Do You Work Out Enough?
Sure, you belong to a gym. But do you use it enough? If you’re like most women, the answer is no: Fewer than 20 percent of American women meet the government’s exercise recommendations , according to data from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey that was just released by the Centers For Disease Control. Surveyors asked 453,721 participants from a nationally-representative sample about the frequency, intensity, and duration of the aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities they’d spent the most time doing in the past week or month. The results: A measly 17.9 percent of women met the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s physical activity guidelines, which call for two strength-training sessions per week, plus 75 to 150 minutes of high- to moderate-intensity aerobic activity. The men did better—but not by much: About 23 percent of them moved enough. The thing is, it’s not tough to meet the government’s exercise guidelines—especially because you can (a...