The 'Midlife Exercise Gap': What New UK Data Tells Us About Women, Movement and the East Midlands

By Rosie MacLennan-Crump, strength coach, Stapleford, Nottinghamshire

I take part in a research study called Our Future Health. It's the UK's largest ever health research programme, and today they sent participants a breakdown of physical activity levels by region, age and sex, drawn from data shared by almost 2 million people. I had a proper read of it, and two things jumped out that I think are worth talking about, especially if you live round here.

How active is the East Midlands, really?

According to the analysis, 54.3% of Our Future Health participants in the East Midlands are meeting the NHS physical activity guidelines. That's just under the UK average of 55.5%, and behind the most active region, the South West, on 57.3%.

So just over half of us round here are hitting the recommended amount of movement each week. It’s not a disaster but also not too brilliant either. Just an overview of where we're at.

It’s worth me being upfront about the data itself: this comes from people who've volunteered to take part in a health research study, not a random sample of the whole population, so treat it as a useful indication rather than gospel. People that take part in a health study are probably going to have an interest in health. But still, nearly 2 million participants is a serious sample size, and it lines up with what I see around me every week.

What are the NHS guidelines, anyway?

If you've never actually looked them up (most people haven't), here's the short version. Adults aged 18 to 64 should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle strengthening activity on at least two days a week that covers all the major muscle groups. Spread across four or more days if you can.

Notice that muscle-strengthening bit. It's not an optional extra. It's written into the official guidelines, right alongside the cardio. Something I've been saying for years, and it's nice to see it in black and white from the Chief Medical Officers rather than just from me.

Over 65, the guidelines are similar, with more emphasis on staying active every day and working on balance and flexibility.

What is the 'midlife exercise gap'?

This is the bit that really caught my attention. The data shows activity levels for both men and women dip through the 30s, then climb back up from around 45 to 50 onwards. Our Future Health have named this the midlife exercise gap.

I don't think that will surprise a single woman reading this. Your 30s and early 40s are, for most of us, the years when everything else is loudest. You’re fighting the tide of small children, or teenagers who need ferrying everywhere. Then you’ve got ageing parents starting to need more from you. Plus, careers hitting their most demanding stretch. Exercise is usually the first thing to get quietly dropped, not because it stops mattering, but because there simply isn't room.

What's genuinely heartening is the second half of that pattern: things climb back up. The women I train are proof of that climb, not just a statistic on a graph. They reach a point of aches and pains and seeing older relatives aging in a way that they’re not ready to.

What about the difference between men and women?

There's a gender pattern in the data too, and it's more interesting than a simple 'men do more than women.'

For most of adult life, men's activity levels do sit above women's. But something shifts around retirement age. At 65, women overtake men, and stay slightly ahead from that point on. Women are actually more physically active in that later stage of life than they were in their 20s. Men, meanwhile, are typically most active in their 20s, and it's a gradual decline from there.

Read alongside the midlife exercise gap, I think this tells a fuller story than a straight comparison would. It's not that women are simply less active than men. It's that women's activity gets squeezed hardest during the exact years they're carrying the most for everyone else, and then rises again once some of that load lifts. That's a structural pattern, not a personal failing.

So what do you actually do with this?

A few honest thoughts, from someone who spends her working life in exactly this gap with exactly these women.

If you're in the dip right now, you are not behind, and you are not alone. Just over half of people round here are hitting the guidelines. You're in extremely normal company, and the data suggests things do tend to shift as you move through midlife, not away from movement, but back towards it.

If you're wondering where to start, start with strength. It's written into the official guidelines for a reason: two sessions a week, covering the major muscle groups. It protects your bone density, your muscle mass and your independence, at exactly the life stage when all three start to matter more, not less.

And if the idea of walking into a gym alone fills you with dread, that's precisely the barrier I built The Refectory to remove. A small strength studio in Ilkeston, built for women who've been out of the habit, never had the habit, or just want somewhere that doesn't feel like it's judging their kit at the door.

You don't have to close the exercise gap on your own, or all at once. You just have to start somewhere.

Rosie x

Source

Data referenced from Our Future Health, drawn from information shared by almost 2 million UK participants as part of their ongoing health research programme.