The message that keeping fit is a duty of care is often betrayed around us, sometimes subtly and sometimes egregiously. Nuffield does recommend an incremental approach – work up to your daily 10,000 steps by starting with 2,000, for example – but even that rough mile will be daunting to many. For those who are unfit, or with mobility and other health issues, one person’s cool-down might represent an unattainable goal (apparent or actual). It is perhaps the notion of vigorousness that prompts my caution, not least because it is surely subjective and doesn’t take into account an individual’s starting point. Looking after your physical self is clearly worthwhile, especially when the march of time threatens creaking joints and energy dips and we all feel better after a bracing walk (it is widely reported).
But although these barriers to exercise are demonstrably valid, they also reinforce the idea that we are failing to do something we ought.ĭespite an early and traumatic encounter with a school vaulting horse, I come to praise crunches, not to bury them. To be clear, it’s not Nuffield doing the telling-off – more what we might call the discourse that greeted their findings, which immediately started to discuss issues of childcare deficits and the heavier burden of unpaid labour that continues to fall on women and prevent them from getting to Zumba. Two-thirds of the women, and half of the men, cited a lack of motivation other reasons included not knowing where to start, and simply not having enough time. According to Nuffield Health, 47% of women they surveyed hadn’t engaged in activities such as running, swimming or a class at the gym that would help them to keep fit and healthy in mind and body markedly more than men, of whom only just over a third responded similarly. I n the latest round of scolding women and pretending it’s for their own good comes the news that we’re not doing enough exercise – at least of the “vigorous” sort.
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