What are your exercise habits – The results

Last week I conducted a survey regarding exercise habits. Through the ten questions I asked, I was hoping to learn how many times a week people are exercising, what type of exercise people are doing, how much money participants would be willing to pay to keep their fitness resolutions, what motivates people to exercise and the reasons people don’t exercise. After sharing the survey on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, the results are in!

I’m a little disappointed that only 30 people completed my survey. With such a limited amount of responses, it’s hard to get a real understanding from the data I gathered. The next time I’m creating a survey, I’d put more emphasis on getting participants. I’d look into sharing the survey on other social networks like Google Plus or LinkedIn. I’d also consider sharing with specific exercise-related social media pages and groups. Because those people already have an interest in the topic, they may be more likely to give their input. 

Of the 30 people who completed my survey, 22 were female and eight were male. The majorityof respondents were in the 18-24 (36 percent) and 25-34 (53 percent) age ranges. I’m not really surprised by the large number of respondents in these age groups because the majority of people I’m connected to on social media, fall within these numbers.

When it comes to the number of days that participants exercise, it was a pretty even race. The majority of survey participants (38 percent) exercise two to four days a week, while 31 percent of participants, don’t exercise at all. The most active participants who exercise five to seven times a week,  came in at 28 percent.

Survey participants were split evenly when asked if they prefer to work out in a group or alone. Thirteen prefer to exercise in a group, 13 prefer to exercise alone, and four chose the option that they don’t exercise at all. I was actually a little surprised that only four chose the option for neither, since nine participants said they didn’t exercise at all.

Ten participants said they owned a gym membership, and twenty participants said they did not own a gym membership. I’d be really interested to see how many of the people who said they exercise five to seven days a week, were members of a gym. With that knowledge I could assess if people who paid for gym memberships were more likely to be active. Unfortunately, the free version of Survey Monkey doesn’t offer those statistics.

When asked how much participants would be willing to pay for a gym membership, I got a variety of responses. Looking at the way I worded the question, I would have like to have been more clear. I asked participants how much they would be willing to pay for a gym membership, but I wish I had clarified either how much they would pay per month or per year. While some participants stated per month or per year, all of them didn’t. As much as I would like to assume that someone would be willing to pay $20 per month, maybe it’s one of the people who don’t regularly exercise and they’d only be willing to pay $20 per year. I was surprised that I only received two responses from people who said they wouldn’t pay for a gym membership. Since 20 people said they don’t own a gym membership, and nine people said they don’t exercise regularly, I would have assumed this number would have been higher.

Participants were given a wide variety of exercises to choose from, and they could enter other exercises in my question about what exercise they prefer to take part in. Over 53 percent of participants said that running was part of their exercise routine. Lifting weights was the next highest activity at 46 percent, followed by yoga at 30 percent. Once again, I was surprised that only five participants chose the I don’t exercise option.

The biggest motivator for participants to exercise was their overall fitness, at over 46 percent.Thirty percent of participants said they exercise because it makes them feel good. On the other side of the spectrum, over 56 percent of participants said they don’t exercise because they don’t have enough time, while over 46 percent said they don’t exercise because it’s a rest day. Only two participants said they don’t exercise because it’s not important to them.

My final question asked participants how important exercise is to them. Nine participants said that it was extremely important to them. My guess is that the eight people who said they exercise five to seven days a week, probably selected this answer. Seven people said it was very important, six said moderately important, five said slightly important, and three said not important at all. Nine people said they don’t exercise regularly, but only three said exercise wasn’t important to them at all. 

I definitely thought that the numbers of days participants exercise in a week, and how they ranked the importance of exercise would coincide more. In my original post, I said I wished there had been an option for those who selected that they didn’t exercise regularly to go to the end of the survey. Now that my results are in, I’m glad this option didn’t exist and I got the extra insight from this group of people. On every question regarding exercise, I gave the option of I don’t exercise at all, yet throughout the survey, the number of participants who chose that option fluctuated. Even though almost a third of participants don’t exercise regularly, a lot of them still claim to somewhat value exercise.

If I ran a gym or fitness studio and I was looking at this data, I would look at the excuses people give for not exercising. Since the majority of people said they think exercise is important but they just don’t have enough time in their day, I would consider adding shorter classes that got members in and out in under an hour. I would also consider an option where non-members could pay to take a specific class, since the majority of survey takers said they don’t own a gym membership. With these implemented changes, I would hope to see an increase in revenue and memberships.