The gender gym gap was on the decline. In 2019, activity levels for women were at a record high, with 211,000 more women being active, according to Sport England. Campaigns like This Girl Can normalised movement for every gender and body type. Even Instagram, which rightfully gets a bad rap for the role it plays in diet culture, began to flourish as a space that encouraged intuitive movement, female confidence and discussing the benefits of sports. And then, lockdown happened.

“For all of us, there’s just been a massive disruption. But certainly, every piece of research shows that disruption is being felt more by women,” says Lisa O’Keefe, director of insight at Sport England. This also means that it’s our fitness levels that have been hit the hardest over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Stats from This Girl Can, the campaign powered by Sport England, showed that the gap, doubled from 4% to more than 10%, with only 30% of women doing the recommended amount of exercise a week during lockdown 1.