Holy cow, today is passing by in a flash! I worked through the morning and most of the afternoon but enjoyed one longer-than-usual break during the work day.
During my break, I managed to squeeze in my own workout (I did the same TRX workout I shared on the blog this morning) and rushed out to Earth Origins for lunch with a coworker once I was done.
I opted for the salad bar and topped a bed of leafy greens with tuna salad, chicken salad, shrimp and mango salad, beets, peppers and cucumbers.
It was a great mid-day meal!
America’s Fittest Cities
During lunch, conversation turned to my coworker’s sister who recently moved to Colorado. When my friend mentioned that her sister moved to Boulder, I remembered a press release I received from The Active Times a month or so ago that said Boulder is the fittest city in the United States.
Of course I had to pull up my email to refresh my memory when she asked about the other “fittest cities” in America.
Here are the top ten fittest cities, according to The Active Times:
- Boulder, Colorado
- Provo-Orem, Utah
- Santa Ana-Anaheim, California
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Fort Collins, Colorado
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- San Jose, California
- San Francisco, California
- Logan, Utah
- Denver, Colorado
(To see the measuring criteria and the full list of the top 25 fittest cities, check out the full article on TheActiveTimes.com.)
After viewing the top ten, it seems like California, Utah and Colorado are quite the active places to live! Sadly not one Florida city cracked the top 25.
And just in case you find this stuff oddly interesting like I do, here are some more articles about the fittest small cities and the least fit cities:
- America’s 10 Fittest Small Cities
- America’s 10 Least Fit Cities (<—Shocker… most are in the south)
Questions of the Afternoon
- Did your city or hometown claim a spot on one of the above lists?
- Do you consider your current city or town an active or “fit” place to live?
Ocala did not appear on any of the above lists. I would definitely not consider it an active place to live. Orlando, on the other hand, was quite active! I miss it a lot!
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I grew up in Boulder and now I live in Fort Collins. Being fit is ingrained in my lifestyle, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Thanks for sharing!
I’m surprised my hometown of Seattle didn’t make the top 10! Very active city!
We looked at 15 measures of fitness that went beyond participating in physical activities to general health and wellness indices. Seattle’s overall score was knocked down because of its high levels of drinking and stress relative to other metros.
It’s not our fault we aren’t fit in the south….it gets hot out!
Hah! The “10 least fit cities” isn’t surprising. I lived in Alabama for about 2.5 years, and I’m not surprised it has 2 cities on that list.
Hmmm, today.com has a much different list of fittest cities, with Mpls., MN at the top. Portland’s in there too. I’m wondering how the Active Times came up with their criteria (subscriptions?), but here’s a different list and a different look! They got their list from the American College of Sports Medicine’s most recent American Fitness Index. An excerpt:
“Minneapolis, St. Paul has more parks per square mile than any major city in the U.S. and is second only to Portland, Ore. for the number of bicyclists per capita. The Twin Cities also get high marks for access to fresh food.
“There are twice as many farmer’s markets in that area than in the top 10 percent of [U.S.] cities,” says ACSM’s Walter Thompson, Ph.D.”
Here’s the link:
http://www.today.com/health/healthy-wealthy-wise-americas-fittest-city-2D11957442
We looked at 15 measures of fitness. These included general measures of health and wellness as well as levels of physical activity and the opportunities to be active. We laid out our methodology and data sources here.
There is inevitably a degree of judgement in all these lists, in the selection of underlying data sets, in the weighting given to their relevance, and how you treat the gaps in the data. We use broadly the same methodology and many of the same data sets as the ACSM does for its ranking that you mention, but give different weightings to the components. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as how relatively important you consider the number of swimming pools per 1,000 residents against, say, the percentage of residents who commute by bicycle can make a difference to the final rankings.
I currently live in Provo, UT and I actually clicked on this post because I thought we’d be on there! There are THOUSANDS of students here surrounded by beautiful mountains that make it hard NOT to climb them. The altitude is also insane here, so when we go back to our respective hometowns, we seem like superheroes when we work out with old friends. It’s a strange thing, but I love it here!
Bret
http://www.goldenstatestyle.blogspot.com
hmmm, i’m not totally surprised NYC didn’t hit the top 10, considering most people’s fave pastime here is dining out and drinking, but considering how many ppl live here, there are TONS of options for being active and so so so many runners and cyclists and yogis!
New York is top 40. High cholesterol levels across the metropolitan area, and low exercise levels in suburbs knocked back its overall score.
#7! San Jose! Wooooooo!!!
I was living in Boulder until a month ago, no surprise there!
Yes!!! I live in Orem, Utah which is number 2 on the list!!!!