Yorkshire folk are exercising more than ever before, even in lockdown

The region boasts a ‘significant increase’ in the number of people active since the start of records being taken in November 2015, reflective of an upward trend nationally.

Yorkshire has also done better than any other region when it comes to reducing the number of people who are inactive, doing so by 2.2 per cent, as revealed in Sport England’s Active Lives survey.

Of the county’s 2.7 million residents, 62.5 per cent of adults conducted 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week, per the Chief Medical Officer’s standard by which the measurement is taken.

Those numbers are for November 2018 to November 2019, but encouragingly, Sport England report a continued increase even during the unprecedented lockdown which has seen gymnasiums, sports clubs and leisure centres etc, temporarily closed.

“They are really good numbers coming out of Yorkshire,” Sport England’s director of insight Lisa O’Keefe told The Yorkshire Post.

“We have also been monitoring activity during the coronavirus pandemic and we are seeing a small rise in Yorkshire and the Humber. That is a much smaller sample size, 2,000 people, instead of the 180,000 of the Active Life survey, but they are very encouraging numbers.”

Nationally, activity among adults reached record levels during the course of the last survey, particularly among women, older people, and people with a disability or long-term health condition.

Sport England has focused significant investment and campaigning in recent years on those demographics with campaigns such as ‘This Girl Can’, which targets women, and ‘We are Undefeatable’ for people with health conditions.  

To help maintain those numbers during the current lockdown, the governing body has launched a new campaign called ‘Join The Movement’ which engages through the hashtag ‘#StayInWorkOut’.

“It’s all about helping people maintain that habit,” explained O’Keefe. “If you regularly go to the gym, or say your local hockey club, and those avenues have been closed to you temporarily, we are trying to create a place and an environment that lets you do that indoors.

“The fitness industry has really embraced digital and this will go on beyond the lockdown. If you feel anxious about joining a gym or a sports club, you don’t need to now, there are plenty of programmes and classes that you can take online in the comfort of your own home.”

There are areas of concern, particularly in 16-34-year-olds where there has been a decrease in numbers, while inequalities linked to ethnicity and affluence remain.

O’Keefe added: “The drop in 16-34-year-olds is not catastrophic, but it’s a concern and one we’ve noted, because this is the most active group.

“Loneliness and mental wellbeing plays a part. If you’re more active you’re less likely to report loneliness, and it is in that age group that highest levels of loneliness are reported.

“We know that sport and physical activity can help that.”

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of Sport England, said: “Behind the overall positive picture, there remain areas of real concern – if you are well off you are far more likely to be active than if you are not, and the ongoing evidence of a significant ethnicity gap, where we are not seeing growth in activity levels among some ethnic groups.   

“Added to this is the disruption the lockdown is having on people’s sport and activity habits. The true impact on the nation’s future activity is still unknown.”