There are those people that love the gym…I bet you’ve even got a picture of them in your minds eye right now. And then, there are those of us who cannot stand it. So much grunting and weight dropping. No thanks. However, according to a new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, club members have a benefit over the rest of us when it comes to getting regular exercise. (Maybe this article will even convince you to join that gym you’ve been driving by every day since January 1st!)
For the study, Iowa State University scientists recruited 405 relatively healthy adults; half had already belonged to a gym for at least 30 days and half hadn’t been members for at least three months. Each of the participants had their resting blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index measured, and answered questions about the time they spend exercising, sitting, and doing other activities during the week.
After that, the team analyzed all the participants responses to figure out which of them met the national recommended guidelines for physical activity. It might sound crazy but the current recommendation is 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity each week and at least two days of weight lifting or other muscle-strengthening activities. (Would YOU meet that requirement??)
From the article:
“The difference between groups was ‘pretty dramatic and surprising,’ says corresponding author Duck-chul Lee, an assistant professor of kinesiology. While non-members only exercised an average of 137 minutes a week, those who belonged to a gym logged an average of 484 minutes a week. Only 18% of non-members met the guidelines for both physical activity and strength training, compared to 75% of members.”
It seems that a gym membership was related to 14X HIGHER ODDS of meeting those weekly physical activity guidelines. And the results were similar for men and women.
But the gym members didn’t just exercise more, they were also less likely to be obese and had better cardiovascular health. According to the article, people who regularly go to the gym, especially those who had a membership for a year or more “tended to have lower resting heart rates, higher cardiorespiratory fitness, and smaller waist circumferences than their non-member peers.”
While this study doesn’t mean the workout you are getting at home is useless, it just seems to point out that people who join the gym spend more TIME working out. But those people may need the accountability or they don’t like working out outside, or they get a membership free from their job. Regardless of why people get exercise, the biggest and most important take away is that you SHOULD workout. Physical activity is the goal.
Enjoy!
Source: Time
