What’s Your Favorite Way to Work Out? Top Exercise Habits Revealed

During the past few weeks of Olympic coverage, there has been great deal of media attention focused on the increasingly prominent role of women athletes. At the London Olympics, there were a lot of firsts for female competitors: the first time team USA had more female athletes than male; the first time Qatar and Saudi Arabia sent female athletes to the Games; and the first time women were able to compete as boxers.With more female athletes competing in London than any Olympic Games to date, it’s hard not to feel energized…and also like it’s time to hit the gym!

Inspired by all the girl power in the Games, we decided to see gauge current exercise and workout trends among women in the United States. Using SurveyMonkey Audience, we surveyed nearly 300 women between the ages of 18-60 to determine their preferred method of exercise, as well as what they like to wear when working up a sweat!

Survey Results

When asked how many days a week they exercised, the majority of respondents (37%) said 1-2 days a week, followed closely by those who work out 3-4 times weekly (30%).

With nearly half of respondents reporting that their favorite type of exercise took place outdoors (walking, 29%; running outdoors, 11%; bike-riding, 8%), it wasn’t surprising that only 32% of respondents are current gym members.

But what about women who prefer classes to solo exercise?  Given the popularity of fitness classes like Yoga, Pilates, and Zumba (and the frequency with which they pop up on daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social), we asked respondents to list their favorite type of class and used our text analysis feature to surface the most commonly occurring answers.

Although newer sportswear companies like Athleta, Lucy, and Lululemon, cater specifically to female athletes, the majority of respondents still reported owning fitness apparel from more established brands like Nike (59%), Adidas (47%), and Champion (41%).

In terms of the apparel actually purchased in the last 90 days, bottoms like pants, shorts, and skirts were most popular (31%), closely followed by shirts and tops (26%), and sports bras (16%).  These goods were purchased primarily in sporting goods stores (26%), department stores (21%) and discount retailers (17%).

Given all these stats, it seems like it’s as good a time as any to get moving.  We’ll see you on the monkey bars!

Interested in running your own project about exercise habits? Visit SurveyMonkey Audience to learn more or sound off in the comments section below!