Have you ever wondered what Americans do to stay fit? If you guessed Pilates, kickboxing, barre, yoga, or strength training, you’d be wrong. Americans have finally spoken, and their favorite leisure-time physical activity is surprisingly simple: walking!This low-effort habit is quietly becoming America’s favorite exerciseThis low-effort habit is quietly becoming America’s favorite exerciseA comprehensive new study shows Nearly half of American adults prefer walking From yoga to weight lifting and dancing – to every other recreational activity. However, there’s a twist: Not everyone who does this is actually getting the health benefits they think. The findings of the study have been published in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Walking tops list of leisure-time physical activities in America

The study found that walking was, by far, the most popular leisure-time physical activity among American adults. There was also a difference between rural and urban populations. Rural residents enjoyed gardening, hunting, and fishing, while urban residents were more interested in running, weightlifting, and dancing. However, urban residents are more likely to meet physical activity guidelines than rural residents.The US Department of Health and Human Services has published guidelines on the recommended amount of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity for adults. Although the proportion of adults meeting these guidelines has increased in recent decades, the decline continues in some populations, including adults living in rural areas. Understanding differences in preferred recreational physical activities may help inform efforts to reduce such disparities.However, only a few studies have analyzed urban versus rural preferences for leisure-time physical activity and how they relate to meeting guidelines.

the study

Researchers wanted to address that gap, and they analyzed telephone survey data collected from a national sample of 396,261 US adults in 2019.Of the 75 surveyed options for leisure-time physical activity, walking proved to be the most popular among both urban and rural residents. A total of 44.1% people reported that the activity they spend the most time on is walking. These findings echo a similar study of US data collected in 2011. However, further analysis of 2019 data showed that even among walkers, only one in four (25%) met the combined guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity, while 22% did not meet any guidelines.The researchers also explored the popularity of other activities. In rural areas, most people were engaged in gardening, hunting, fishing and farm work, while urban residents were more involved in running, weightlifting, cycling and dancing. Despite this, rural residents were generally less active and less likely to meet aerobic or muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines.

a call for solution

These findings are important, as they call for tailored interventions to promote physical activity that are culturally and demographically appropriate.“We expected to see that walking would remain the most common physical activity. However, we were surprised to see that nearly one in four adults who walk as their main activity did not meet any physical activity guidelines. That is, they reported less than the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week and fewer than the recommended two days per week of muscle-strengthening activity, such as yoga or exercising with resistance bands,” said Kristian Abildsø, lead The researcher said.“What we’re seeing in these rural-urban differences in priorities is just a reflection of what people have access to or what is culturally supported. In our work, we see the need to continue to support our partners in small towns and rural locations by creating the physical, social and cultural conditions that support physical activity. This could mean building a wide shoulder on a country road for running and bicycling, helping a senior center with their chair exercise programming, creating park spaces or Making improvements could include expanding the national network of rail routes, renovating abandoned and dilapidated structures (brownfields), keeping school facilities open to the public, and many other strategies. “Everyone needs to ask, ‘How does what we are doing affect physical activity?’, to help people get active more often, in more places,” the researchers concluded.