It’s time to get back in shape! Gyms and swimming pools reopened on June 9 after many months of closure. But how to practice a sport in complete safety, without risking to catch the covid?

No mask required

First question: do you have to wear a mask during practice? To date, wearing a mask is not compulsory in sports halls during physical activity, in particular “when the activity practiced does not allow it (in the event of intense physical activity in particular)“, specifies the Ministry of Sports.

Its use is therefore left to the initiative of the practitioners, but it is compulsory when moving around the room.

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But no risk to take

If you want to wear one during your practice, rest assured: the mask is certainly uncomfortable, but would have no effect on respiratory function, or on the heart function of healthy people, according to a North American study published last November. .

On the other hand, this would not be the case for people who suffer from heart or respiratory diseases. This is why the World Health Organization (WHO) currently advises against wearing a mask while practicing a sport.

Prefer outdoor sport

Also good to know, there are now masks specially designed for sport, more breathable than surgical masks and which still protect users.

A good alternative, because the practice of a sport is very conducive to the emission of droplets potentially carrying the coronavirus when they are emitted by an infected person. Sports halls are also known to be places of covid contamination, as shown in a study by the Institut Pasteur published last December.

The ideal is to practice your sport outdoors, or in a very well ventilated room, and to stay at a good distance from other practitioners.

Safe distance to the pool

And at the pool, where wearing a mask is incompatible with swimming? The mask is still compulsory in the changing rooms, up to the shower, and a physical distance of two meters between users must be respected.

In the pool too, it is advisable to respect a safety distance. As for a possible contamination by chlorinated water, the first studies on the subject are rather reassuring: a transmission via swimming pool water would be very unlikely.

Here again, it is the air that remains the main route of contamination. Therefore, prefer outdoor pools over indoor pools, as soon as the weather permits.