This survey of over 2,000 American adults found that on average the age that when most of the respondents felt they were too old to work out on a regular basis was the surprisingly young age of being 41 years old. Age was just one of the obstacles causing the rise of the white towel, the far most common barrier was not having any time with 42% citing it as the main reason to neglect their fitness.
Modern day busy schedules with work and family life often get in the way of fitness, the most common excuses for neglecting health were 56% reported being too tired, 36% said they had too much to do, and 25% cited staying too late at work.
The responses to the survey suggests that Americans will grasp for any excuse to take advantage of to get out of exercising including the weather being too bad at 33%, Netflix coming in at 15% of the excuses, and ironically eating too much was used an excuse by 23% to avoid exercising.
Most of the excuses come down to convenience as only 29% think that working out is convenient. However, it doesn’t really come as a shock as on average the respondents report only having around 89 minutes of free time daily. Those that did work out averaged 2 times per week, but if it were more convenient and less expensive to go to a gym they would increase the amount of times they workout to up to 5 times per week.
69% of the respondents believed that having a better exercise schedule would help them to break away from bad habits. When asked what would help them to exercise more 45% responded having a home gym, 28% said cheaper fitness alternatives to going to a gym, 28% said fitness classes with friends or co-workers, and 27% said having a personal trainer with affordable pricing that can help them to be more accountable for their actions.
