Indoor exercise boom among Chinese amid efforts to curb novel coronavirus epidemic

Fan Dongquan, a fitness coach with Jinan Hot Blood Fitness Studio in east China's Shandong Province, on Thursday conducted a 90-minute fitness course on-line for free.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has kept millions of Chinese like Fan from outdoors activities since late January, so indoors exercise has become an important way to keep healthy.

The Chinese sports community, from individuals like Fan to the sports authorities at all levels, stood forward to actively promote indoors exercises to fight against the epidemic.

China's State General Administration of Sport has called upon sports departments at all levels to promote simple and scientific exercises at home and further fitness knowledge, and advocate a healthy lifestyle via various media during the epidemic.

"I believe that regular physical exercise can protect against illness, especially in a time of the novel coronavirus epidemic," said Fan, adding that the number of participants increased from 243, the first time, to more than 300.

In fact, sports departments around the country have already released a series of indoors exercise programs with accompanying text, pictures and videos.

For example, the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau released a complete set of workouts at home, including stretching and strength training, on Wednesday.

Rizhao Municipal Sports Bureau of Shandong Province has also released some instructions of Taichi, Yoga and 'Five Animals Play.' Meanwhile, they invited local social sports instructors to demonstrate the methods in videos, so that citizens can follow experts to learn how to work out at home.

Sports Bureaus of Qingdao and Yantai also released on their Wechat platforms, the health-promoting ancient Chinese exercises-Baduanjin with detailed instructions. Beijing Sports University on Wednesday issued a video of Baduanjin via their Wechat account and had more than 100,000 comments.

Chinese Health Qigong Association released on Wechat a combination of Chinese therapeutic exercise; Qigong, which was closely related to Chinese martial arts in the past is free of restrictions like venues and equipments.

The State Council, China's cabinet, issued a new Healthy China guideline in July 2019, which promised support for fitness programs with Chinese characteristics, including Tai Chi and Qigong, which channels the body's inner energy to achieve physical and mental harmony.

Cui Yongsheng, staff with Health Qigong Management Center of State General Administration of Sport, noted that practicing Qigong will play a positive role in the fight against the epidemic.

"In the future, we will make more efforts to promote Qigong, so that more people can benefit from it," said Cui.