Walking remains the most popular leisure-time physical activity among U.S. adults, according to a study published in PLOS One on April 1 by Christiaan Abildso of West Virginia University and colleagues. The research analyzed data from a national telephone survey of 396,261 adults conducted in 2019.
The findings highlight that while walking is widely practiced, only a minority of those who walk as their main form of exercise meet recommended federal guidelines for physical activity. These guidelines, set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, advise adults to engage in at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days per week.
The study found that both urban and rural residents reported walking as their primary leisure-time physical activity, with 44.1 percent naming it as the activity they spent the most time doing. However, just one in four walkers met both aerobic and muscle-strengthening recommendations; about 22 percent did not meet either guideline. Rural residents also reported higher participation in gardening, hunting, fishing, and farm work, while urban residents more often engaged in running, weightlifting, bicycling, and dance.
Despite these variations in preferred activities between rural and urban populations, rural adults were generally less likely to be physically active or to meet recommended exercise levels than their urban counterparts. The researchers suggest that differences may reflect varying access to facilities or cultural norms around physical activity.
Abildso said: "We expected to see that walking would continue to be the most common physical activity. However, it was surprising to see that nearly 1 in 4 adults who walk as their main activity did not meet either of the physical activity guidelines. That is, they reported less than the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and less than the recommended 2 days per week of muscle strengthening activity such as yoga or exercises with resistance bands." He continued: "What we might be seeing in these rural-urban differences in preferences may just reflect what people have access to or what is culturally supported... Everyone needs to ask 'how does what we're doing affect physical activity,' in order to help get people more active, more often, in more places."
The authors recommend further analysis using recent data collected during or after the COVID-19 pandemic period.
