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Bike commuting (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Dave Atkinson:Flickr) 0220 million Brits physically inactive claims British Heart Foundation survey
According to a report by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), 20 million UK adults are classified as physically inactive. The charity says that inactivity is one of the most significant national health crises threatening people’s cardiovascular health today.
The BBC reports on the Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behaviour Report, which looked at whether or not people were meeting government guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week and strength activities on at least two days a week.
20 million are failing to meet these targets, with women 36 per cent more likely to be considered physically inactive than men.
The figures are also broken down regionally, with almost half of the adult population – 2.7 million adults –insufficiently active in the North West.
The BHF also estimates that the average man spends a fifth of his lifetime sitting, the equivalent of around 78 days a year, while the figure for the average woman is around 74 days a year.
The charity says that in the UK physical inactivity causes one in ten premature deaths from coronary heart disease and one in six deaths overall.
Inactivity costing the UK 14.2 billion euros a year
Dr Mike Knapton, the BHF’s Associate Medical Director, said: “Physical inactivity is one of the most significant global health crises of the moment. Levels of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour in the UK remain stubbornly high, and combined these two risk factors present a substantial threat to our cardiovascular health and risk of early death.
“Making physical activity easier and more accessible for all is of paramount importance if we are to reduce the burden of inactivity-related ill health.”
Slight decline in number of cyclists according to latest government figures
A separate study, by Halfords, found that almost half of people who own a bike never ride it.
While two out of five people have a bike, fewer than one in seven would term themselves a regular cyclist. Just one in three bike-owners go for a ride at least once a month.
The survey also found that almost one in 10 adults have never learned how to ride a bike.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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36 comments
Is this some sort of joke? 20m people is a lot of people. What happened to all that was being said about the cycling revolution which was supposed to be going on in the UK??
Went pretty much the same way as everything else promised by Call-me-Dave, except for the referendum - he delivered on that.
If we want something big and left field to happen, it needs to piss off a lot of Tory backbenchers. Given that cyclists piss off a lot of Tory backbenchers, and we have a Doorer-in-Chief as Transport Secretary, I reckon the cycling revolution is a bit dead...
You can tell just how much lip service the D of T pay to sustainable and active travel by looking at their organisation chart...
which can be found as a linked pdf on this page...
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-transport-and-...
The Netherlands may have a similar weather but a significantly different geography. The lack of hills mean that people cycle in their work clothes because they don't need to shower at destination. On that note, not all (many?) employers offer shower facilities in this country.
Also don't assume that everyone's commute is dead time, I know quite a few people who utilise the time on the train to get work done so that they never have to stay late in the office and/or leave early/start late. It's not really easy to send emails on a bike
Granted on your second point but I live in Suffolk by the coast and I can probably give a good description of every single cyclist I see on my commute and where I'm likely to see them. The hoards of car drivers I see I hope aren't working on their emails as they drive in!
I'm not judging anyone, I just don't buy that somehow it's impossible for British people to get 30 mins of light exercise most days.
Might be possible, might not. But I don't think that's the point. The point is what can be done to achieve the desired result of more people, at a population level, getting exercise.
I dunno, I'm just cynical in general about attempts to change things through 'education' rather than via changes to physical reality. It so often seems to be just a cop-out excuse for not really doing anything.
Because you can always do something more urgent. Most people don't try to sit on their arses and get fat, but it's what happens when you prioritise your job over exercise during the time you're getting paid to work, then at home you prioritise your family and chores (see brooksby / clubsmed's familiar descriptions).
Most people live near parks, near some sort of sports facilities, near an organised sport that they'd enjoy, near a gym - or, failing that, near the real outdoors. But Britain is still fat. Each and every Brit knows the benefits of exercise and the harm of being fat and sedentary, but they're not doing enough exercise.
But they'll sit in a car or stand on a train to get to work, without thinking about it.
We need to get the message out about how long people spend commuting - I'd spend around 1 full day per month sitting in a car or standing on a train if I didn't bike/run - who' s got that sort of time to kill? As it is, my commute forms the backbone of training that sees me do a couple of ultramarathons and tris (incl full distance) per year, with minimal disruption to my family. I can also eat and drink whatever I want without getting fat because commuting alone burns about 5,000 kcals per week. Even if people mixed it up a bit it'd make a huge difference to their fitness.
But it's a tough sell at the moment - most Brits are put off cycling because they perceive it to be dangerous. Bikes and peds need to boss the roads for active travel to take off.
tl;dr: strict liability, please.
Another plug for the 5BX plan, no specialist equipment just 10 - 15 minutes of your time, it's perfect for business trips, family holidays or when your late home from work yet again. And being completely free there's no excuse for anyone able bodied not to do it
I think the weather makes a big difference in the UK, its hard for a lot of people to get motivated when its pouring down or really windy or grey and miserable. So a lot of brits lead a very interior lifestyle which usually only leads to one thing....laziness, weight problems...NHS dependency....
a lot of people lack the staying power also....they'll 'have a go' for a week then baulk when they realise they have to put in some real effort and make lifestyle changes to get long lasting effects . . .
sadly, a lot of people just dont care. . .
canadian air force training scheme from over half a century ago means you only have to do 11minutes exersize, requires no kit and can be done in the home/office/park.
You should try it, it's as relevant today as it was in the late 50s http://www.fit450.com/HTML/5BX_Intro.html
@brooksby well that is the magic of commuting by cycle. You save money, often time and if it had't been for the diesel caused air pollution, you get fit at the same time.
That is my training schedule too, commuting to work and other destinations!
Only if you don't get the cycling bug
My train pass would cost me £500 annually, I definitely spend more than that a year on cycling gear.
