Fast workout music is being banned in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in a bid to combat COVID-19.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum announced on Wednesday that new restrictions would be implemented across South Korea amid South Korea’s worst wave of COVID-19 so far, with the number of new daily infections reported above 1,000 across several days in the past week.
Most areas of the southeast Asian country are on Level 2, a relatively lax level with standard social distancing restrictions. In Seoul, a COVID-19 hot spot, the government has raised it to Level 4, the tightest restriction level possible, according to Al Jazeera.
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Music played at gyms can only go as high as 120 beats per minute. A few famous songs at this tempo are Thriller by Michael Jackson, Sugar by Maroon 5, Just Dance by Lady Gaga, and Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, according to spinditty.com.
Fans of Gangnam Style by Psy (132 bpm) or Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes (123 bpm) risk a fine of $87 if they are caught listening to their beloved tunes at the gym, according to the Korea Herald.
Other gym restrictions include limiting treadmill speeds to 3.7 miles per hour and requiring masks for everyone, even those who are vaccinated.
Son Young-rae, spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, explained the government’s rationale in a radio interview.
“When you run faster, you spit out more respiratory droplets, so that’s why we are trying to restrict heavy cardio exercises … We also agreed on this (120 bpm) standard (with related groups) to transition strenuous aerobic exercises at fitness clubs to less-intense ones,” he said.
Many gym-goers are outraged by the new restrictions, with several interviewees deriding the arbitrary rules as ridiculous.
“So we can’t run or use the treadmills, but we can bike? It seems weird to me,” one Seoul gym goer told the New York Times.
“You could be listening to slow music and exercising just as intensely,” another argued.
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Casting doubt on how the new rules can even be enforced, one gym owner in northern Seoul rhetorically asked CNN, “Many people use their own earphones and wearable devices these days, and how do you control their playlists?”
