by This article originally appeared promptly.com.
Everyone recognizes that joining a gym is really a quote-unquote good idea. Now, new research looks at exactly how much of the benefit fitness club–goers have over the rest of us with regards to getting regular exercise-and its results may convince you to definitely restart that stalled membership.
To put some investigation behind this commonly held belief, Iowa State University scientists recruited 405 relatively healthy adults, 1 / 2 of whom had belonged to a gym for at least Thirty days, and half who had not been members for at least least 3 months. All participants had their resting blood pressure, heartbeat, and the body mass index measured, and completed questionnaires regarding their time spent exercising, sitting, and doing various lifestyle activities each week.
The researchers then analyzed those responses to find out which participants met the nation’s recommended guidelines for exercise: 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity every week, including a minimum of 2 days of lifting weights or other muscle-strengthening activities.
The distinction between groups was “pretty dramatic and surprising,” says corresponding author Duck-chul Lee, a helper professor of kinesiology. While non-members only exercised typically 137 minutes a week, those who belonged to some gym logged typically 484 minutes a week. Only 18% of non-members met the guidelines for both exercise and weight training, compared to 75% of members.
Overall, the researchers calculated, a gym membership was related to 14 times higher odds of meeting weekly exercise guidelines. The results were similar in both women and men, and were adjusted for health issues like high cholesterol levels, arthritis, and asthma.
Not only did gym members do more exercise; additionally they ought to cardiovascular measures and were less likely to be obese. Gym-goers-especially those who had kept a membership for any year or more-tended to possess lower resting heart rates, higher cardiorespiratory fitness, and smaller waist circumferences than their non-member peers.
Before their analysis, Lee and his co-authors suspected that gym members may be more sedentary in their time outside the gym than non-members. “We thought maybe they’d be more tired, or be satisfied they’d done enough for the day,” he says.
But they didn’t discover that to be the case, either. “Physical activity outside of the gym was the same for both groups,” he states, “For non-members, joining a gym really may increase overall activity levels.”
Because of the study’s cross-sectional design, Lee says, it is also entirely possible that people who are more active are merely more prone to enroll in a gym. And while the study happened in a city with lots of health-club options, he notes, people living in more rural areas might find it more difficult to go to a gym regularly.
And, obviously, you do have to show up. “It’s correct that many people having a gym membership don’t go regularly, just like many people who don’t put on memberships still get out there and run or bike and still satisfy the guidelines,” Lee says. With this study, some measurements were taken at the gyms themselves, assuring that memberships were being used.
But Lee says the research supports the concept that joining a gym might help individuals who don’t get enough exercise on their own. Only 1 / 2 of Americans get the recommended amount of aerobic activity, the study reports, and only about 20% meet the guidelines for weight training.
“At the gym you can use the weights or the resistance machines,” Lee says. “In real-life, there’s not a lot of day-to-day activities that improve muscle.” (The researchers didn’t ask participants when they had weights or other fitness equipment in your own home.)
The researchers report no conflicts of interest, and no financial stake in almost any fitness clubs. The research is published within the journal PLOS ONE.
Lead author Elizabeth Schroeder, an old Iowa State graduate student, states that fitness center memberships might have more benefits than simply weight reduction, and she hopes these bits of information encourage more people to locate a gym or fitness studio that works on their behalf.
“Some people may enjoy being in a gym and doing their very own exercise routine, while some may desire group classes that potentially foster a social aspect, fun environment, consistent schedule, and a workout created for you,” she says. “Either way, they both involve accumulating exercise, and that’s the goal.”
