10 towns where people should exercise more

One of the easiest health risk factors to change is people’s level of physical activity.

For now, at least, people can’t do anything much about their ancestry. They can’t do much about their place of birth, what they ate as infants, or how the motorists around them will drive.

They might have some control over their diet, but just how much is still open to debate. For some, the call of the ice cream may be more compelling than for others.

They do have control over how much they exercise. Doing pushups is free. Prisoners in cells who have nothing left but their own bodies do jumping jacks.

But people do need time exercise and some minimum level of motivation. The example the people around them are setting, the weather and the types of recreational facilities available around them all may play a role in activity levels.

Whether people exercise may affect how long they will live. It can certainly affect how much of their life they will be healthy, how many years they will have the physical ability to work, and how many years they will have the physical ability to handle the activities of daily living.

There are even some research studies out there that focus on efforts to see whether exercise might affect the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.

Exercise could help reduce the risk your clients and prospects will need their health insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, long-term care insurance benefits, life insurance benefits and even, possibly, car insurance benefits. Motorists who are in better shape could be better drivers.

Related: 9 factors that affect longevity

To gauge how active consumers in various U.S. markets are, we looked at Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System data, for 2012, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We pulled the percentage of survey participants in each market included who told survey workers that they had not engaged in physical activities or exercises in the previous month.

For the 10 markets with the highest percentage of residents who said they had not exercised, we also retrieved obesity rate figures.

For a look at those 10 markets, and a complete set of data for all of the markets included in the 2012 survey results, read on:

(Photo: iStock)

10. Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area

Share of survey participants who said they had not exercised in past month: 29.6%.

Share of survey participants who were obese: 29.9%.

Related: 10 towns where a LOT of people got fat

(Photo: iStock) 

9. Charleston, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area

Share of survey participants who said they had not exercised in past month: 29.6%.

Share of survey participants who were obese: 31.5%.

Related: 10 towns where a LOT of people got fat

The Fountain at Morgan Square in Spartanburg, South Carolina. (Photo: iStock)

8. Spartanburg, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area

Share of survey participants who said they had not exercised in past month: 30.3%.

Share of survey participants who were obese: 32.8%.

Related: The 10 best states to grow old

(Photo: iStock)

7. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area
 

Share of survey participants who said they had not exercised in past month: 31.3%.

Share of survey participants who were obese: 32.3%.

Related: 12 best cities for successful aging: 2014