These charts reveal America's complicated relationship with exercise
New data shows just how few of us are meeting the recommended guidelines.
By Sara Chodosh June 29, 2018
We all already know that America, as a country, is pretty inactive. Not nearly enough of us exercise nearly as often as we should. But talking about averages in a country as populous and diverse as the U.S. is also kind of meaningless—the “average†adult doesn’t really exist.
According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control, only about 23 percent of all U.S. adults get the recommended amount of exercise per week. That’s 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise, plus two bouts of muscle-strengthening exercise. Researchers have been collecting detailed data about these recommended levels of activity since 2008 as part of the Healthy People initiative, which sets goals for each decade—we’re currently working toward the 2020 aims. But the considerable variation between exercise routines gets obscured by that single number.
And indeed, when you start digging into the details, the picture gets a lot more interesting. For instance, this is the overall map of physical activity in America:
https://www.popsci.com/american-exercise-guidelines-charts
