According to a survey conducted by fitness coaching app Freeletics, 30% of Americans would give up sex for an entire year if it meant they could immediately meet their fitness goals. Freeletics enlisted marketing research company OnePoll for the project, which surveyed 2,000 different Americans on their fitness goals, the obstacles standing in the way, and exactly what they’d be willing to stomach in order to obtain their dream body overnight.
On top of a bewildering willingness to forsake sex, 25% of respondents said they’d spend a week in jail to instantly achieve their fitness goals, and 24% said they’d stand in line at the DMV for an entire day. Freeletics also asked Americans precisely why they’re not sticking to workout routines; the leading excuse was “I don’t have time” (at 33%), just ahead of “I don’t see results” (28%).
Clearly, the architects behind this poll were having a bit of fun with those answers. And 2,000 respondents is an admittedly small sample size. But the responses here aren’t particularly surprising. For many aging adults, personal fitness is an outsized bogeyman that’s added to the to-do list at the start of each year, but never really crossed off, if addressed at all. This poll itself, meanwhile, cuts to the core of Americans’ ongoing dysfunctional relationship with fitness; there is no magic wand, and for progress to ever stick, there really shouldn’t be.
Fitness thrives under routine and discipline, yes, but it embraces positivity and passion, too. Physical and mental health ride together; we know that more than ever these days. Staging exercise as the ultimate bad, a misery on par with a sexless year (sex helps you get in shape, c’mon people!) or a week in the clink, is retrograde and unhelpful. There’s beauty in the seams, in the process, in getting a little better each day. You do have time (here, have a 10-minute workout) and results will come, if you just give yourself a freaking chance.
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