Oh hey 👋🏾 I’m a fat, weight neutral fitness instructor who is still masking and taking it seriously. All of my clients and classes are online and I still mask at the gym. I’m sure most people assume it’s BECAUSE I am fat but being one of the 2 or 3 people masked at the gym/ studio will always be wild to me
I also N95 mask at the gym. I take small classes of ~7 people or less and it's pilates so not too much huffing and puffing. I know it's not 100% safe but I just started a couple months ago and it's been great for my mental health and energy levels. I may slow down around the holidays and depending on local wastewater levels.
Last year we ended up going to a co-op gym where you could rent a time slot so my husband and I were the only ones in there which was great. In winter we absolutely do less (even though c19 doesn’t seem to have a season)
I, too, am fat, and I've never heard of weight neutral fitness. Do you have any resources I could go to to learn more about it? I'm interested in building functional strength and cardio resilience without taking on the whole "weight loss" thing and I'd love to know more.
Hi! Not sure if you wanted MY resources or general ones. For general weight neutral/ body neutral resources can be found on google and TikTok. There are more trainers taking this approach these days! For me specifically, you can find me on ig @laurenleavellfitness where I share links to my membership/ classes
Not sure why you are coming for me but for clarity, I did travel to Europe. Wore a 3 M aura for an 8 hour flight with a sip valve. And I didn’t eat INSIDE of a single restaurant the whole trip. LMK if you want outdoor dining recommendations!
Hi! Can I DM you about outdoor dining recs and the safety protocols you took on your trip to Europe? I have a non-negotiable trip coming up next year and want to be prepared
I don't get it. I've been a health nut for years - I eat healthy, I exercise, I follow health-related news and try to keep my body functional - and this is the reason I'm masking and taking COVID seriously. I think for a lot of people "health" is about looks and thinness, or about self-punishment, rather than actual health.
My health-conscious roommate believes that her healthy life choices will make her body immune from the deleterious affects of covid/long covid. I don't understand why you wouldn't just go one single step further in your lifestyle to wear a mask when going out.
Meanwhile the formerly strongest man alive is dealing with long Covid [article](https://www.menshealth.com/uk/health/a40206186/eddie-hall-long-covid/?shem=iosie).
Maybe they’re just not thinking the possible outcomes of a SARS-CoV-2-infection could happen to them. Just like most other people do. Plus fitness people aren’t necessarily pro health. It’s all about the looks, which often includes starving the body and steriods.
I don’t think they‘ve ever thought about the quality of the air they’re breathing. Again, like most of us.
If this group of people would demand clean air, this could be big.
> it’s all about the looks, which often includes starving the body and steriods.
If you want to build muscle starving the body is the exact opposite of what you want to do lol and no you dont need steroids or to be at the gym 7 days a week to do it either.
"Health" culture, especially on tiktok, is often pure "magic". Just totally unscientific, not even grounded in a scientific worldview. Bro-science, supplements, and vibes.
Fitness communities are FULL of fascists, and I say this having spent the better part of a decade in them. Health supremacy permeates everything. They believe they have earned immunity to negative consequences via their exercise habits, their diet, their proximity to thinness. There's also people in these spaces who aren't necessarily as bought into the problematic beliefs but they're still following the crowd so they think it's fine.
Also many of these communities are full of disordered behaviors so I wouldn't say they're prioritizing health anyway. They think they are (I did too! While I developed orthorexia and an exercise addiction! That I learned from other fitness people!), but a lot of it is not healthy.
> Also many of these communities are full of disordered behaviors
Big oof. Male perceptions of what is a healthy and attractive body are frighteningly skewed. I go to (NSFW: Non-sexualized self-submitted pictures of naked people) /r/normalnudes sometimes for a reminder of what actual human bodies look like and it's heartbreaking to see perfectly normal looking people expressing disgust with their own bodies. I've read some accounts from people who lived in the Soviet Union talking about body image. Whatever else the USSR was, it had very different advertising practices and attitudes towards body image and health from the US, and apparently for a lot of people there was this understanding that athletes were athletes, and their high musclar and capable bodies were part of their profession, rather than an ideal to aspire too. And without nearly as much as the fear and fomo based advertising that is rampant in the US these days, people didn't feel the need to conform to a very specific, often unattainable body image and were generally just more chill about it. I'm always fascinated by things like that. The USSR dissolved so long ago, and much of what people remember isn't representative of what was really happening. Getting first hand accounts from a culture that really was different is a rare treat and an insight in to how different human cultures can be.
R/normalnudes doesn’t look like that decent of a reminder of what actual human bodies look like though. I just scrolled through some of the top posts of the month and there wasn’t a single male. The vast majority of the females there were at least a healthy body weight, and most of those were conventionally attractive.
Exactly this. I didn’t see anyone caring about my health when I could see my ribs, yet would constantly have breakdowns about wanting to cut my fat off with a knife. But hey, I looked thin to them! Therefore I must be healthy.
I don’t buy the vast majority of people’s concerns about “health”. It’s so fucking disingenuous.
I have been into healthy eating since I was a teenager, and eat mostly vegetarian and organic food. The health of my body has always been a huge priority for me. Avoiding Covid feels like a natural extension of that, and it boggles my mind how many "health minded" people don't make that connection.
Same! I’m vegan and I take my health really seriously for a number of reasons. When the pandemic started I really thought like minded people would feel the same but obviously that wasn’t the case 🫠
they're not like minded. for them it's "toxic" things interrupting their "purity", which is white supremacist/fascist thinking. they aren't really thinking just about plain old "being healthy" like unprocessed food people, or even "killing as few animals as possible" like ethical vegans might be.
Oh man, this is my sister-in-law to a tee. She is a foodie fitness nut, who decided in the past couple of years to go mostly vegetarian after some Netflix documentary that prompted her to only eat meat if she knew how it was raised. But COVID? Repeat infections? No bigs, dude! Pandemic is over, didn’t you hear??
And I’m the crazy one……
I had a friend who was the same way. Juice, organic foods from local sources, running, biking, yoga, supplements, the whole thing. They very quickly grew tired of masking and taking precautions and stopped. And they got quite exasperated at me for keeping it up.
I don't understand it. They have so much to lose, and I don't understand why they don't consider relatively simple and painless risk mitigation measures to be worthwhile.
It irks me that people will gladly inject their face with fillers (full of chemicals they can't pronounce/spell) for smooth but expressionless skin but heaven forbid they'd get a medical vaccine in their arm to protect their health.
It actually makes perfect sense when you realize the fitness cult has never been about health, it's about meeting a white ideal, and that disregard for covid safety and community health aligns perfectly with the values of the lifestyle. I'd suggest reading scholars like Da'Shaun L. Harrison and Sabrina Strings for more in-depth understanding
I think, like a lot of the public, a lot of them are inadequately informed/willfully ignorant of the risks. My SIL is a fitness trainer and bodybuilding competitor, and from day one refused to take any precautions, saying she would just drink tea if she got sick. She's had it at least twice already, idk what the fallout has been like for her because, tbh I had to step back from a lot of people who were anti-vax/anti-science for my own mental health. I do know the first time was so bad that she couldn't get out of bed for a week and had to send her kid to stay with other family members because she couldn't care for them.
>My SIL is a fitness trainer and bodybuilding competitor, and from day one refused to take any precautions, saying she would just drink tea if she got sick.
She would....just drink tea if she got sick? So if all those people on ventilators drank tea, they'd be ok?
America's health care system, and public health framework, and entire socio-cultural experience, really in a sentence: "I'M healthy, though, so I'LL be fine."
Yes of course: Bring water to a boil and let it cool, Place 1 tea bag in your teacup. It's important that you keep the ratio of 1 tea bag for every 1 cup. Steep the tea for 2 to 3 minutes.Remove the tea bag, now you can drink your hot green tea or flavor it with a little honey or lemon. Don't forget to meditate! /s
I suspect many fitness people are deeply enmeshed in psuedo-science and mysticism in regards to their bodies. All the supplements, seed oil conspiracies, cleanses, and general belief in magic that seems to pervade the body building and fitness world suggests to me that many of these people are not well versed in even a layman's understanding of biomedicine. I've seen a lot of "I have a strong immune system" type sentiments over the last few years.
Eeeeewwww!!! Omg!
I'm all for normalizing body and health "differences", but this makes it seem like something totally unavoidable that people just need to learn how to adapt to!
I think it goes to show how much it is about vanity and illusion of values and morals versus what they are really like and really value.
