The figures are somewhat disappointing: more than half of all Dutch people do not exercise enough. Last year, 47 percent of all Dutch people aged four and over complied with the guidelines drawn up by the Health Council five years ago.
Those guidelines require adults to engage in moderate activity for at least 150 minutes per week, such as walking and cycling, or vigorous activity such as at sports competitions, and engage in “muscle or bone-strengthening activities” at least twice a week, for example climbing stairs, strength training, or jumping rope.
A year earlier, in 2020, the percentage of Dutch people meeting these guidelines was slightly higher, it turns out from research of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) with RIVM, for which people completed questionnaires. Children aged four to twelve have started to exercise a little more, mainly because they have played outside more and walked to school. And people over 75 have also started walking more.
Teens
On the other hand, teenagers again did not meet the guidelines, with only 36 percent of young people between 12 and 18 years old. “Adolescents hang out on the couch,” says chief sociologist Tanja Traag of CBS. People between the ages of 18 and 35 also moved less last year; in particular, they cycled less to work and in their free time.
Also read: Humans are made to move
You might think that the corona measures played a role. CBS leaves that in the middle. But Bas van den Putte, professor of health communication at the University of Amsterdam, points out that parents in young families in particular often worked from home and did not cycle to work. In their spare time, tired by the presence of the children at home, they did not go for sports or cycling. “They didn’t have the energy for that anymore.”
Eco de Geus also does not rule out a connection with corona. “American research suggests that it does,” says the professor of behavioral and exercise sciences at the VU University in Amsterdam, who is also chairman of the Health Council committee that drew up the exercise guidelines in 2017.
The degree of movement is unevenly distributed and depends, experts say, on your socio-economic position. Higher educated people exercise 10 percent more than lower educated people, and Eco de Geus notes that this difference can also be seen between natives and Dutch people with a non-Western background.
Rich people live healthier lives than poor people, says Willem van Mechelen, emeritus professor of social medicine and former physical education teacher. “Context drives health behaviour,” he says. “Healthy living costs money. Healthy food costs more than unhealthy food.” In addition, your tendency to move is determined by your environment. Is it normal to go for a bike ride? Or is that deviant behavior in your environment?”
Free sports every day
According to Van Mechelen, the fact that social norms prescribe, in advertisements and campaigns, that exercise is ‘good’ does indeed increase the ‘knowledge’ and raises the ‘attitude’ of people, but in order to literally get people moving, ‘targeted measures’ are necessary. necessary. “Let young people exercise for free every day. Or make sure that your employees who live five kilometers away let the pedals of their bicycle rotate themselves and do not take an e-bike.”
Professor Bas van den Putte also advocates this. “Make movement possible and, above all, easy. Make exercise accessible, cheap and ensure that people can do it together.” This strategy is all the more necessary, because people are naturally inclined not to exercise and to conserve their energy. “In principle, people prefer to take the elevator than the stairs,” says Willem van Mechelen.
As a government, you shouldn’t be too quick to say that sports is ‘fun’, says professor De Geus. “Some people have a knack for sports, others don’t. If you promise that exercising is fun and that promise does not come true, for example if they just hang out a little while running in a group, then they say: never mind. Do not say that exercise is fun, but that it is good for your health.”
Read also this opinion article from neuropsychologist Erik Scherder: Exercise during working hours – also better for the boss