HealthifyMeter: India’s Workout Patterns

Over the past year, Indians have collectively shown a change in behaviour when it came to workouts, as the week wore on. While people of certain cities seemed more enthusiastic about fitness than the rest, there was a great divide between citizens from the North and South of India. In this issue of HealthifyMeter, we take a look at how workout patterns amongst Indians varied over the past year.

All major Indian cities have similar affinities towards walking and other popular exercises. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. People in Gurugram, Noida, and Ghaziabad, for example, indulge in intense workouts and are passionate runners. The people of these cities also walk more than others, clocking around 4700 steps a day on average, compared to less than 4300 steps a day for other major cities.

Data has found that people in the top 7 cities (Delhi. Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai. Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Pune) of the country are more active than citizens from the rest of the country. While people from non-metros performed more exercises of lower intensity, the metros did better at high-intensity workouts like running or swimming. About 30% of the people in metros engage in daily running as opposed to 20% of the people in non-metros.

The intensity of workouts for India gradually increased through the week over the last year, till it peaked on Friday, and then dropped over the weekend. According to data, people walked 30% less on other days, when compared to Sunday. Indians generally ended the week with 20% more focus on household chores like cooking. It was also noted that people paid more attention to high-intensity workouts on Friday.

Geographically, South Indians have proven to be more fitness conscious than their North Indian counterparts with 37% of the people from the South engaging in high-intensity workouts as compared to 25% from the North. The average North Indian’s daily step count was a 100 short of the average South Indian’s total of 4300.

India needs to pay more attention to their fitness goals throughout the week, instead of slacking off during weekends. That said, South Indians and people living in metropolitan cities have done well for themselves over the past year.