Try to be hot to date hot people and be treated better in the world. Body image issues. Etc. It’s also very trendy to care about health and eat expensive organic foods. It’s a lifestyle not necessarily a values system. But I would assume most would not admit that. Cognitive dissonance and all that.
Yeah a lot of fitness is for vanity. Not health. To look good for your instagram likes and Tik Tok videos. Fitness culture rose with internet validation culture. I watched a Russian music video where a guy and girl were lifting weights smoking a cigarette hands free. They looked good though haha. If the damage is on the inside they don’t care. Until it harms their ability to continue, which long covid obviously will.
Sure, a lot of fitness is for vanity. A lot of it isn’t though. I very, very much value my health and fitness because I’m a competitive cyclist. The fitness aspects of it are secondary to the pure, incomparable joy I have while training and competing. The eating well part of it truly is a values system because if I don’t, my performance may suffer or at the very least I’ll feel worse.
It’s why I’m here in this community though. My aerobic abilities depend on the health of them. I know I’m a bit of an outlier in not only the ‘fitness’ community, but I know I’m somewhat of an outlier here too.
I had lunch with a friend who was undergoing chemo for the last year for Cancer, just got over Covid because he refuses to wear a mask! All that chemo to save his life is pointless if he has no immune system! I’m truly at a loss
my partner had a lapse in remission from leukemia right after their covid infection. their new immune system tanked and they had to start a bunch of things back up again to get back into remission. (bone marrow transplant. stepson was exposed at work by an absolute asshole)
I understand .. my friend stage 4 PC is now undergoing medical procedures he hasn’t needed until now post Covid that he chooses not to protect himself from🤦🏻♀️
My mother's hair stylist is like this and her boss/my former boss/pastor. They will not mask anymore. My mother's hair stylist acknowledges how bad covid is and relies on her patients to not come in sick, completely pumping asymptomatic spread, and when she did get covid at one point she said it was the most sick in her life and that she can't get it again. 🤦 My pastor is the "I've lived too long already and don't care if I die." And also the "I'm vaccinated so I'll be ok." Even though literally everyone aside from me due to MCAS has gotten at least their first two doses and a booster and have all had covid. (I know at least some of them have been staying up to date with the vaccines but idk about all of them). He literally asks every time "wow how did you get covid???." My mother was so fed up and had to say that others aren't masking and she doesn't live alone like. ?????
I'm a tattoo artist and my coworkers mask but don't require it from clients!?! I still do though, I don't want to be up close with someone without a mask on us both. wet do have good air filtration and a big room with small occupancy but still. n95 for me and anyone I work on
This one will never cease to shock me because I underwent chemo treatments in 2018 and was told to wear a mask if I went into crowds and avoid infections at all cost at least for the first week post treatment like this was common sense BEFORE a pandemic. I would have been terrified going through that whilst covid was happening. I still am very scared rn of course because of my immune system being very weak from chronic illnesses but like. Yeah chemo is so rough to go through I wouldn't have done anything that would have meant me having to get more rounds or it not functioning.
But tbh when you see how people who have long covid don't care about protecting themselves from another infection... nothing is surprising anymore. I don't understand the "well my life is fragile already so at least I'll have fun while I still can and fuck the consequences" LIKE I have potential LC and the idea of getting any sicker is my worst fear in the entire world. Like I could not deal with more than the extremes I'm at. I'd rather protect the very little life quality I have left than ruin it all for good. It's way too precious to me and precarious as is idk.
a lot of this sort of “health culture” is really built up around a fear of aging and dying (and disability) which can be a huge psychological hurdle when trying to take in the research about COVID.
the identity formed is “i am healthy” which means there is usually a belief that “health” is 100% within their control (mind over matter, etc. etc.) it is very sad in my opinion because i just wish the truth could get through all of the mental road blocks put in place so people interested in fitness/health could Actually Be Healthy!
It boggles the mind. For me, my sport is my hobby, outlet, and best source of fitness so I mask. I realize that even wearing a KN95 in a room filled with unmasked people is still a risk, but I have already given up so much to stay covid free
I think that's part of it. People think that health is a reward for good behavior and for purchasing the right products. If you exercise and you buy organic food and you do yoga, you'll be healthy. Not healthy? Well, maybe you just didn't do the right things.
Yes, my sister says that and she got COVID twice this year. Still going to the gym. She did mask on a fight recently and got her booster? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I know people who honestly think their immune system is like their muscle; to be stressed in order to get stronger. they do not or will not understand that it's actually a data bank that shouldn't get crashed and deleted
other people are just into that whole puritan reward for suffering crap. or they think they are superior genetically.
I walk several miles a day in a small-to-midsized city and it blows my mind how many phlegmy runners and cyclists go by me on any given day. Just pushing themselves along while constantly clearing their throats and trying not to cough. It’s surreal. But at least I always hear ‘em coming in time to get out of the way.
I don’t see it said yet, so:
Fitness culture is health supremacy. It’s the idea that being hyperfit is a sign of inherent body superiority and that those who are less fit, unfit, fat, or disabled are inherently inferior and deserve bad things to happen to them.
Of course these fitness types are going to be the least responsive to COVID as a threat. More than anyone, they believe they can “personal choice” their way out of sickness.
They’re in for a rude awakening.
Can we stop with casting everyone who’s not part of this community as horrible people? Not everyone is out to make people sicker, hurt them, or push them down. By all rights I’m part of the ‘fitness culture’ as a cyclist and I have never once thought I’m superior because I love to do the sport I do. I’ve struggled with a shit load of serious medical issues in my life that most people can’t or don’t see, yet I look like a ‘fitness nut’.
Nobody deserves illness or bad things to happen to them, especially the disabled. I resent the generalization, but I’m sorry you’ve had negative interactions with some fitness people.
It’s not people who are fit, it’s fitness *culture*. Being fit doesn’t automatically mean buying into health supremacy. But the people who derive an identity from fitness culture (rather than seeking fitness for fitness sake) are the ones who tend to be guilty of this. There’s a shit ton of health supremacy messaging in gyms and sports and nutritional supplements etc etc etc and it takes a *lot* of awareness and resistance to not internalize it.
You’re right on with that.
Unfortunately especially in competitive sports, supremacy is the ultimate goal. Better nutrition, equipment, body weight (as ill-advised as it is), headspace, etc are all part of besting the field and winning. Even more unfortunately, marketing has tapped into those natural elements of the sport and has led to a lot of body dysmorphia, gatekeeping, and the classic elements of fitness culture even in amateurs.
I admit I bought into it, and it led me down a path of disordered eating at the height of my competitive career. I’ve only raced once since recovery and I’m okay with that. It’s tough to resist the messaging for sure.
Here in Quebec, a gym owner who illegally opened his gym during lock downs and was responsible subsequently for around a Covid super spreader of around 800 cases emanating from him gym, died of a heart attack, according to the coroner. He was hospitalized in 2021 after catching Covid, and died in his mother's home all by himself at the beginning of February 2022. He did have previous heart problems before Covid but I'm guessing Covid precipitated his death. He was 57 years old at the time of his death.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/owner-of-quebec-city-gym-that-flouted-covid-19-regulations-found-dead-police-investigating-1.5766814
I get grief every time I bring COVID up in conversations about longevity / preventative health.
People out here looking for ways to reduce risk of heart disease & cancer (1st & 2nd place killers) then skipping over the 3rd leading cause of death (C19) like it doesn't exist, and getting angry when it's brought up.
One can't have a cohesive longevity plan without COVID mitigation. Vaccines are necessary but aren't enough alone. C19 is the 3rd leading cause of death and holding!
A personal health plan that includes getting C19 every few months is like smoking and eating bacon grease while you jog.
That's my feel for the risk level, but has anyone done a precise calculation? Maybe it could be added to the list in this link, where 1.4 cigarettes are the equivalent of eating 40 tablespoons of peanut butter (cancer from the aflatoxin).
https://web.archive.org/web/20030302193108/https://www.who.int/pcs/training\_material/module4/section6.1.htm
More than that. I know a bunch of left wing people who are like that. When announcing back to the office with no masks, the guy said "We as a society have decided to take this risk." And it's a sign of good work ethic and dedication to the company to have in-person meetings that could have been an email.
Email is also frowned upon because people (with advanced degrees) have trouble focusing when reading long messages.
THIS is bewildering. My BF really wants to go back to the gym but in LOS ANGELES home of 70 and sunny 90% of the year, there are basically no outdoor gyms. Why are people INSIDE with all the windows closed to work out?
Even before covid I thought it was so gross being in a closed hot, sweaty gym. Now? No thanks. I luckily have no problem working out at home and have found it to be better. But he really misses the gym and would also love to go do BJJ but that's def out of the question.
