Last week as Judge Lina Hidalgo extended the stay-home order for Harris County, fitness fanatics continued to congregate for boot-camp style workouts on the hill of Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park. Hidalgo and Mayor Sylvester Turner have been telling Houstonians for weeks to practice social distancing because of COVID-19, but there was little of that going on.

People continued exchanging balls and weights, and running almost shoulder to shoulder like you’d typically do any other time.

Group exercise is a great way to de-stress during stressful times and socialize, but this is a different time.

With gyms and fitness studios now closed, many exercise groups are continuing meet outdoors in spite of the pandemic. It’s not just at Hermann Park; group fitness is happening at Eleanor Tinsley and Memorial parks, and others.

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“We are fortunate that parks throughout Houston are able to stay open as a place of solace and relaxation in a time when we need both more than ever,” said Doreen Stoller, president of Hermann Park Conservancy. “To stay healthy, physical exercise is important, too. But everyone needs to stay safe when they come to a park and visitors must stay 6 feet apart from each other. Visit the parks with your families - but do not meet up with people from outside your home or come with a group. When you do that, you are endangering yourself and everyone else you come in contact with.”

The Houston Parks Department, which operates nearly 400 parks, has suspended all permitted group exercise programs in the parks, said Parks Director Steve Wright. Hermann Park Conservancy followed the same protocol for that park, he said.

According to City of Houston policy, any fee-based structured exercise activity must be permitted.

“We notified all of the permitted group-exercise programs in our parks that we were suspending activities,” Wright said. “That’s one of the first things we did to get the word out. A lot of groups might not know the policy, so we are trying to educate as many groups as we can right now.”

Signs also will be going up in Hermann Park to encourage social distancing, he said.

Turner authorized the parks department to take down or secure 500 basketball goals throughout the city in order to remove “any temptation” to congregate, Wright said.

The parks department has reassigned 50-60 employees to a new park monitoring program to help encourage social distancing in the parks.

“Mayor Turner is taking this very seriously. He has not indicated that the parks will close if we can get people to own their own responsibility,” Wright said.

Nevertheless, more cities across the nation are looking at restricting access to parks or closing them entirely due to COVID-19.

joy.sewing@chron.com