80% of women too unfit to be healthy?

[FlowerArranger]

I listened to Women's Hour while doing my workout today. In a segment on women in sport, one contributor stated that research shows that 80% of women are too unfit to be healthy.

I Googled and found a reference to a Canadian study from 2007 and CDC research from 2013:

A new (US) government study estimates that nearly 80 percent of adult Americans do not get the recommended amounts of exercise each week, potentially setting themselves up for years of health problems.

www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-80-percent-of-american-adults-dont-get-recommended-exercise/

I don't suppose British women do much better? If this is indeed true, it is is shocking.

I remember when my children were little and I was working full-time, there was little or no time to exercise in a formal way - though I'm sure all the running after them and running up and down stairs and housework and gardening kept me fit enough!

If this is you, you are excused......... but what about all the years before and after looking after children? Why don't women exercise enough to keep themselves healthy? Which the CDC defined as:

at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or a combination of both

Personally I (in my 60s) work out most days and I feel so much better for it.

YABU - I don't see the need to exercise regularly
YANBU - regular exercise is vital

I used to have a brisk 40 minute walk to the office in the morning and then back again and go for a run at the weekend. I've been WFH since March 2020 and I've become so, so lazy. It's just got worse as the years have gone by. I've done 700 steps today. I can't even make myself run anymore, I can't be arsed.
I start a new job in 2 weeks and will be cycling 30 minutes a day, 15 minutes of which is intense and uphill. I'm hoping it's the start of getting back to my old self.

My issues with exercise started when I hit puberty. I had a stereotypical PE teacher who screamed at those of us at the back of cross-country. I lost all confidence in my ability to undertake physical exercise and did my best to avoid it. It’s a lifelong issue. I feel self-conscious going to exercise classes, going for a run, even swimming. I’m constantly aware that I’m the least fit, most uncoordinated, fattest person there.

So while I agree with you that exercise is important, it is unfair of you to criticise people who find the psychological effort to go out and exercise overwhelming. It’s not just a matter of finding time. Finding the mental strength to get out there can be much harder.

I easily have time for exercise but I just hate it. I was the same as a child. Hated pe.

I spend loads of time on social media. But it's while I'm waiting to pick kids up or I'm awake at night, or I'm waiting for something to come out if the oven, or on the loo. At none of those times could I possibly be in a gym.

I do calf raises and balancing exercises while I brush my teeth and sometimes in the kitchen while cooking too, but it's no substitute to a bit if headspace and uninterrupted time in the gym (or going for a run or whatever exercise).

I'm betting I'm not the only one.

I used to be fit almost to American military levels, so I know what I'm missing. I simply can't magic up extra hours or move kids' dance classes so I can get some decent exercise myself, or always afford childcare!

The issue is not "lazy women" just wanting to be on their phones. All the fit fathers I know have proper space in their schedules for being fit..because their wives/children's mothers are doing the bill of everything outside of work.

Well yeah but how the fuck are we supposed to work this in to an average day of wake up, get kid(a) ready, drop at school/nursery, work for 8 hours, pick them up, dinner, bath, bed, wash up, get ready for next day then whole thing starts again? And that’s alongside life admin, cleaning, washing, hoovering, family activities… I mean there’s not enough time for anything is there.

No ofwarren. I haven't. Maybe I should. I just feel embarrassed going to the doctor and saying "im fat because if something out of my control" I feel like they'd just roll their eyes.

And I do have wine at the weekend and I do have a bagel or something for breakfast once or twice a week. So maybe my idea of just eating and exercising reasonably is out of touch and reasonably means kale for breakfast lunch and dinner and a 3 mile jog each evening. I know some mumsnetters will be doing that!

Long work hours sitting down, increased need to commute longer distances to get to work (sitting in the car or on the train). Making the family dinner, putting kids to bed and tidying aren't hugely beneficial exercise wise.

Fatigue from sitting all day doesn't really help either, it's a vicious cycle.

We have a family gym membership, mine do swimming, football and gymnastics whilst I workout but they can also use cardio machines between 3-5pm and anytime at weekends.
It definitely helps make me feel better physically and mentally

Crippling mental health and severe joint atrophy

I’m a full time working single Mum. By the time I’ve done work, laundry, the house, groceries, kid ferrying etc I know I SHOULD exercise but, well, I’m bloody knackered.

I've got 2 dc with activities, a dh with shifts, and a 40 minute commute twice daily. There used to be a creche at the sportscenter but no more. There used to be a late class at 815 one night a week but no more. There is one exercise class I can get to on a Sunday am. I live fairly rurally so have to drive, can't get any exercise in during the day. Looking forward to WFH so I can go for a walk in my lunch break and then eat at my PC.

I live in a small town and work somewhere that's a half hour walk or ten minute cycle from my house. About half of my colleagues live in the same town. Without exception, all of them drive in every day, they never walk.or cycle. They are all under 50, none have children, all are in good health and most own a bike. I do have young children and manage to drop them off and then cycle in. I really enjoy my active commute, it sets me up for the day. It's a mindset as much as anything. For some reason they would rather drive in. There are showers at work (though no one would need a shower after a 10 minute cycle on the flat anyway) and cycle parking is secure. There's a safe cycle route and it's mainly flat. Strange

For me the shift to WFH has helped me fit exercise in. On the days I WFH I go to the gym at lunchtime, and do a 30 min class, round the corner from home, and I go on Saturday mornings as well. Then on my office days I have a walk of a mile or so each end of the tube, plus up and down stairs etc. that’s how I can fit exercise in alongside a full time job and two kids, but I know it’s not easy. Anyway like a PP despite getting a good amount of exercise I’m still overweight (BMI 27ish) as of course diet is way more important than exercise for weight loss. But I’m strong and fit and that matters more to me right now than dieting.