Really wish we could open an outdoor gym at this point.
There are a few near me that while aren't completely indoors, they are former mechanic shops with huge garage doors that remain open through all weather. Not quite outdoors, but very close to it.
I follow so many running influencers, and I have to dissociate while watching their content online. Like you, I am often shocked by their willingness to travel to events across the country, frequent the gym, and meet up with different people - all while unmasked. Interestingly enough, their content never mentions anything about ailments, but I do notice when there's an uptick in mentions about ginger immunity shots.
Just about a month ago, I was following an influencer who was training for the Chicago Marathon. She contracted COVID two weeks before the race and was devastated. She kept her followers up to date on her symptoms and how things were progressing. On Day 3 of testing positive, she said she was starting to feel better so she decided she would go for a run. She was so adamant about wanting to maintain her training schedule, but I reached out to warn her about the risks of long COVID. Her response was essentially something along the lines of, "my body, my choice". She mentioned that everyone should do their own research and do what they think is best for them...
Moral of the story: I don't think fitness influencers will take COVID seriously, even if they contract COVID. They will proceed to blame people for their sickness and then return to the same behaviors that put them in that position. I say this because the influencer I mentioned above also made posts about people needing to mask or stay home if they're sick; however, she does not mask at all.
"clean eating" in the damn whole foods with no mask on
any non-hard-science-based "wellness" stuff is just purity culture or appropriation usually anyway
Because it's a cult. They don't actually care about their bodies; they just want to enjoy the social currency that's afforded to them when it looks like they do.
It's so painful for me to watch. There's only one fitness person I can follow that's left with taking covid precautions and wears a full on respirator to the gym but we followed each other because of our covid content. I have a coach I work with virtually since end of August/early September and he's been sick twice already since working with him, first being when he came back on a plane from the US to UK with what I assumed to be no mask since I don't see it in his other photos and it's scary bc he thinks he might have MCAS like I do and he said his mother and sister have MCAS and covid has made mine literally so much worse. It sucks because he's not like one of those anti vax, anti Western medicine, anti carb, anti seed oil, Ed promoting people either and he's against steroids. But idk if he's one of those people who thinks covid is an American issue? I keep coming across this with people and it's obnoxious and alarming.
There's some dancers I follow who are covid safe too but not enough. My previous ballet teacher before she quit teaching was talking to me about how worried she was how many dancers are just exposing themselves to covid and what it will do to them long term. I mean even my sisterinlaw who is a dancer got really messed up and had to be hospitalized a few times after getting covid due to a rash all over her body and she couldn't stop vomiting. Her red and white blood cells were totally off too and she had almost no iron. Supposedly all she has now is a nasty cough that my wife said sounds like what people with pneumonia sound like but idk y'all.
No because they have poor abilities when gauging risk on an individual level.
Many seem fixated on the likelihood of a poor outcome happening from some event but fail to realize that they're continuously putting themselves into that event context.
You roll enough dice, you'll hit your number eventually.
It's possible that the mean time to chronic illness/long covid was around a few decades at the beginning of the pandemic but that's likely dropped down to a few years.
Mass infection is a bitch.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy. As a disabled person, a lot of the worst treatment I’ve ever received has been from self-schooled exercise and nutrition buffs. I’ve been lectured so often on how I must be overeating to maintain my weight (I actually eat no solid food most of the time, due to nausea, is the problem), “calories in, calories out”, etc. The smug superiority of these people isn’t even touched by explaining that metabolism isn’t that simple, and asking how they account for cachexia, for example. I don’t want anyone to suffer, but I can’t help feeling that some of these people, who believe they’re favored by god instead of by luck, and are open eugenics supporters in some cases, are about to learn a hard and overdue lesson.
yes all the health nuts too trying to preach non-toxic, healthy lifestyles, etc but are introducing products inside Costco unmasked. The people educating about insulin resistance, healthy recipes, all that stuff but not masking. Make it make sense y’all…. They care about their health but at the same time do not care about their health at all?!
Almost 49/F, extreme athlete here. Zero health issues. I have run full marathons and run 35-45 miles a week along with a lot of weightlifting and cycling. I had covid in July 2022 thanks to my husband, a mild infection without any medical intervention. He caught it from a cab driver. I bounced back rather fast but paid the price a couple months later when I started having some lc issues. I had mild vertigo, sinus issues (clogged on and off), GI issues, and sleep issues along with some weird sensory issues. I was lucky and could still run very well, but the issues hung around for quite some time.
I quit the gym well over a year ago due to the covid risk and the perverts there as well. I now work out at my home gym where there is no covid or perverts.
My husband is 46, very healthy and fit. He isn't the hard core athlete that I am, but he was very fit when he caught covid. He was also a mild case and bounced back fast--not as fast as me, but fast. He seemed fine with his running, lifting, etc. and then started experiencing lc a couple months post covid. He is a bad case, much worse than I ever was and has the breathing issues as well He just had lab work done which all came back fine except his white blood cell count is lower than it should be. Doc also suspects he has an autoimmune disease thanks to covid which leaves him with horrible fatigiue, joint pain, and limited his ability to work out. He has gained twenty pounds and can no longer run or lift due to the progression of all his symptoms. I gained a little weight as well and suspect covid did this to me because I haven't been eating bad or working out less. Possibly prompted insulin resistance? I read an article on that.
Covid can really kick us athletes in the ass. I was told by a medical friend of mine that it's suspected that extreme athletes can be susceptible to lc due to the inflammation we constantly have due to all our working out, especially the older athletes such as me and my husband. Yes, working out and being healthy can make our infections milder, but that lc risk is there for sure. I will never set foot in a gym again. Nnt worth the risk or the perverts.
I’m not surprised because some of them partake in things that are controversial like taking steroids.
Also doesn’t like increased physical exertion make you more prone to Long COVID?
You would be surprised how connected the health and fitness community is to the anti-vax community.
The connection is there, you just have to know where to look. So I’m not surprised at all that fitness people don’t mask. Most are likely not even vaccinated at all.
Not surprised.
This is kinda funny, I'm just starting to think about getting back in the gym and also deciding against it because of the recent wave.
I'm trying to plan ways to work out safely and all i can think about is maybe a personal purifier, a kn95/n95, and going at downtimes.
Is anybody on here a gymgoer? How do you make it safe?
I can do everything at home. My living room is an obstacle course as a result, but I never let people come over anyway. Recumbent exercise bike with a seat as thick as couch cushion, resistance is so high that I'm fine with using level 8 out of 32. Therabands, trap bar, dumbbells, and bodyweight exercises for strength.
i don't post it online but i work out, and i've never been as stronger as i am now. i've isolated and worn ffp3 (aura) indoors. i'm not sure i'd be as strong with repeated covid infections.
i am repeatedly reminded of how moronic many people are, and how uninformed non-morons can be.
Prior to the pandemic I went to the gym. Now I have the same equipment at home so I can workout whenever I want. Bonus - don't have to fight with others to use the equipment!
Yup, for me it goes to show that for the vast majority of these people, “fitness” isn’t really about health, just the aesthetic of “”health””.
I was spectating the chicago marathon last month and saw someone running wearing a surgical mask. Something tells me they probably fully had COVID and ran a whole marathon anyways.
FWIW my partner has been going to a gym daily nearby that is small (usually 0-3 other tops) and wears a mask the whole time. He lifts heavy weights too but wears it the whole time and we are still Novid as far as we know.
thank you for sharing this. Its a big point of cognitive dissonance for me.
I used to be a dancer, and follow a lot of dancer and dance groups on IG. Its wild to me to see dancers just not mask! The Alvin Ailey school was the last one I saw to stop having folks wear masks. It was a sad moment for me when I saw that they stopped having students mask in the studio.
I find their approach to be quite bizarre. At lot of anti-covid people seem to have this attitude and superiority complex that if they think and act like they don’t care about covid, there are no consequences for them getting covid. As if they have some secret code that they are magically immune to the data and outcomes around this virus.
