{"id":135737,"date":"2025-08-11T01:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T01:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/135737\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T01:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T01:23:12","slug":"britains-most-hated-and-loved-exercises-and-the-common-household-items-people-use-to-keep-fit-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/135737\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s most hated and loved exercises – and the common household items people use to keep fit at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Push-ups are the nation\u2019s most hated exercise but Britons love to squat and use cans as weights at home, a study reveals.<\/p>\n

Many resort to multitasking in an effort to hit activity targets, finding extra opportunities to move when cooking, cleaning and even brushing their teeth.<\/p>\n

Over one in three people (36 per cent) say they dislike push-ups, followed by burpees (29 per cent), planks (24 per cent) and chin-ups (24 per cent).<\/p>\n

The fearsome five is completed by crunches (22 per cent), according to the poll of 2,075 adults for Age UK\u2019s \u2018Act Now, Age Better\u2019 campaign.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the most loved are squats (20 per cent) and lunges (14 per cent).<\/p>\n

Age UK is encouraging people to make small, proactive changes that could help improve their physical health and the quality of their later years.<\/p>\n

One in five people (20 per cent) stay active at home by running up and down the stairs, while 10 per cent use chairs or a sofa for tricep dips or elevated push-ups.<\/p>\n

A time-efficient 15 per cent do exercises such as squats or lunges while waiting for the kettle to boil and 10 per cent balance on one leg while brushing their teeth.<\/p>\n

\"Woman <\/p>\n

Woman performs a plank, one of the country’s most hated exercises<\/p>\n

Furthermore, 9 per cent dance while hoovering and 2 per cent squat while in the shower. Others claim they hula hoop while reading.<\/p>\n

The findings demonstrate it is not necessary to travel to the gym to exercise, with many making use of common household items to help keep them in shape.<\/p>\n

The most commonly used are cans or jars (11 per cent), water bottles (10 per cent), pillows or cushions (9 per cent) and towels (7 per cent).<\/p>\n

Some 3 per cent fill their shopping bags with objects to turn them into weights. Others use oil drums, firewood logs and milk bottles filled with pebbles.<\/p>\n

Finally, 2 per cent have their pets join them in an at-home workout, with one saying they have dance sessions with all four of their dogs, another who holds their pet on their chest as a weight while doing sit-ups and a third whose cat loves to climb on their back during yoga.<\/p>\n

TV presenter and Strictly Come Dancing star Angela Rippon said: ‘Our bodies are machines that are full of thousands of moving parts.<\/p>\n

‘And like any machine, if we don\u2019t keep those parts oiled and moving, they will seize up and let us down.<\/p>\n

‘Dancing is one of the best exercises you can do for the health and wellbeing of your mind as well as your body.<\/p>\n

\"Man <\/p>\n

Man performs a press-up, the country’s most hated exercise<\/p>\n

‘So just let yourself go and move to the music on the radio.<\/p>\n

‘I often get up and dance to the music of the commercials that come up in my favourite TV programme.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, a GP and personal trainer, said: ‘It\u2019s easy to feel put off by the word \u201cexercise\u201d.<\/p>\n

‘When it\u2019s used, we often picture someone at full blast, hot and sweaty, maybe running or lifting what seems like too much weight in an impressive gym setup.<\/p>\n

‘But \u201cexercise” is anything that gets us moving and it all counts. ‘That\u2019s why with patients and clients I use the word \u201cmovement\u201d.<\/p>\n

‘Most importantly, it must be something we enjoy and feel benefit from.<\/p>\n

‘There are things we can do in our everyday lives to mimic the classic \u201cexercises” and still reap the benefits.<\/p>\n

‘For example, the dreaded push-up can be done against a wall or sofa rest during movement breaks after time sat down.<\/p>\n

\"Woman <\/p>\n

Woman performs a squat, one of the country’s most popular exercises<\/p>\n

‘Eventually, as your upper body gets stronger, you may be able to do them from the floor.<\/p>\n

‘Start adding in some jumping jacks in between push-ups and you are also then tackling similar elements to a burpee.<\/p>\n

‘To tackle elements of the plank, you can hold your push up variation for as long as you can whilst tensing your core.<\/p>\n

‘Bear crawls around the house are a fantastic way to get in some cardiovascular and strength training at the same time.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Push-ups are the nation\u2019s most hated exercise but Britons love to squat and use cans as weights at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[211,1198,210,50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-135737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115007521060771415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}