Written By: Prerna Mittra | Updated : May 10, 2024 12:18 PM IST
The report mentioned almost two-thirds of mothers cited 'motherhood' as the primary reason they 'dropped out of doing regular exercise'. (Photo: Freepik)
Exercising every day can provide you with a host of health benefits. It is good for the bones and the muscles, and also for the mental and emotional well-being. In order to strengthen your mind, body and soul, you must find the time to exercise every single day, even if it is just for 15 minutes. Women need to exercise more every day, as they can benefit greatly from it. But, are they able to squeeze in a quick workout session into their schedule? According to a recent 'largest global study' -- for which 24,959 people around the world shared their views -- women are not able to exercise as much as they would like, and it is harming their health, mostly their state of mind. The new study has highlighted the rising 'gender gap' when it comes to exercise, asserting that there is a 'direct link between a woman's level of activity and her state of mind', a People report stated.
Titled 'Closing the Gender Exercise Gap', the study report -- that was commissioned by ASICS and led by academics Dr Dee Dlugonski and Professor Brendon Stubbs -- explored the 'barriers, challenges, facilitators and motivators to exercise for women'. It found that the more women move, the better they feel. In fact, women who exercise regularly are 52 per cent 'happier', 48 per cent 'more confident' and 67 per cent 'less stressed'.
"Yet, around the world, over half of women are not exercising as much as they would like to, and are losing out on the physical and mental health benefits," the report mentioned. It added that 'employed women', 'mothers' and 'homemakers' were the 'least active groups' of women, while students and retired women were the 'most active'.
According to the researchers, 51 per cent of women reported decreasing or stopping exercise as they got older and all women were facing 'myriad universal challenges and barriers' to exercise throughout their lifetime. In fact, the most reported barriers were 'lack of time, other commitments and the cost of coaches or trainers'.
"Movement is a human right everyone should be able to find time to take part in some form of exercise. Furthermore, countless research studies have shown that there are both physical and mental benefits from leading an active lifestyle," Dr Dlugonski mentioned in the report.
The report also mentioned that almost two-thirds of mothers cited 'motherhood' as the primary reason they 'dropped out of doing regular exercise'. "Gendered expectations about caregiving and household responsibilities were also shown to negatively impact women's exercise levels," it mentioned. 'Low self-confidence', 'intimidating environments', and 'caregiving responsibilities' were shown to have an impact, too.
Interestingly men are of the opinion that 'body insecurities', 'fear of harassment' and 'fear of judgement' are the top three exercise barriers for women. Interestingly, over half of the surveyed men (54 per cent) said women drop out of exercise because 'they do not enjoy it'. Only 34 per cent of the surveyed men realised that 'time' was a barrier for women.
"The biggest thing for me was the birth of my child. I had created something that I couldn't take my eyes off. Does that mean I have to be the one to watch him all the time? It's probably not the case, but it has become very difficult for me to take time off and go somewhere else to exercise by myself," a focus group participant from Japan was quoted as saying in the report.
The global online survey was conducted across more than 40 countries including India, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, China, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, UAE, UK, and the USA.
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