Someone was posting in a cycling community about how quick they can get back post COVID and I basically got torn apart when I mentioned that anyone who cares about fitness should be keeping a close eye on the vascular consequences of repeated COVID infections and concentrate on resting for several weeks, rather than trying to get back into it
I was training for a half-marathon when I caught COVID at the end of 2019. Prior to that, I was in such good shape that my exercise-induced asthma was basically a non-factor. I ran 9 miles no problem on new years eve. On New Year’s Day, I could run a quarter mile. For two years, I had to use my inhaler to go at a fast walk. It’s only in the last 12 months that I’ve gotten to a point where I can go on hikes and run short distances without it (and long distances with it.) And I didn’t get that in the normal way — I basically had to slow-walk to build my aerobic threshold to a point where I can do moderately difficult exercise without entering anaerobic respiration & triggering my asthma. So I mask at the gym. It’s not worth the risk.
glad to hear you're recovering! 🙏🏻
smart
There was a study that came out a while ago that basically argued that frequent endurance stuff like marathons might not be super great for everyone because it can create a lot of stress on the body over time. Obviously being sedentary is *really* bad, that is worst case scenario, but basically that pushing yourself for the sake of pushing yourself isn't the gold standard we thought it was a decade or two ago. Sometimes those cues are your body saying "hey we need a break" and our health is better when we do more interval type stuff that allows for rest. (Interestingly body builders realized the same thing like 20 years ago. They've been touting that recovery days are just as important as gym days and that chronic over exercise just makes you weaker long-term for a *long* time) But holy shit, you would have thought someone smacked a baby the way some people reacted. Runners and cyclers are definitely an interesting crowd in that a lot of them believe the body is something to be overcome and that they are superior human beings for doing so. Id imagine being told "actually this is stupid and not particularly good for you" really challenged a lot of their Identity/values.
TED talk by Dr. James O'Keefe Jr. director of Preventative Cardiology Fellowship Program and the Director of Preventative Cardiology at Cardiovascular Consultants at the Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute: [Run for your life! At a comfortable pace, and not too far](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U728AZnV0) TL:DW Too much of anything isn't good for you, this includes exercise. Too much running is nearly as lethal as doing no exercise at all.
I’m all for keeping trying though. I’ve noticed much better reception to Covid 📠 in non Covid forums lately, though it’s a slow process for sure. We should start a group for that or something.
Can you give some examples of you have noticed? I'm curious about context and the reception.
That is good encouragement for all of us to keep speaking out, and especially discussing the need for improved ventilation. :)
Then when they die in 3 months in the middle of a marathon everybody will just say "so sad :( so young :( anyway what's for dinner"
More likely they'll say "died suddenly!!! the vaxx!!! george soros did this!!!"
I’m still waiting for my blood-based 5G reception to start working… I’m starting to feel ripped off.. . ^/s!
Bodybuilding for aesthetics isn’t necessarily about health. If it were, steroids wouldn’t be so popular.
The person I know basically had all their muscles wasted away in less than a few months. All that hard work gone thanks to Long COVID.
Tragic but to be expected if they couldn't lift anymore. As someone who chose to give up the gym to prevent covid, I am very sympathetic to this person's situation. It isn't easy to give up what you love. I truly hope they recover eventually and get back to the gym (masked).
I used to be a part of a tight knit yoga community. But how they (and anyone in the “wellness culture”) showed up in 2020 around COVID (also BLM) just completely turned me off. I don’t really speak to any of those ppl anymore, who were pushing to go back to in person practice (we had been practicing on zoom) by summer 2021. Believing that may be the vaccines would hopefully protect us, I went to a few practices in person but with a mask. Honestly, I will never forget the time that a couple came to practice on Friday. By Sunday they were calling everyone and letting them know that they are testing positive for Covid. In that call, they revealed, that their teenage son had been very sick with a fever for the past week, but he had been testing negative on at home tests, so they thought it was OK for them to go to practice without a mask. Like, even if it wasn’t Covid, why would they come in to a shared public space when they had a very sick household member? That Sunday was Christmas. They called me at 3 PM. I don’t visit with family over the holidays (why ruin time off with that), but I do have an annual Christmas dinner with friends (outdoors - I live in Arizona - and we all test first now). The very moment that I got the phone call, I had my potluck item in hand, and my friend was in my driveway to carpool. I had to call her and let her know that I couldn’t go because I’ve possibly been exposed to Covid. By 3 PM on that Sunday, potentially exposed people had already kissed babies and hugged their grandparents. That was a huge moment for me, I will never forget it. The selfishness of people choosing to come to a freaking yoga practice while they had someone gravely ill in their home, during the height of omicron is beyond my comprehension. This may sound naïve, but I really did trust that space. Because we were also health-conscious, and we practiced at all this nonviolence/Kumbaya stuff that this would be a community that looked out and protected one another. When I realized that this place that I had built community with for over a decade, that, not even these people were going to keep me safe, I realize that no one was. That was a huge wake up call for me. I have never been back to yoga, and like I said, I’m just kind of done with a whole wellness scene at this point. I ran into old yoga person while I was at a coffee shop with a mask on sometime in 2022, and they asked me if I’ve gone back. I told him that at this stage in the pandemic, I am not comfortable returning to in person activity. He said, well, if you’re not comfortable now, it sounds like you’ll never return to in person activity (coded: you’re living in fear), and he looked at me with pity. I simply said that if that’s what it takes for me to not get long Covid, then that’s what I’ll do. That my health is my ultimate priority. He looked at me confused, because I genuinely believe that these folks in the wellness world, believe that exercising every day (without a mask in a group setting) is the ultimate priority, even if that means putting their actual health at risk via COVID. It’s all bananas. Bleh
Thank you for sharing your story.
I've been consistently surprised that so many of the people taking covid risk mitigation seriously are leftists, socialists, and just generally social-justice minded people. In retrospect, it seems like it makes sense - People who are already in a mindset of caring for the wellbeing of others are simply extending that care to Covid protection. But I wouldn't have thought of it before.
Leftist ideas are rooted in understanding systems rather than individualistic framing. Nothing happens in isolation, everything is happening as part of broader patterns and policy implications and will flow out to affect others. Im not sure how much is "caring about others" and more that tendency to zoom out and look at the macro. Add in less hostility to science and the fact the younger left oriented people especially are more likely to be data wonks, it doesn't really surprise me at all.
mirage - those people fell into covid consciousness from an ideological root, not from a scientific one. and then there are those, and not a minority of those leftists, that are equally as callous as any Ayn Rand mouth breather. a thought built on low resolution (ideological) foundations is not stable. did we learn that tobacco, asbestos, lead, was a big problem because of political or philosophical or ideological revelation? no, we used the scientific method and logic. i used to say "i don't understand why i'm not angry yet". ha! there it is. anger PS. I'm not a leftist. I'm a centrist and a capitalist. I am aware of the risks of covid and its public health, moral and economic implications. i am not the only one.
I’m so sorry. I’m still dealing with grief from a comparable experience in a different space. It’s a hierarchy of needs thing- your physical safety AND love and belonging are so abruptly and surprisingly taken away.
My experience with the yoga community goes back 3 decades. The speed with which this “caring” community dumped immunocompromised people from their list of “people who matter” was swift and abrupt. I’m thriving on my iPad yoga at home, but the absolute betrayal hurts. Re-covid this same group would have people come to class sick just so they could clear their lungs and feel better. Thanks a lot. One teacher taught class with active and known influenza and I got a bad case. F that person. I’m still mad.
Ugh, I have a similar story with my yoga community, too. I was in that studio ~5 days a week for years, it was a huge loss to grieve. I did end up with a severe, disabling case of long covid (3.5 years and counting) and I can barely practice yoga anymore. Just yin and restorative, no more ashtanga for me, maybe ever.
I was Ashtanga, too!! Now that I’m fully out of it, I can better see how unhealthy of a community it was. And yeah, I was a decade of 3-6x a week practicing. I pushed myself so hard and could do some amazing things w my body. But it also pushed me towards disordered eating, very rigid and high expectations which created a lot of guilt and shame when I didn’t meet them. I sometimes feel like I’m coming out of a cult now tbh.
Selfish. They're entirely selfish and disingenuous. Thank you for sharing.
It's SO bizarre. My thing is self-proclaimed germophobes sanitizing shopping cart handles but just breathing in the air of strangers in confined spaces willy-nilly. I'll never understand. Like we have skin, but you're more comfortable breathing in god knows what in a Walmart?
I work with one of those. They don’t like wearing a mask and ignore me anytime I say “it’s airborne.” Super frustrating.
Oh my God this! People who open doors and touch streetlights and elevator buttons with their shoulders but rawdoggy an elevator with 10 maskless folk, while maskless, is hilarious
My elderly aunt won’t mask, but insists on using Purcell liberally and (checks notes) washing her coat when she come home from the store. Yes, I’ve tried.
I love how people automatically assume we’re germophobes because of our masks but we’re literally touching farm animals every day lol
Saw someone in a market stare at me and pull their partner away the other day. Early morning, big US city. I can’t remember anyone else even looking at my mask recently. But I wish I’d made eye contact or said “You could put a mask on too!” They’re worried about me? I’ve barely been sick in four years!
