CARLSBAD, CA -- Companies and organizations should be more involved in helping increase the physical activity levels of their employees, according to a survey conducted by morefocus, an online research organization.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents who participated in the wide-ranging survey said that physical fitness is something that employers should more actively encourage with their employees. Sixty-four percent also said that children do not get sufficient exercise at school.
"It's very interesting to see how people feel about mixing a personal thing like physical fitness with work and school," says Dr. Regan Carey, morefocus research director. “There are more and more companies that offer gym membership discounts or even have a gym on site, but clearly most people don't think it's enough."
The research also found that 73 percent of those surveyed have regular exercise habits that include exercising at least once a week, but only 20 percent said they get enough exercise.
When asked why they don't exercise more often, 39 percent said it was because they didn't have time, while almost as many, 37 percent, said they don't have the motivation.
The survey also explored people's attitudes towards alternative exercise. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said they had practiced a form of alternative exercise such as yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi. Twenty-nine percent of those who had not tried alternative exercise said it was because they hadn't had the opportunity but they would like to. Fifteen percent said alternative exercises don't work as well as traditional exercises, while 9 percent found it boring. Money came into play for 11 percent of respondents who said they didn't think they could afford an alternative exercise program.
"Yoga especially has become more present in the mainstream in the past few years as a sort of trendy way to exercise," says Carey. "But our research indicates that alternative exercises like yoga and Pilates are still not the exercise of choice for most people."