The fitness platform, Garmin, released two reports on the global pandemic and its impact on activity levels. The first report focused on the United States and the second report focused on Europe.
Garmin engineers and data scientists looked at data from millions of Garmin smartwatch wearers to identify trends and changes in human behavior. Not surprisingly, daily step accounts have decreased drastically due to shelter-in-place orders.
image credit: Garmin
However, that doesn’t paint the whole picture or imply that people are less active during lockdown. Instead, there has been a shift in the type and location of activities that people are engaging in. As expected, people are exercising indoors with home-based workouts and engaging in social-distance friendly sports like running and cycling.
For example, indoor cycling was up 64% in the U.S. in the second half of March.
image credit: Garmin
In Europe, the change was even greater. Compared to February, indoor cycling is up 157% in France, 273% in Spain and 309% in Italy. Not only that, but people are riding longer, with a 12% average distance per ride increase. Outdoor cycling is up in countries where restrictions aren’t as severe, such as Germany, which saw a 153% increase.
image credit: Garmin
Similarly, the change in virtual running activity has increased dramatically compared to 2019, with a six-fold increase in the number of running miles logged daily. In Italy and Spain running activities are up by 130% and 84%.
image credit: Garmin
Other activities, such as walking and yoga are up 36% and 11% respectively.
The most unusual activity? Floor climbing. No, not the typical stair master workout machine that comes to mind, but people actually running up and down stairs in their apartment or house. In Spain, climbing stairs is up a whopping 900%.
Lap swimming on the other hand? As expected, it has fallen off a cliff.
image credit: Garmin
With the pandemic limiting certain activities, clearly more people are turning to alternatives like home-based workouts, such as running and cycling. Many fitness studios are also offering live classes on digital platforms. However, it’s still too early to tell if the change in behavior is a temporary trend or if people will stick to these new routines once life returns to normal.