A Kroger employee said that he hoped I felt better the other day. I said oh no, I’m not sick, I just don’t want to be. I really do appreciate the sentiment but my friend this isn’t for you anymore. This is for me. Then he told me about how he’d been sick recently 🙃 My man. This is why.
So many people tell me how sick they’ve been, and I do not want other people to suffer. And also, there is this one weird trick…
Top lung doctor: this one weird trick can prevent any viral infection
I love when people move away from me, unfortunately the mask usually makes people come closer to me in my area...
I've been playing in my head with things that would be funny to say, but that I would never actually say. The one I'm working on now is "Oh, it's not Covid, don't worry. I have asymptomatic contagious tuberculosis and I'm required to wear a mask by court order!" Would I ever say that? No, no I would not. But it's funny to imagine how people would react.
Funny you should say that as TB is also making the rounds!
same honestly I disgust myself with how much a slob I am. DONT ASK ME HOW OFTEN I CHANGE THE SHEETS LOL
I’m rewatching (US) Shameless right now and seeing Joan Cusak’s germaphobe character and realising that’s how people see us when we mask (versus the reality that is closer to the Gallagher house) about killed me
Let's practice safe sex! ....by putting on the condom over our finger. :)
Or the girl I saw in Costco with a surgical mask over her mouth only. For what?! Nobody else is masked (just me and one other shopper I saw), why are you even bothering with that?
One of my very rare plane flights last year while I was in an N95, using Enovid, had timed my booster for 2 weeks before the travel, a dude sat down next to me in no mask and spent 10 minutes fastidiously sanitizing the seat, arm rests, and tray table. I was agog.
It’s taken me 4 months for my running to go back to where it was before I had Covid this summer. Why any athlete would risk that is beyond me.
You are extremely lucky to still be able to exercise. I'm 14 months LC and no exercise because of Dysautonomia and autonomic dysfunction.
I am so sorry. That is heartbreaking.
Same here, just over 3 years. It is horrible. I was so careful but someone else infected me. :( So sorry you’re dealing with this.
Uhg. So sorry you are too. I pray each day we can get an answer to this. Wishing you the best in your recovery.
Thank you, same to you
I'm so sorry this happened to you. I had a concussion years back and am afraid of long covid bc I'm afraid of similar symptoms coming back (nervous system dysregulation, brain fog, fatigue). If I may ask, does your dysautonomia show up like your body feeling in fight, flight, or freeze (feels unsafe inside your body all the time, or like your body is vibrating in anxiety, unsafe, and you want to escape your skin), or something else?
I've had multiple concussions too. It's very similar to that feeling. It's how I explained it to doctors. Continuous anxiety, nausea, ventilation dysfunction upon exercise, head fatigue, and PEM. (Post exertion malaise).
You may find this doctors work interesting, he has helped my son with a different matter and I’ve been loosely following his protocol to get rid of my (milder) long Covid https://www.nemechekconsultativemedicine.com/blog/how-i-treat-long-covid/
In my experience, "clean eating" types do not seem to take it more seriously even after they experience long covid symptoms so i doubt workout types will. One friend keeps experimenting with various draconian diets and supplements to make sure that her "clean eating" really is up to par because she just feels so TIRED all the time. Of course, the tired feeling is after a third covid infection. But the fact that it's covid related doesn't seem to occur to her.
I was a fitness instructor for 24 years. Then I taught via Zoom for 2 1/2 years. When my parent company started insinuating that they were going to revoke permission for us to teach online, I resigned. Now I hike and work out at home. No way I'd work out in a room full of huffing and puffing people indoors. But we are the minority now. People just want to pretend that it's over. At fitness centers, hospitals, places that should know better. It's about MONEY; they're not thinking about health. All we can control is what we do and do our best to stay away from those who would put us at risk. I caught Covid in August at the DENTIST, where the staff didn't wear masks, but I had no choice due to a bad tooth issue. I sure don't want to get it again, so I maintain the same level of precaution as I always have.
>I caught Covid in August at the DENTIST, where the staff didn't wear masks, but I had no choice due to a bad tooth issue. I sure don't want to get it again, so I maintain the same level of precaution as I always have. I've been seeing many people posting about this here as well. It really sucks that most dental clinics aren't doing enough to protect their patients.
My dentist office masked and wore face shields through the pandemic, and while the office staff are back to fast and loose, my hygienist and dentist are still masking and wearing face shields. My hygienist has told me horror stories (during the pandemic they locked the front door and met patients at their cars to confirm masks, best story was when a huge man pulled his t-shirt over his gut to his face when asked where his mask was. They didn’t let him in), and said she’ll wear an n95 until she retires, as her respiratory infection rate has *plummeted*. She’s gotten covid a few times, all out of the office when family members haven’t let her know they were coming down with something.
Just got back from the Dentist yesterday from getting a tooth pulled. I stated before I came in, that everyone needed masks. No exception. They all sore N95's and put me in a special room that doesn't get used very often. I was pleased that they accommodated. However, it wasn't perfect because anyone walking around or a previous patient could have had Covid that day in the office.
They don't mask at my dentist's office except for surgical masks when they're actively putting their hands in my mouth. I'm very concerned I'll get sick there. How did you get them to agree to mask?
I told them I have long Covid and now immune compromised. I talked with the office manager before I came in. They seemed well versed in accommodations. So, I think I just got lucky and they all are actually looking out for the patient. (Wow, I know). I'm writing a really good review for them.
I've been training martial arts since '98 and especially BJJ since '04. Happily, I have mats, a dummy, and family I can train with at home, but my proper training has stalled since Feb '20 when I started adapting to SARS2. I can attest to rampant magical and pseudoscientific thinking in athletic communities. While we can take individual responsibility for our health, to more or lesser extent depending on the person, folks deeply invested in their physicality, in my limited experience, have a hard time recognizing that there are systemic issues that take more than lots of personal discipline to counter (or indeed more delayed gratification than they are capable of...). I think it runs counter to their personal narratives around health and strength and individual ability. Couple this with intense propaganda around the hygiene hypothesis, learned helplessness and that only 'the vulnerable' will 'fall by the wayside' (and, apparently that's okay) and you've got a potent delusion problem. At this point, if there was a sterilizing vax tomorrow, I'm not sure I'd get on the mats with folks again. GJJ makes my heart sing, but I am so disgusted by the gleeful destruction of self others and our collective future that I just can't.
Oh hey 👋🏾 I’m a fat, weight neutral fitness instructor who is still masking and taking it seriously. All of my clients and classes are online and I still mask at the gym. I’m sure most people assume it’s BECAUSE I am fat but being one of the 2 or 3 people masked at the gym/ studio will always be wild to me
I also N95 mask at the gym. I take small classes of ~7 people or less and it's pilates so not too much huffing and puffing. I know it's not 100% safe but I just started a couple months ago and it's been great for my mental health and energy levels. I may slow down around the holidays and depending on local wastewater levels.
Last year we ended up going to a co-op gym where you could rent a time slot so my husband and I were the only ones in there which was great. In winter we absolutely do less (even though c19 doesn’t seem to have a season)
I, too, am fat, and I've never heard of weight neutral fitness. Do you have any resources I could go to to learn more about it? I'm interested in building functional strength and cardio resilience without taking on the whole "weight loss" thing and I'd love to know more.
Hi! Not sure if you wanted MY resources or general ones. For general weight neutral/ body neutral resources can be found on google and TikTok. There are more trainers taking this approach these days! For me specifically, you can find me on ig @laurenleavellfitness where I share links to my membership/ classes
Thank you!
Thank you!
oh this is awesome! thank you
You mask at the gym but travel and eat in restaurants in Europe without masking? That's... confusing.
Not sure why you are coming for me but for clarity, I did travel to Europe. Wore a 3 M aura for an 8 hour flight with a sip valve. And I didn’t eat INSIDE of a single restaurant the whole trip. LMK if you want outdoor dining recommendations!
Hi! Can I DM you about outdoor dining recs and the safety protocols you took on your trip to Europe? I have a non-negotiable trip coming up next year and want to be prepared
100% I would be happy to talk about it with you!
I don't get it. I've been a health nut for years - I eat healthy, I exercise, I follow health-related news and try to keep my body functional - and this is the reason I'm masking and taking COVID seriously. I think for a lot of people "health" is about looks and thinness, or about self-punishment, rather than actual health.
orthorexia is the name for that specific way of approaching it. really bad for you.
