Not many Americans are getting the ideal amount of exercise, a new statistics show. According to new data collected by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, only a quarter of adults are meeting the guidelines in both aerobic and muscle-training exercise in their spare time.
Pump It Up
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that adults between the ages of 18 and 64 years-old partake in 150 minutes of moderate exercise and 75 minutes of more rigorous exercise each week. The department also recommends muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
The department's Healthy People 2020 initiative had a goal that at least 20.1 percent of adults would meet the guidelines by 2020. According to the CDC's report, the goal was surpassed and at least 22.9 percent of people met that goal.
One of the authors of the study, Tainya Clarke, who is a health statistician and epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, stated that even though the average goal was met, the authors discovered there were differences in each state.
The researchers discovered that the state with the highest percentage of adults meeting the guidelines was Colorado. According to their findings, Colorado has 32.5 percent of adults that exercise in their spare time. Following Colorado is the District of Columbia. Thirteen other states also surpassed the initiative's exercise requirements.
The states that failed to meet the requirements were mainly located in the Southeast including Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. This coincides with previous data collected in 2016 by the CDC which showed that Colorado had 20-25 percent obesity rates, compared to states in the south that had 35 percent or more obesity rates.
Gender And Careers Make A Difference
The authors examined the results by gender and found that an average of 28.8 percent of men was meeting the requirements, which also included the 40.5 percent of men who work from the District of Columbia. This was compared to the 17.5 percent of men that reside in South Dakota.
In regards to women, 20.9 percent met the requirement nationally. The study found that people who work in professional and managerial occupations are more likely to meet the requirements for exercising.
The researchers from the study noted that people who are physically active at work and engage in exercises during the free time are more likely to be in better health than their counterparts.
"You can have a physically active job, but certainly, if one is out as a contractor, aspects of being a fireman or firewoman, such jobs have physical aspects to them in a way that sitting in a job do not," professor of physical therapy and human movement sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Daniel Corcos, stated.
