Performance of gymnastics academies during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim of the study was to describe the content of physical exercise practices transmitted virtually by fitness centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive, observational study, with retrospective characteristic. The sample consisted of eight fitness centers distributed in the administrative regions of the city of Maceió - AL. A form was created to record the variables of interest: virtual platforms used, type of posts, content and the number of views of these posts in the virtual media used in the period of April, May and June 2020. Descriptive analyzes of the continuous variables were carried out by average and minimum and maximum values. For categorical variables, the distribution of frequencies in absolute and relative numbers was used. In the results, a total of 91,836 followers of the social network profiles of the eight observed gyms were identified. A total of 449 different types of posts were identified, the majority of which were carried out on the social network Instagram (85.0%); the most prevalent content was informative posts (64.5%). Regarding the specific content of video classes or training lives, activities with a profile of cardiorespiratory demand (aerobics) were the ones with the highest prevalence of supply (47.3%), followed by activities with mixed capacities (aerobic and resisted) with 32.3%. Gymnasiums in their post-pandemic adjustments, in addition to caring for biosafety, can get closer to their customers using more effectively, virtual technologies.