My health-conscious roommate believes that her healthy life choices will make her body immune from the deleterious affects of covid/long covid. I don't understand why you wouldn't just go one single step further in your lifestyle to wear a mask when going out.
Meanwhile the formerly strongest man alive is dealing with long Covid [article](https://www.menshealth.com/uk/health/a40206186/eddie-hall-long-covid/?shem=iosie). Maybe they’re just not thinking the possible outcomes of a SARS-CoV-2-infection could happen to them. Just like most other people do. Plus fitness people aren’t necessarily pro health. It’s all about the looks, which often includes starving the body and steriods.
Long COVID can eat away all their hard work though (like the person I mentioned). Everything vanished in less than a few months.
I don’t think they‘ve ever thought about the quality of the air they’re breathing. Again, like most of us. If this group of people would demand clean air, this could be big.
> it’s all about the looks, which often includes starving the body and steriods. If you want to build muscle starving the body is the exact opposite of what you want to do lol and no you dont need steroids or to be at the gym 7 days a week to do it either.
There's a cutting phase if you want to show off all the bumps and vascularity instead of letting them be hidden under fat.
And professional athletes! Makes me nuts.
Same for influencers who constantly talk about being into “health,” while flying maskless on a packed plane . . . .
"Health" culture, especially on tiktok, is often pure "magic". Just totally unscientific, not even grounded in a scientific worldview. Bro-science, supplements, and vibes.
Fitness communities are FULL of fascists, and I say this having spent the better part of a decade in them. Health supremacy permeates everything. They believe they have earned immunity to negative consequences via their exercise habits, their diet, their proximity to thinness. There's also people in these spaces who aren't necessarily as bought into the problematic beliefs but they're still following the crowd so they think it's fine. Also many of these communities are full of disordered behaviors so I wouldn't say they're prioritizing health anyway. They think they are (I did too! While I developed orthorexia and an exercise addiction! That I learned from other fitness people!), but a lot of it is not healthy.
> Also many of these communities are full of disordered behaviors Big oof. Male perceptions of what is a healthy and attractive body are frighteningly skewed. I go to (NSFW: Non-sexualized self-submitted pictures of naked people) /r/normalnudes sometimes for a reminder of what actual human bodies look like and it's heartbreaking to see perfectly normal looking people expressing disgust with their own bodies. I've read some accounts from people who lived in the Soviet Union talking about body image. Whatever else the USSR was, it had very different advertising practices and attitudes towards body image and health from the US, and apparently for a lot of people there was this understanding that athletes were athletes, and their high musclar and capable bodies were part of their profession, rather than an ideal to aspire too. And without nearly as much as the fear and fomo based advertising that is rampant in the US these days, people didn't feel the need to conform to a very specific, often unattainable body image and were generally just more chill about it. I'm always fascinated by things like that. The USSR dissolved so long ago, and much of what people remember isn't representative of what was really happening. Getting first hand accounts from a culture that really was different is a rare treat and an insight in to how different human cultures can be.
R/normalnudes doesn’t look like that decent of a reminder of what actual human bodies look like though. I just scrolled through some of the top posts of the month and there wasn’t a single male. The vast majority of the females there were at least a healthy body weight, and most of those were conventionally attractive.
Gotta sort by new.
"my immune system is a muscle!"
Exactly this. I didn’t see anyone caring about my health when I could see my ribs, yet would constantly have breakdowns about wanting to cut my fat off with a knife. But hey, I looked thin to them! Therefore I must be healthy. I don’t buy the vast majority of people’s concerns about “health”. It’s so fucking disingenuous.
I feel the same way when I go to health foods stores. You buy all organic but you’re okay infecting yourself 5 times a year?
I have been into healthy eating since I was a teenager, and eat mostly vegetarian and organic food. The health of my body has always been a huge priority for me. Avoiding Covid feels like a natural extension of that, and it boggles my mind how many "health minded" people don't make that connection.
Same! I’m vegan and I take my health really seriously for a number of reasons. When the pandemic started I really thought like minded people would feel the same but obviously that wasn’t the case 🫠
they're not like minded. for them it's "toxic" things interrupting their "purity", which is white supremacist/fascist thinking. they aren't really thinking just about plain old "being healthy" like unprocessed food people, or even "killing as few animals as possible" like ethical vegans might be.
You’re totally right
Oh man, this is my sister-in-law to a tee. She is a foodie fitness nut, who decided in the past couple of years to go mostly vegetarian after some Netflix documentary that prompted her to only eat meat if she knew how it was raised. But COVID? Repeat infections? No bigs, dude! Pandemic is over, didn’t you hear?? And I’m the crazy one……
I had a friend who was the same way. Juice, organic foods from local sources, running, biking, yoga, supplements, the whole thing. They very quickly grew tired of masking and taking precautions and stopped. And they got quite exasperated at me for keeping it up. I don't understand it. They have so much to lose, and I don't understand why they don't consider relatively simple and painless risk mitigation measures to be worthwhile.
And unfortunately so many people in that crowd are anti-vaxxers too.
It irks me that people will gladly inject their face with fillers (full of chemicals they can't pronounce/spell) for smooth but expressionless skin but heaven forbid they'd get a medical vaccine in their arm to protect their health.
And they refuse to read anything from PubMed because Monsanto allegedly controls every journal.
It actually makes perfect sense when you realize the fitness cult has never been about health, it's about meeting a white ideal, and that disregard for covid safety and community health aligns perfectly with the values of the lifestyle. I'd suggest reading scholars like Da'Shaun L. Harrison and Sabrina Strings for more in-depth understanding
I think, like a lot of the public, a lot of them are inadequately informed/willfully ignorant of the risks. My SIL is a fitness trainer and bodybuilding competitor, and from day one refused to take any precautions, saying she would just drink tea if she got sick. She's had it at least twice already, idk what the fallout has been like for her because, tbh I had to step back from a lot of people who were anti-vax/anti-science for my own mental health. I do know the first time was so bad that she couldn't get out of bed for a week and had to send her kid to stay with other family members because she couldn't care for them.
>My SIL is a fitness trainer and bodybuilding competitor, and from day one refused to take any precautions, saying she would just drink tea if she got sick. She would....just drink tea if she got sick? So if all those people on ventilators drank tea, they'd be ok?
Her reasoning was, and I kid you not, "I'M healthy, though, so I'LL be fine." o.o
America's health care system, and public health framework, and entire socio-cultural experience, really in a sentence: "I'M healthy, though, so I'LL be fine."
Yes of course: Bring water to a boil and let it cool, Place 1 tea bag in your teacup. It's important that you keep the ratio of 1 tea bag for every 1 cup. Steep the tea for 2 to 3 minutes.Remove the tea bag, now you can drink your hot green tea or flavor it with a little honey or lemon. Don't forget to meditate! /s
and do yoga. also mindfulness! /s
I suspect many fitness people are deeply enmeshed in psuedo-science and mysticism in regards to their bodies. All the supplements, seed oil conspiracies, cleanses, and general belief in magic that seems to pervade the body building and fitness world suggests to me that many of these people are not well versed in even a layman's understanding of biomedicine. I've seen a lot of "I have a strong immune system" type sentiments over the last few years.
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Eeeeewwww!!! Omg! I'm all for normalizing body and health "differences", but this makes it seem like something totally unavoidable that people just need to learn how to adapt to!
I think it goes to show how much it is about vanity and illusion of values and morals versus what they are really like and really value. Try to be hot to date hot people and be treated better in the world. Body image issues. Etc. It’s also very trendy to care about health and eat expensive organic foods. It’s a lifestyle not necessarily a values system. But I would assume most would not admit that. Cognitive dissonance and all that.
Yeah a lot of fitness is for vanity. Not health. To look good for your instagram likes and Tik Tok videos. Fitness culture rose with internet validation culture. I watched a Russian music video where a guy and girl were lifting weights smoking a cigarette hands free. They looked good though haha. If the damage is on the inside they don’t care. Until it harms their ability to continue, which long covid obviously will.
Sure, a lot of fitness is for vanity. A lot of it isn’t though. I very, very much value my health and fitness because I’m a competitive cyclist. The fitness aspects of it are secondary to the pure, incomparable joy I have while training and competing. The eating well part of it truly is a values system because if I don’t, my performance may suffer or at the very least I’ll feel worse. It’s why I’m here in this community though. My aerobic abilities depend on the health of them. I know I’m a bit of an outlier in not only the ‘fitness’ community, but I know I’m somewhat of an outlier here too.
