Methods: Guided by the Youth Physical Activity Timing, How, and Setting [Y-PATHS] framework and Ecological Model of Physical Activity, we conducted a literature search to determine the associations between temperature and physical activity. Search terms included ‘climate change’ or ‘weather’ or ‘temperature’ or ‘heat’ and ‘physical activity’ or ‘exercise’ or ‘sport’. Inclusion criteria were (1) reported on ambient temperature; (2) reported on physical activity; (3) involved human subjects; and (4) published in English language. We screened articles and excluded those lacking quantitative results on the temperature-physical activity relationship.

Results: The majority of studies occurred in developed countries and revealed a positive association between ambient temperature and physical activity, and assumed a linear relation. Select studies have suggested extreme temperatures to be associated with decreased physical activity levels, and have projected rising temperatures under different scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions to have different impacts on physical activity levels depending on season and regional climate.

Conclusions: Based on the literature, elevated temperatures—the likes of which are expected to increase with climate change—may be a barrier to individuals engaging in physical activity due to thermal discomfort, and therefore may place individuals at higher risk for a host of chronic diseases associated with insufficient physical activity. We share a menu of interventions for municipalities to promote safe physical activity in a warming world, including the layering of proven heat management strategies with physical activity infrastructure (e.g., tree planting along sidewalks) and development of policies that minimize ambient heat exposure (e.g., scheduling school recess and sporting events during cooler times of the day).

Methods: Drawing on three community-engaged research projects set in Canada and in the Caribbean that each include physical activity intervention research components, I conducted a reflexive exploration characterized by scrutinizing my positionality and actions within our teams’ decolonizing research efforts. From March 2020-November 2021, our teams of Indigenous, and/or Caribbean and settler-ally researchers conducted a scoping review of online Indigenous health promotion interventions, a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) of Indigenous community mobilization training initiatives, and weekly community-engaged remote brainstorming sessions to develop innovative, anti-colonial, health and physical activity promotion research methods and methodologies.

Results: My positionality affords me privilege through race, class, educational attainment, income, and job security that confers a responsibility to uphold ethical and respectful research relations and a commitment to community priorities in health and physical activity research. The large scale force of the COVID-19 pandemic caused the suspension of our field-based research and provided the opportunity for us to regroup and prioritize anti-colonial research methods and methodologies. By adopting an explicit commitment to include all voices in research discussions, we developed innovative approaches – such as the strawberry metaphor to community mobilization - to advance our decolonizing agenda and begin to respond to the social injustices the pandemic has exposed.

Conclusions: Dismantling dominant colonial constructs and ideologies in health and physical activity research requires researchers to explore their positionality and to question their adherence to western-dominated approaches. Authentic allyship requires a commitment to self-location and actions that support the self-determination of research by community. The social justice tenets of health and physical activity promotion cannot be achieved until this occurs.

Method:  The National Study of Appropriation of Public Space (2019) investigated 20 case studies of urban parks, neighborhood parks and green areas in Mexican cities. Through the design of three qualitative instruments with an intersectional, citizen science approach, we explored mechanisms associated with the appropriation of public space: 1) accessibility and equitable distribution; 2) protection, comfort and pleasure of the place; 3) spatial practices based on the use, perception and availability of time, 4) subjective evaluations of the important aspects of public spaces, and 5) networks, citizen participation and activism. One case, Parque Madero en Cuauhtepec, was selected for in depth analysis due to its proximity to the Sierra de Guadalupe (protected natural area). We collected narratives and perceptions using socio-digital strategies to investigate advocacy actions and activities focusing on physical activity.

Results: The Citizen Socio-Environmental Laboratory in the Sierra de Guadalupe included a large coalition of 15 environmental, sports and cultural groups sharing the goal of conservation of the Sierra de Guadalupe in a time of climate change, pandemics, and civil unrest. We discovered the Parque Madero en Cuauhtepec to be small, not safe, and poorly lit, located in a dense residential area, with high traffic, and contaminated by business and government offices. However, the space was heavily used for physical activity, community organizing, and public enjoyment.

Conclusion: Appropriating public space is important for the promotion of physical activity within the neighborhoods of Sierra de Guadalupe. Virtual and face-to-face interaction methods are important to enhance cooperation, community organization, exploration of narratives about the territory (body-territory), and technical and activist capacities to influence how lands are appropriated for public use in cities.