I feel constantly guilty that I don’t do enough exercise. Weight has creeped on slowly since having DC2, pre kids I went to the gym 3-4 times a week, ran a lot, ate well. Since kids I’m struggling to find the energy (I do have the time if i made the effort once the kids are in bed). I cycle to work 3 x a week (20 mins each way) and have two small kids so am fairly active around the home but my fitness is so poor now. I tried a spin class and nearly died the other day. I need to sort myself out as I’m only early thirties- my mum in her sixties still plays tennis and squash and she’s much fitter than me. I’m just so bloody knackered all the time.

I really do think it's self perpetuating as lots of people are mentally/ emotionally fatigued by work and/ or kids so just don't feel like they have the energy and then they have even less energy from not doing exercise. Getting yourself back into it after a pause is so hard too. I honestly feel the only way I could be mentally happy and physically fit is dropping to about 20 hours a week but that doesn't pay the bills unfortunately!

I think it starts in early girlhood. For a range of reasons, encouraging and retaining the interest of girls and young women in sport is challenging, and among those reasons is the lack of positive representation of girls in competitive sport from the youngest of ages, and the gendered notions that even the youngest of girls pick up that girls should be pretty and nicely dressed and clean and that sport and running around and getting dirty are boy things - even among those girls who might be quite good at sport or athletics and aren’t opting out because they’re shit but because they don’t want to be seen by their peers as “the girls who want to act like the boys”, which only serves to further marginalise girls in sport.

I think another aspect of it is the mental link we've somehow build up as a society that exercise is just something you only do from time to time when you want to lose weight rather being an integral and completely normal part of staying healthy and fit and strong. I’ve lost count of the number of times in my adult life that I’ve told a colleague I’m off to the gym or for a run on my lunch break and had an amazed “you don’t need to go to the gym, you’re slim as anything already!”

I think part of it is making it as important a part of your life as everything else. I went back to the gym 6 weeks after each kid was born. Only once a week initially, because i used to walk for miles in the day, but iused to do a couple of classes and that was my thing. Even the kids were whining or crying for me, I went.

I leave the house at 7 and get back at 6, so i probably exercise 3 times a good week now. 1 gym, 2 runs. It easy to ignore the gym in favour of work, but I know the work is endless and I can probably do it tomorrow night or the weekend. My midweek run is 30 minutes, so I do it when a child is at an activity. My weekend run takes more discipline, but I get up at 8 on a bastard Saturday and run for an hour, so I can do the rest of Saturday.

I should probably spend that time with the kids or doing housestuff or whatever, but I don't want to. And it always gets done.

I was not a sporty kid, but I've always been a fidget. I started exercising in my 20s, as a way of de stressing after work. Probably hit my peak late 30s. Now it's just about ensuring a decently fit middle age body.

I'm sure this has a lot to do with it!!

But why are we doing this, knowing that we'll pay for it with poor health later in life? Why do fathers seem to be 'innately' more selfish?

NB:
Here is a great little workout that is easy to do while watching TV - only 10 minutes but VERY effective:

I hate exercise. With a passion. I don't get endorphins from exercising. I walk to work, and walked ds's to primary school, but less now. I have time, I just choose not to.

I think another issue is how we term exercise - in many eyes, it's just another chore, and one that can move down the priorities list as it doesn't obviously benefit anyone else in the family. It may sound cheesy, but it was doing a Peloton workout during lockdown (my work's health insurance provided a free 6 month app membership) when the instructor talked about how privileged and lucky we were to be exercising that I started to try and reframe my opinion around exercise:

1. I deserve to be healthy as much as the rest of my family.
2. I have one body that thankfully (largely) does what I ask of it, and it's pretty churlish of me not to try and make the best of it while I can - there are far too many who can't through no fault of their own.
3. Trying to think that I 'get' to do a workout vs I 'have' to do a workout. Subtle but powerful difference.

Regular exercise definitely makes me a nicer, less stressy person, but it's not something that comes naturally to me. In fact it's through years of forcing myself to do something that I am now in a position where I get a bit angsty if I can't do some exercise. I'd also say doing something with friends helps keep you going - I do a boot camp class with a friend and often neither of wants to go, but because one of us says yes, it makes the other go along. I've never regretted a work out. Another lockdown hangover is regular walks with friends, I really like the social aspect, but doing something good for us at the same time (and being out in nature does something to my soul as well).

I used to run for an hour/hour and a half around 5x per week but stopped when I came down with glandular fever and then developed ME. Then I had babies so have v little time/energy for anything beyond keeping us all alive and, when I do, nowhere to put the kids!

It is definitely a problem. I walk everywhere, 50 mins a day Mon-Fri on the school run, but that's it.

Yanbu OP - I'm currently in my third trimester with my second and I'm genuinely worried about how I'm going to get back to my previous strength.

I used to run religiously but following two lots of spd I know I'm going to need to do a lot of work to get back to even baseline and I have no idea where to start, never mind how I'm going to find the time or energy.

I make time to exercise. Admittedly my kids are older teens.

I'm probably slightly addicted to it. I work out 6 out of 7 days and I do Ironmans.

But a lot of woman don't exercise much and it's a shame.

I am guilty of this. I was fairly inactive in my teenage years, very active in my 20s (running 40 miles per week, cycling, gym, snowboarding, etc), and then very inactive post-children.

Like most people, I struggle to carve out the free time, struggle with not being able to do the things I did 10 years ago, and I just don't prioritise it the way I used to (and the way my DH still does). I want to, and need to. But I just don't.

It’s all these cat owners. Get a dog and you’ll have much more than 2.5 hours a week of exercise without setting foot in the gym.