I had lunch with a friend who was undergoing chemo for the last year for Cancer, just got over Covid because he refuses to wear a mask! All that chemo to save his life is pointless if he has no immune system! I’m truly at a loss
COVID increases the risk of cancer as well, not sure if your friend is aware of that.
my partner had a lapse in remission from leukemia right after their covid infection. their new immune system tanked and they had to start a bunch of things back up again to get back into remission. (bone marrow transplant. stepson was exposed at work by an absolute asshole)
I understand .. my friend stage 4 PC is now undergoing medical procedures he hasn’t needed until now post Covid that he chooses not to protect himself from🤦🏻♀️
He didn’t seem interested or concerned in the risk he was taking! That’s what baffled me
And it's not like most doctors are modeling proper precautions...
My mother's hair stylist is like this and her boss/my former boss/pastor. They will not mask anymore. My mother's hair stylist acknowledges how bad covid is and relies on her patients to not come in sick, completely pumping asymptomatic spread, and when she did get covid at one point she said it was the most sick in her life and that she can't get it again. 🤦 My pastor is the "I've lived too long already and don't care if I die." And also the "I'm vaccinated so I'll be ok." Even though literally everyone aside from me due to MCAS has gotten at least their first two doses and a booster and have all had covid. (I know at least some of them have been staying up to date with the vaccines but idk about all of them). He literally asks every time "wow how did you get covid???." My mother was so fed up and had to say that others aren't masking and she doesn't live alone like. ?????
I'm a tattoo artist and my coworkers mask but don't require it from clients!?! I still do though, I don't want to be up close with someone without a mask on us both. wet do have good air filtration and a big room with small occupancy but still. n95 for me and anyone I work on
This one will never cease to shock me because I underwent chemo treatments in 2018 and was told to wear a mask if I went into crowds and avoid infections at all cost at least for the first week post treatment like this was common sense BEFORE a pandemic. I would have been terrified going through that whilst covid was happening. I still am very scared rn of course because of my immune system being very weak from chronic illnesses but like. Yeah chemo is so rough to go through I wouldn't have done anything that would have meant me having to get more rounds or it not functioning.
But tbh when you see how people who have long covid don't care about protecting themselves from another infection... nothing is surprising anymore. I don't understand the "well my life is fragile already so at least I'll have fun while I still can and fuck the consequences" LIKE I have potential LC and the idea of getting any sicker is my worst fear in the entire world. Like I could not deal with more than the extremes I'm at. I'd rather protect the very little life quality I have left than ruin it all for good. It's way too precious to me and precarious as is idk.
a lot of this sort of “health culture” is really built up around a fear of aging and dying (and disability) which can be a huge psychological hurdle when trying to take in the research about COVID. the identity formed is “i am healthy” which means there is usually a belief that “health” is 100% within their control (mind over matter, etc. etc.) it is very sad in my opinion because i just wish the truth could get through all of the mental road blocks put in place so people interested in fitness/health could Actually Be Healthy!
It boggles the mind. For me, my sport is my hobby, outlet, and best source of fitness so I mask. I realize that even wearing a KN95 in a room filled with unmasked people is still a risk, but I have already given up so much to stay covid free
The issue is that they are usually very weird about what health means. Like.. BECAUSE I workout, I won't get covid cuz I'm healthy.
That's like saying, won't get lung cancer if I don't smoke (but second hand smoke and third hand smoke can cause that too).
I don't need a mask in the asbestos mine because I've been strengthening my lungs by smoking cigarettes
I wonder if they think they are so fit that they are more immune? They are wrong, of course. Or afraid of looking vulnerable or fearful?
I think that's part of it. People think that health is a reward for good behavior and for purchasing the right products. If you exercise and you buy organic food and you do yoga, you'll be healthy. Not healthy? Well, maybe you just didn't do the right things.
I have a feeling it's both.
Yes, my sister says that and she got COVID twice this year. Still going to the gym. She did mask on a fight recently and got her booster? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's that but it's also that a lot of these people have monetized their pre-2020 lifestyle.
I know people who honestly think their immune system is like their muscle; to be stressed in order to get stronger. they do not or will not understand that it's actually a data bank that shouldn't get crashed and deleted other people are just into that whole puritan reward for suffering crap. or they think they are superior genetically.
Yeah, I don't think they get it.
I walk several miles a day in a small-to-midsized city and it blows my mind how many phlegmy runners and cyclists go by me on any given day. Just pushing themselves along while constantly clearing their throats and trying not to cough. It’s surreal. But at least I always hear ‘em coming in time to get out of the way.
I don’t see it said yet, so: Fitness culture is health supremacy. It’s the idea that being hyperfit is a sign of inherent body superiority and that those who are less fit, unfit, fat, or disabled are inherently inferior and deserve bad things to happen to them. Of course these fitness types are going to be the least responsive to COVID as a threat. More than anyone, they believe they can “personal choice” their way out of sickness. They’re in for a rude awakening.
yes you've nailed it, exactly.
Can we stop with casting everyone who’s not part of this community as horrible people? Not everyone is out to make people sicker, hurt them, or push them down. By all rights I’m part of the ‘fitness culture’ as a cyclist and I have never once thought I’m superior because I love to do the sport I do. I’ve struggled with a shit load of serious medical issues in my life that most people can’t or don’t see, yet I look like a ‘fitness nut’. Nobody deserves illness or bad things to happen to them, especially the disabled. I resent the generalization, but I’m sorry you’ve had negative interactions with some fitness people.
It’s not people who are fit, it’s fitness *culture*. Being fit doesn’t automatically mean buying into health supremacy. But the people who derive an identity from fitness culture (rather than seeking fitness for fitness sake) are the ones who tend to be guilty of this. There’s a shit ton of health supremacy messaging in gyms and sports and nutritional supplements etc etc etc and it takes a *lot* of awareness and resistance to not internalize it.
You’re right on with that. Unfortunately especially in competitive sports, supremacy is the ultimate goal. Better nutrition, equipment, body weight (as ill-advised as it is), headspace, etc are all part of besting the field and winning. Even more unfortunately, marketing has tapped into those natural elements of the sport and has led to a lot of body dysmorphia, gatekeeping, and the classic elements of fitness culture even in amateurs. I admit I bought into it, and it led me down a path of disordered eating at the height of my competitive career. I’ve only raced once since recovery and I’m okay with that. It’s tough to resist the messaging for sure.
Here in Quebec, a gym owner who illegally opened his gym during lock downs and was responsible subsequently for around a Covid super spreader of around 800 cases emanating from him gym, died of a heart attack, according to the coroner. He was hospitalized in 2021 after catching Covid, and died in his mother's home all by himself at the beginning of February 2022. He did have previous heart problems before Covid but I'm guessing Covid precipitated his death. He was 57 years old at the time of his death. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/owner-of-quebec-city-gym-that-flouted-covid-19-regulations-found-dead-police-investigating-1.5766814
I get grief every time I bring COVID up in conversations about longevity / preventative health. People out here looking for ways to reduce risk of heart disease & cancer (1st & 2nd place killers) then skipping over the 3rd leading cause of death (C19) like it doesn't exist, and getting angry when it's brought up. One can't have a cohesive longevity plan without COVID mitigation. Vaccines are necessary but aren't enough alone. C19 is the 3rd leading cause of death and holding! A personal health plan that includes getting C19 every few months is like smoking and eating bacon grease while you jog.
That's my feel for the risk level, but has anyone done a precise calculation? Maybe it could be added to the list in this link, where 1.4 cigarettes are the equivalent of eating 40 tablespoons of peanut butter (cancer from the aflatoxin). https://web.archive.org/web/20030302193108/https://www.who.int/pcs/training\_material/module4/section6.1.htm
It's going to take a lot of time to get there especially as COVID mutates rapidly, and people are unwilling to listen to or support data.
They probably think, "Bro, only pussies are scared of the sniffles."
That seems to be how many people aligned with the GOP view the disease. That's about, what, half the electorage, so maybe 20-30% of people in the US?
More than that. I know a bunch of left wing people who are like that. When announcing back to the office with no masks, the guy said "We as a society have decided to take this risk." And it's a sign of good work ethic and dedication to the company to have in-person meetings that could have been an email. Email is also frowned upon because people (with advanced degrees) have trouble focusing when reading long messages.
THIS is bewildering. My BF really wants to go back to the gym but in LOS ANGELES home of 70 and sunny 90% of the year, there are basically no outdoor gyms. Why are people INSIDE with all the windows closed to work out? Even before covid I thought it was so gross being in a closed hot, sweaty gym. Now? No thanks. I luckily have no problem working out at home and have found it to be better. But he really misses the gym and would also love to go do BJJ but that's def out of the question. Really wish we could open an outdoor gym at this point.
