Summertime – and the exercising is easier

People who are poorer and those with lower levels of education are least likely to exercise, but most adults are way below recommendations on the amount of activity needed to stay healthy.

However, blue skies and warm weather prompt exercise compared to the winter months.

The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and led by researchers at the University of Bristol, examined data from the Active People Surveys (APS).

This covers each individual’s socioeconomic position as well as other factors such as the weather and access to sports facilities.

The research found almost 80 per cent of people did not carry out moderate exercise at least 12 times in a four-week period.

Just over 8 per cent of people who were physically able to walk had not even walked for five minutes continuously in the previous four weeks.

Participation in the most common activities was also “very low”, the experts said.

Some 46 per cent of people had not walked for leisure for 30 minutes continuously, 88 per cent had not been swimming and 90 per cent had not been to a gym in the previous four weeks.

People with a degree only had a 12 per cent chance of being inactive but those with no qualifications were three times as likely to not exercise.

Carol Propper, professor of economics at Bristol’s Centre for Market and Public Organisation, said: “Physical inactivity is the most important modifiable health behaviour for chronic disease so knowing who is physically inactive is important for designing cost-effective policy interventions.”

She said the findings “suggest that financial as well as cultural barriers need to be overcome to reduce the prevalence of physical inactivity.”

The NHS recommends people exercise at moderate intensity for at least 2.5 hours every week.