Keeping fit in new ways

With fewer mass sports events to attend, a reluctance to go the gym over safety concerns and facing quarantine at home, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lifestyles of tens of millions of fitness enthusiasts in China.

But none of these challenges have changed fitness lovers' passion for sports. While many make their home a gym, adjusting daily training plans, others follow online fitness courses or even buy smart devices and fitness video games to keep exercising.

Lyu Wenqiang, a Dalian native who finished a 21-day quarantine at home last month, is among those who refused to stop his fitness routine.

The father-of-two told China Daily that, along with his wife and children, he participated in about 20 long-distance running events including marathons in 2019. But he only managed to join in five fitness events in 2020 due to the pandemic. So doing sports at home became an inevitable choice for him.

"I started quarantine with my family at home from the middle of December for 21 days. And everyone in our family kept exercising during the whole period," said Lyu.

"Actually I've lost 4 kilograms in the past month. Each day, my wife and I would each at least finish about 8 kilometers in about 40 minutes on our running machine.

"Also, I have enough equipment at home just like in the gym, such as dumbbells and barbells. My two sons followed us on the running machine and they also have their fitness video games."

Lyu said that doing exercise is a much better way to kill time at home than browsing smartphones for hours on the sofa.

"The pandemic has forced us to change our ways of doing sports. For example, now the gyms are open in Dalian, fewer people would like to be there to avoid people gathering," Lyu added.

"But we still need to keep healthy. So, even at home, we have to keep running and doing other fitness training. Also, we need to have a healthy diet. We can't just stop as we need to maintain our physical condition."

The General Administration of Sport of China began promoting scientific indoor exercises after the start of the pandemic. A series of online fitness courses, activities and competitions have been organized across China. They attracted tens of millions of participants throughout last year.

As several Chinese cities have reported new COVID-19 cases in the past months, many are following pandemic-prevention regulations and have postponed public sports events. Once again, local sports departments are shifting focus to promote indoor fitness methods and organize online activities.

Since early January, Hebei Sports Bureau has been working with sports associations and lower-level sports departments in the province to organize online fitness classes and competitions, such as a martial arts course and rope-skipping challenge.

Hebei Sports Bureau also invited sports stars in the province to record videos teaching people how to keep fit at home scientifically. For example, Hebei's martial arts star Guo Mengjiao posted fitness videos online calling on people to "build a stronger body to fight against the pandemic and learn how to exercise at home with world champions."

Meanwhile, Shenyang Sports Bureau worked with 15 sports associations in Shenyang, Liaoning province, to film and upload more than 1,000 videos online that guide locals on how to exercise at home. The videos cover a wide range of sports including baseball, tai chi, basketball, yoga and martial arts.

According to Shenyang Daily, the city's marathon association has a one-hour online fitness course each night. So far, about 200,000 people have participated.

Running online

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement or cancellation of many marathon and long-distance running events across China in 2020. In turn, many organizers began staging online running events.

The key benefit is that runners don't gather to run the same track with thousands of others. With no specific location and start time, participants used applications on smart devices to track their steps, with the data sent to organizers. Those who completed their chosen distance were awarded medals.

In one example, the organizing committee of the Xiamen Marathon in Fujian province decided to postpone due to the pandemic just days before it was due to start, Jan 3.

The next day, the committee announced it would stage an online version of the event. Between Dec 31 and Jan 6, a total of 265,942 runners from across China signed up for the online Xiamen Marathon. Among them, 189,959 people finished a 5-or 10-km race remotely and received medals.

"I thought I had missed the chance of running this year's Xiamen Marathon. So the chance of running the event online was truly surprising for me," runner Huang Shunyong told Xinhua.

Enthusiasts now have various options to participate in all kinds of online running events in the future. In another example, the Chinese Athletics Association launched an online marathon series called "Running Across China" in October, which contains more than 1,000 small events and continues for a year.

"Online sports events could avoid the limitation of places and the number of participants in traditional events. It will also avoid the risks of spreading the virus caused by people gathering," CAA vice-president Cai Yong said earlier.

"Online events allow runners to join in the events in freer ways and encourages more participation. The CAA hopes to attract more runners to join the online marathon series, so more people can join the national fitness campaign."

However, online marathons are a hapless choice for runners who love to travel and see different places, enjoy the atmosphere of running with thousands of people and hear the sound of cheering crowds along the route.

Retired Chinese Olympic race walk champion Wang Liping suggested runners could choose to join in the online events as a part of their daily training. It would be a chance to keep their physical condition before having chance to join marathons offline, she suggested.

"The idea of hosting online running events is to encourage more people to join in sports and fitness campaigns in such a special time. Those who love sports will enjoy themselves during the whole process. Online marathons will be a future trend," Wang told media earlier.

Fitness games

Playing video games or doing sports? It was a tough choice for many people who spent a long time at home isolating from the pandemic. An answer to the question is fitness games, which have become a new favorite of both gaming and fitness enthusiasts.

Wearing smart equipment and standing in front of screens, users are required to use their whole body to play the fitness games. The challenges would usually be hard enough to make the players sweat heavily to meet with their daily fitness goals.

Beijing office worker Liang Wanjia is one of those who started their fitness habit through fitness video games. Along with her husband,Zou Yi, they played Ring Fit Adventure, an exercising role-play game developed and published by Nintendo for the game console Nintendo Switch. It became a major way for them to exercise and have fun at home during the pandemic.

"Each week, I would play the Ring Fit Adventure three or four times. And each time, I would play about one and a half hours," Liang told China Daily. "It was hard for my body to keep up with the pace of the game at the very beginning, but now I can finish all the challenges.

"Honestly, I was not a fitness lover. I barely went to gyms or had a daily habit of doing sport. I felt it's a little bit boring to just run or exercise in gyms. But after I started to play this game, I have felt the benefits of keeping fit.

"Especially during such a special time, exercising in the gym could not be a good choice for many people. It's a relatively small closed environment for people to stay together. After all, we have to avoid gathering to stop the spread of the virus."

According to Reuters, Nintendo has shipped 1 million Switch consoles to China since it launched the device in the world's largest video games market at the end of 2019. While early sales were hampered by a limited number of available games, they were later boosted by the release of popular home exercise game Ring Fit Adventure.

In the early stages of the pandemic, the price of Ring Fit Adventure nearly tripled on Chinese e-commerce platforms. Demand boomed because many people had to stay at home for quarantine. Only in recent months has the price gone down.

"In order to play the Ring Fit Adventure, we bought the Nintendo Switch during the pandemic. And now we feel it's a really good investment," said Zou.

Fitness video games are also a good way to attract children into sports. The Dalian fitness lover Lyu told China Daily that two of his sons spent a long time playing fitness games during their quarantine at home. The boys had a bigger interest in playing the games than sweating away on running machines.

"They play a boxing fitness game on the Xbox and they also play the Ring Fit Adventure on the Switch," said Lyu. "The boxing game is really physically challenging for my eight-year-old and three-year-old sons."