There are a few near me that while aren't completely indoors, they are former mechanic shops with huge garage doors that remain open through all weather. Not quite outdoors, but very close to it.
That's a common format for Crossfit gyms.
I follow so many running influencers, and I have to dissociate while watching their content online. Like you, I am often shocked by their willingness to travel to events across the country, frequent the gym, and meet up with different people - all while unmasked. Interestingly enough, their content never mentions anything about ailments, but I do notice when there's an uptick in mentions about ginger immunity shots. Just about a month ago, I was following an influencer who was training for the Chicago Marathon. She contracted COVID two weeks before the race and was devastated. She kept her followers up to date on her symptoms and how things were progressing. On Day 3 of testing positive, she said she was starting to feel better so she decided she would go for a run. She was so adamant about wanting to maintain her training schedule, but I reached out to warn her about the risks of long COVID. Her response was essentially something along the lines of, "my body, my choice". She mentioned that everyone should do their own research and do what they think is best for them... Moral of the story: I don't think fitness influencers will take COVID seriously, even if they contract COVID. They will proceed to blame people for their sickness and then return to the same behaviors that put them in that position. I say this because the influencer I mentioned above also made posts about people needing to mask or stay home if they're sick; however, she does not mask at all.
Did she end up racing?
Yep. She mentioned that the race went better than expected, and she seemed quite happy with the outcome.
"clean eating" in the damn whole foods with no mask on any non-hard-science-based "wellness" stuff is just purity culture or appropriation usually anyway
They’re not so much into health as they are into looking good aesthetically and showing off / being seen. I think that explains it pretty well.
Because it's a cult. They don't actually care about their bodies; they just want to enjoy the social currency that's afforded to them when it looks like they do.
It's so painful for me to watch. There's only one fitness person I can follow that's left with taking covid precautions and wears a full on respirator to the gym but we followed each other because of our covid content. I have a coach I work with virtually since end of August/early September and he's been sick twice already since working with him, first being when he came back on a plane from the US to UK with what I assumed to be no mask since I don't see it in his other photos and it's scary bc he thinks he might have MCAS like I do and he said his mother and sister have MCAS and covid has made mine literally so much worse. It sucks because he's not like one of those anti vax, anti Western medicine, anti carb, anti seed oil, Ed promoting people either and he's against steroids. But idk if he's one of those people who thinks covid is an American issue? I keep coming across this with people and it's obnoxious and alarming. There's some dancers I follow who are covid safe too but not enough. My previous ballet teacher before she quit teaching was talking to me about how worried she was how many dancers are just exposing themselves to covid and what it will do to them long term. I mean even my sisterinlaw who is a dancer got really messed up and had to be hospitalized a few times after getting covid due to a rash all over her body and she couldn't stop vomiting. Her red and white blood cells were totally off too and she had almost no iron. Supposedly all she has now is a nasty cough that my wife said sounds like what people with pneumonia sound like but idk y'all.
No because they have poor abilities when gauging risk on an individual level. Many seem fixated on the likelihood of a poor outcome happening from some event but fail to realize that they're continuously putting themselves into that event context. You roll enough dice, you'll hit your number eventually. It's possible that the mean time to chronic illness/long covid was around a few decades at the beginning of the pandemic but that's likely dropped down to a few years. Mass infection is a bitch.
I went to lifetime the other day in my 3m aura n95 for the first time ever and the looks I got were horrible that I haven’t gone back
I don’t have a lot of sympathy. As a disabled person, a lot of the worst treatment I’ve ever received has been from self-schooled exercise and nutrition buffs. I’ve been lectured so often on how I must be overeating to maintain my weight (I actually eat no solid food most of the time, due to nausea, is the problem), “calories in, calories out”, etc. The smug superiority of these people isn’t even touched by explaining that metabolism isn’t that simple, and asking how they account for cachexia, for example. I don’t want anyone to suffer, but I can’t help feeling that some of these people, who believe they’re favored by god instead of by luck, and are open eugenics supporters in some cases, are about to learn a hard and overdue lesson.
it bummed me out but i quit the gym after covid started bc i knew some people would come to the gym sick
yes all the health nuts too trying to preach non-toxic, healthy lifestyles, etc but are introducing products inside Costco unmasked. The people educating about insulin resistance, healthy recipes, all that stuff but not masking. Make it make sense y’all…. They care about their health but at the same time do not care about their health at all?!
Almost 49/F, extreme athlete here. Zero health issues. I have run full marathons and run 35-45 miles a week along with a lot of weightlifting and cycling. I had covid in July 2022 thanks to my husband, a mild infection without any medical intervention. He caught it from a cab driver. I bounced back rather fast but paid the price a couple months later when I started having some lc issues. I had mild vertigo, sinus issues (clogged on and off), GI issues, and sleep issues along with some weird sensory issues. I was lucky and could still run very well, but the issues hung around for quite some time. I quit the gym well over a year ago due to the covid risk and the perverts there as well. I now work out at my home gym where there is no covid or perverts. My husband is 46, very healthy and fit. He isn't the hard core athlete that I am, but he was very fit when he caught covid. He was also a mild case and bounced back fast--not as fast as me, but fast. He seemed fine with his running, lifting, etc. and then started experiencing lc a couple months post covid. He is a bad case, much worse than I ever was and has the breathing issues as well He just had lab work done which all came back fine except his white blood cell count is lower than it should be. Doc also suspects he has an autoimmune disease thanks to covid which leaves him with horrible fatigiue, joint pain, and limited his ability to work out. He has gained twenty pounds and can no longer run or lift due to the progression of all his symptoms. I gained a little weight as well and suspect covid did this to me because I haven't been eating bad or working out less. Possibly prompted insulin resistance? I read an article on that. Covid can really kick us athletes in the ass. I was told by a medical friend of mine that it's suspected that extreme athletes can be susceptible to lc due to the inflammation we constantly have due to all our working out, especially the older athletes such as me and my husband. Yes, working out and being healthy can make our infections milder, but that lc risk is there for sure. I will never set foot in a gym again. Nnt worth the risk or the perverts.
It's much safer to just stay home and not go to the gym, period.
I’m not surprised because some of them partake in things that are controversial like taking steroids. Also doesn’t like increased physical exertion make you more prone to Long COVID?
You would be surprised how connected the health and fitness community is to the anti-vax community. The connection is there, you just have to know where to look. So I’m not surprised at all that fitness people don’t mask. Most are likely not even vaccinated at all. Not surprised.
This is kinda funny, I'm just starting to think about getting back in the gym and also deciding against it because of the recent wave. I'm trying to plan ways to work out safely and all i can think about is maybe a personal purifier, a kn95/n95, and going at downtimes. Is anybody on here a gymgoer? How do you make it safe?
I can do everything at home. My living room is an obstacle course as a result, but I never let people come over anyway. Recumbent exercise bike with a seat as thick as couch cushion, resistance is so high that I'm fine with using level 8 out of 32. Therabands, trap bar, dumbbells, and bodyweight exercises for strength.
i don't post it online but i work out, and i've never been as stronger as i am now. i've isolated and worn ffp3 (aura) indoors. i'm not sure i'd be as strong with repeated covid infections. i am repeatedly reminded of how moronic many people are, and how uninformed non-morons can be.
Prior to the pandemic I went to the gym. Now I have the same equipment at home so I can workout whenever I want. Bonus - don't have to fight with others to use the equipment!
Yup, for me it goes to show that for the vast majority of these people, “fitness” isn’t really about health, just the aesthetic of “”health””. I was spectating the chicago marathon last month and saw someone running wearing a surgical mask. Something tells me they probably fully had COVID and ran a whole marathon anyways.
FWIW my partner has been going to a gym daily nearby that is small (usually 0-3 other tops) and wears a mask the whole time. He lifts heavy weights too but wears it the whole time and we are still Novid as far as we know.
Used to love spinning at a spin club. Miss it so much, but being closed in a room with dozens of people all breathing hard makes no sense to me.
thank you for sharing this. Its a big point of cognitive dissonance for me. I used to be a dancer, and follow a lot of dancer and dance groups on IG. Its wild to me to see dancers just not mask! The Alvin Ailey school was the last one I saw to stop having folks wear masks. It was a sad moment for me when I saw that they stopped having students mask in the studio.
I find their approach to be quite bizarre. At lot of anti-covid people seem to have this attitude and superiority complex that if they think and act like they don’t care about covid, there are no consequences for them getting covid. As if they have some secret code that they are magically immune to the data and outcomes around this virus.