Men win race to exercise

AUSTRALIAN men are afforded more time than their female partners for exercise, a new study has revealed.

The research, which was published in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, revealed the shocking extent of the gender exercise gap, finding 28 per cent of women reported doing three physical activities a week compared with 34 per cent of their male partners.

Researchers c o n c l u d e d “hour for hour, paid or unpaid, w o m e n ’ s physical activity is constrained by their time use in ways that men’s is not”.

“Although men generally spend longer hours on the job than women do … this ‘buys’ them less and different types of family work,” the researchers wrote.

Australian National University study co-author Professor Lyndall Strazdins said that women’s physical activity dropped by more than 6 per cent whenever their family or paid work hours increased, in comparison with men’s mere 2 per cent drop.