Why is there a gender gym gap in lockdown?

Unlike what you might see on social media, not everyone has spent their time tracking runs on Strava or doing burpees while following along with an Instagram Live three times a day. If you are still working from home during the pandemic or working on the front line in a hospital, shop or restaurant, you’ll particularly know that your days are the exact opposite of that.

But even those on furlough or who are unemployed are facing barriers when it comes to their fitness, explains Lisa. “We need to stop this idea of ‘doing lockdown the right way’. Everyone is thinking that we have more free time and therefore will be the fittest we’ve ever been. That’s just simply not the experience that people are having,” she says. “If you haven’t got the same choices, access to the gym or the classes, the social group and the structure that you used to, you’ll probably be in a worse position because the motivation and opportunity just isn’t there.”

Even for those who are managing to find time or motivation to exercise, the amount and intensity of activity is probably lowered right now, Lisa points out. “Unless the activity you did prior to lockdown was walking, cycling or running, let’s face it, you’re probably going to be less satisfied with the activity that you can do during this time,” she says. “You’re not going to be able to do the same activity, you may not be feeling the same buzz or intensity from whatever you replace it with, you might have lost that kind of social group that you do it with and you might have lost that structure to your day.”

Lockdown has made the gender gym gap worse – here’s what you can do about it