I know what you mean though, I actually buy the bike stuff to fuel my hobby and the commuting use is free.
"A separate study, by Halfords, found that almost half of people who own a bike never ride it."
Well, if it was sold to them by Halfords, in many cases they literally won't be able to ride it.
Twelve years of fell racing, followed by twenty five years of cycling has not stopped me getting ARVC ( Arrithmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy). So make sure you get checked out regularly, keep well hydrated and don't over do it. Endurance athletes, especially cyclists, have been known to drop down dead all of a sudden from various forms of Cardiomyopathy. Moderation my friends !
In other news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/wanted-space-volunteers-lie-bed-two-months
Seeking 24 men willing to eat and perform all bodily functions in bed for 60 days - Wage: €16,000.
This article, the media, especially the BBC, ignore the most effective, efficient, cheapest way to tackle this problem: Active Travel, cycling and walking.
Telling people to get more exercise is futile, as most will make the commitment but never carry it out, just ask gym managers how many of the new year's resolution people last past the end of January. So we need to build exercise into our daily routine, so that it doesn't become a chore, and Active Travel is ideal, as brooksby points out: he's exercising every day by travelling, so the exercise is incidental.
The facts are there, it's just that the media will not report them http://www.dw.com/en/obese-not-us-why-the-netherlands-is-becoming-the-sk...
The BBC has had a series of stories about pollution from vehicles, obesity and exercise over the past two months, but the only time I've heard or seen anything about Active Travel was two lines on a website.
The BBC story invites questions, so if lots of people point out that they should stop ignoring Active Travel, they might actually feature it http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39457993
I couldn't agree with this more.
Since getting my road bike a few years ago, I changed an hour (excepting delays) commuting via train and bike into an hour and a half exercise on my bike. (If only my work had showers, I could do that both directions, but as it is, I pop my bike on the train and buy a single ticket).
Chocolate Path!
Its not really chocolate you know, so don't worry that it's contributing to the obesity epidemic...
That's what you say!
Nom nom nom
And this is surprising how, exactly?
Most of us now work in offices, you know - sitting down at desks. And office workers aren't exactly encouraged to get up and trot around the office or something - we're paid to be sitting down, working.
Shock news: Britons prefer sitting on the couch stuffing their faces in front of X-Factor to getting off their lardy arses and doing some exercise. In more breaking news, it's been discovered that bears relieve themselves in the woods...
I'm not sure that it is quite that simple
Example: I'm married with two children - I work during the week, standard office hours, and my wife works at the weekends (craft fairs, sometimes one day, sometimes both). I cycle to work, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles per day (depending on whether I take the "scenic route"). But if I didn't cycle to work, I really couldn't fit any genuine exercise into any part of my weekdays or my weekends.
Yet a lot of people still scoff at indoor training like Zwift. Saying it's fake miles. It's not miles that makes you fit, it's your weekly total stress score. Indoor tech makes being fit so much more realistic these days. You can buy trainers so quiet that the missus and kids wont wake up and actually have fun doing it. You don't have to get kitted out, don't have to clean your bike after, don't have to guage the weather. Don't have to take a risk of getting mowed down in low light and leaving the kids without their dad. Just jump on and get some quality early morning/late evening training time. Don't even need to plan anything. It's all there for you - select 12 week plan and it does everything for you, tests you, tells you when you rest, when to do active recovery, when to go hard, easy.
Modern tech is amazing, we have it all there in front of us. Not sure why people are scoffing at it unless they're hardcore and can face the 5am training sessions. I get up at 5am daily, but getting out on the road at that hour, without waking the missus as I leave.. I haven't got the motivation for that. And I am one properly motivated guy a lot of the time. I love my bike.
I think the point that brooksby was making is that without converting dead time into active time like the daily commute it is hard for a lot of people to excercise. Yes indoor trainers are good but if you don't have the time and it can't be incorporated into other dead time in the house like whilst doing the ironing or washing up then it is not much use to anyone with an over hectic schedule. Also, ironically, those who are parents are probably less likely to have the spare cash to spend on an indoor trainer that is quite enough not to wake the kids
Expensive, but families could finance a Flux at £550 interest free if things are tight. Maybe get a 36 month deal somewhere? Don't pull me up on that, but I'm sure something is available.
But yes, not going to preach about money. I know what it's like when things are tight too.
Point of contention is about energy levels/time - from personal experience, I went from being a shattered 8am rush guy, to a naturally waking 5am guy. Don't know if that's genetic, or just related to doing more high intensity stuff. My dad for example also rises at 5am, has done for the past 50 or 60 years of his life so far, though without the exercise..
Either way, nothing wrong with Brooksby's comment, was just using it to shoehorn in a solid point about the snobbery related to indoor training. It saves time. Without a doubt.
Yeah, agree. Anyone who is snobby or dismissive about indoor training isnt doing it right. Im lucky enough to have a blance of the two, road, and trainer, and if you plan your training properly, use something like TrainingPeaks to monitor and plan your progress then the virtual miles you put in have a huge benefit on the road, not to mention all the other 'convenience' benefits.
Of course, there are elements to consider, cost, time, room in the house, noise etc. . .but anyone dismissing it out of hand should ask the slew of Tour Pro's that have integrated it into their training plan. Definitely worth looking into.
Yeah lots of Pros do it now, probably all actually spread across Trainerroad, Bkool, Zwift etc. Can ride along with them, which is class. Mat Hayman won Paris Roubaix last after spending 5 weeks on Zwift in ergo mode because he crashed 6 weeks out. First time he tried it too, then goes on to boss P-R when he shouldnt have even been racing with his arm fracture. Still see him on in the mornings.
They made a vid of it recently, pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dBpdDlHDKw
Fake miles though right
Thank you! Yes: this.
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