Fitness etiquette goes a long way during this the never-ending lockdown
Fitness etiquette and smiling at each other goes a very long way during lockdown 3.0 in Melbourne where we are all locked up at home, writes Sophie Elsworth.
Opinion
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Eye contact means so much these days.
Whether it’s a brief glance, a long exchange or even a wink, it’s important, given us Victorians have our faces covered up.
It’s been more than three weeks since Melburnians were ordered to mask up by the Premier, making it virtually impossible to see another person’s facial expressions.
While a smile can mean so much, it’s gone for now. This means it’s far worse when someone avoids eye contact altogether.
But there’s one little window where we can still smile at each other during these tough times and that’s for fellow runners, or those who ride a bike, who have been given the tick of approval to exercise outside mask-free (with good reason — it would be physically tough to run while wearing a mask).
Running along the beach near my home the other morning, as a fellow runner was coming towards me, he gave me a big smile and muttered “good morning” under his breath as he passed by.
A little bit of kindness like this right now goes a long way.
I’ve made it routine to maximise that one hour a day outside of my home to get my heart rate up and some fresh air in my lungs, otherwise it feels like being a rat in a cage, stuck inside 23 hours a day.
With more than three weeks of lockdown 3.0 to go, it’s easy to fall into a rut of becoming lazy, given we’ve been told to stay under house arrest except for a handful of legitimate reasons.
But even when busting out for some fitness, there’s some simple rules of etiquette that go a long way.
I had a fellow runner yell at my friend and I as we were walking around Albert Park Lake because apparently we weren’t sticking to the left of a very wide path.
OK, fair call but no need to bark at us.
Then the roles were reversed. I had two women taking up a narrow portion of the footpath alongside Elwood beach while I was out for a jog. Just stick to the left and leave some space for others please.
As I passed them, I politely asked if they could please leave some room for others to pass.
The best they could do was laugh loudly at me.
Most of us runners aren’t masking up but it doesn’t mean people need to give us such a wide berth and carry on like we are a bucket of germs running around.
People are on high alert and rightly so, but being a little respectful when out and about goes a very long way.