After three mornings in a row of waking up before 4:30 a.m., I jumped at the chance to sleep in a little bit today. Since I didn’t have to meet with my first client until 7:30 a.m., I slept as long as I could before my alarm woke me up at 6:45 a.m.
With minimal time available for dilly-dallying, I ate a ridiculously fast breakfast of cottage cheese and almonds before hurrying off to the gym and eating a peach in the car.
The client I trained first today is actually the first client who signed up to train with me after I started working at the gym. She was about to cancel her gym membership and now she has come so far. It’s so great to hear her talk about her progress, both on the scale and off with such enthusiasm. She has made some great progress and I am so proud of her dedication and strength.
Once our training session was done, I completed my own quick 20 minute cardio session before my next client arrived.
Most Active Cities in the United States
During my brief cardio workout today, I flipped through the pages of Men’s Health magazine and stumbled upon a short article about the most active and least active cities in the United States. They ranked popular cities from one to 100 in order from the most physically active to the least active.
Most Active:
1. Portland, OR
2. Boise, ID
3. Salt Lake City, UT
4. Minneapolis, MN
5. St. Paul, MN
6. Denver, CO
7. Seattle, WA
8. Madison, WI
9. Oakland, CA
10. Aurora, CO
Least Active:
91. Little Rock, AR
92. Corpus Christi, TX
93. New Orleans, LA
94. Memphis, TN
95. Lexington, KY
96. Birmingham, AL
97. Columbia, SC
98. Nashville, TN
99. Charleston, WV
100. Jackson, MS
You can see the full list here.
I find rankings like this oddly interesting and take them with a grain of salt, but the article got me thinking about the places I’ve lived and how active they seemed to me.
Orlando, which ranks 76th on the Men’s Health list, always felt like a very active place. When I lived there, I always saw people out running, walking, swimming and biking. There were running races or triathlons nearly every weekend. Our gym was always hoppin’. The path around Lake Eola in downtown Orlando was always packed with joggers and people walking their dogs. (Remember the hula hoop lady!?)
Our new hometown of Ocala feels like the polar opposite. Of course there are active people in Marion County, but I don’t see nearly as many people running or biking around town. There are running clubs and races, but much less, though I suppose that is to be expected when the town is significantly smaller. When I talk about this with other Ocala residents, the general feeling seems to be that Ocala is very laid back and there isn’t a huge emphasis on exercise (or healthy eating) within the community. An article I read yesterday stated that 32 percent of Marion County residents are obese (compared with 25 percent nationally) and 28 percent of Marion County residents do not exercise (compared with 21 percent nationally). I would love to one day live in a very active city, close to the mountains. My dream!
Question of the Morning
- Do you consider the city or town you live in an active place?
- Did your hometown make the list for most active or least active city in the United States? Do you agree with its ranking?
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My city made number 3. You should move here, lots of outdoors things to do and big beautiful mountains surrounding us on every side. You have to be okay with snow in the winter though ;). It makes spring and summer so much more exciting every year.
My husband and I were just in Salt Lake City (shout out to your cookie shop Ruby Snap, mmmmm!) and we are seriously thinking of moving there! Any advice, or ‘must knows” from an insider?
My city wasn’t on there but were hardly a city, were a small town. But new TX would be in there somewhere as healthy living and fitness isn’t something a lot of people are interested in here.
That should say but I knew TX would be in there
On the contrary, I expected to see Austin on the top 10 for the healthiest. But I guess Austin isn’t quite like the rest of TX 🙂
That’s true. And yes, I think Austin is different from most of TX in the regards to health. That’s a great city. Home of the original Whole Foods afterall! 🙂
I can see places with cooler weather and mountains and lots od outside activities a great place to be active. I wish the county I live in had trails or some where you can go out and exercise, besides the edge of the road!
Proud to be from Portland, Oregon. No matter the weather there are ALWAYS people running or biking and so many different types of Gyms! I agree with the rankings as I have lived in three cities in the top ten, but also the listed cities are smaller “larger” cities so the per capita is stronger versus a major metropolitan city.
I also find lists like these oddly interesting, but I think in a lot of cases, one’s perception of the fitness of their “city” is more often defined by their community and the lifestyle they lead. Like you said, Orlando always felt like an active place from your point of view, but only made #76 on the list. I could be wrong though–I’m rocking it out in Minneapolis, the fourth most active city in the U.S. 🙂
I love that Portland was ranked #1 because that’s where I live!! I definitely wouldn’t argue with the ranking and you’ll get to see for yourself when you come visit in a few weeks 🙂
I love seeing Oakland, CA on there! Represent!
On a hula hoop side note, my friends/camp-mates and I do a Hula Hoop 5K at Burning Man every year (I say 5 K very loosely, it’s probably realistically only a 1 or 2K)! We don’t run (way too hot for that noise), but we do hula hoop down the streets to visit any open bars. So fun (and super hard! Walking + hooping is no joke!)!
My city isn’t on the list, but I think Rochester is a very active place. There’s a huge running community, and a lot of people compete in triathlons. Plus a lot of people seem to go on walks and exercise in general. I most want to live in Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham, and I was happy to see they are somewhat active!
I think cities in the western are more active. I’ve lived 12 years in southern California and definitely see a lot of active people outside, esp near the beach. I currently live in Great Falls, Montana. Nope, you see very few people outside active.
I grew up in the Seattle area, then moved to Orlando for 4 years in my early twenties, and am now back in Seattle again. I have to agree with the ranking — while Orlandoers were active for serious cyclists and there were lots of running races (the lack of hills shocked me when I moved!), I felt like the majority of the population in Orlando was less active than the majority of the population in Seattle. So, more people are at least sort of active in Seattle, whereas a smaller group of people are active in Orlando — I hope that makes sense?
Regardless, the first 5K I ran upon moving back to Seattle kicked my butt. I forgot what it was like to run hills :\
My city is not on either list. I wish it were more active. I have actually been thinking about moving to a more active city to motivate me more…
-AJ
FitTravelerAJ.com
I think everything published made a lot of sense. However, what about this?
what if you added a little information? I ain’t suggesting your content isn’t solid., but what if you added a headline to
possibly get a person’s attention? I mean Most Active Cities in the United States | Peanut Butter Fingers is kinda boring. You might look at Yahoo’s front page
and see how they create article titles to grab people to click.
You might add a video or a related pic or
two to get readers interested about what you’ve got to say. Just my opinion, it could make your blog a little livelier.