You're Already Above Average (And Here’s the Data to Prove It)
Hey gym besties!
Scroll through Instagram or TikTok on any given day and it would be easy to think that everyone you know is training for a marathon, lifting the heaviest weights, or meal prepping color-coded containers of perfectly balanced macros. The algorithm, and frankly our environments, serve us an endless stream of people who always seem to be in peak physical condition, and somewhere in the scrolling, we absorb this myth that the baseline is perfection. That squatting with a 10lb dumbbell is embarrassing, that running one mile is barely worth mentioning, and that showing up to a beginner fitness class at 35 means you're behind.
But when we look at the data, this is what we see: only 24% of American adults meet the federal physical activity guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2020). That means three out of four adults in the United States are not doing what the science recommends for basic health maintenance. The World Health Organization reports that globally, 1 in 4 adults is insufficiently active (WHO, 2024). Physical inactivity is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, depression, and cognitive decline. The CDC estimates that inadequate levels of physical activity costs the United States healthcare system $192 billion annually (CDC, 2025). These might sounds like hard-to-grasp numbers, but the data paints a picture of a society that struggles to get active and stay healthy.
In other newsletters we can dive into the environmental factors that contribute to this challenge, but for the purposes of this newsletter, I highlight these numbers because I need you to remember this: when you show up to your workouts and for yourself, you are in a minority of people who are consistently active. Regardless of how “perfect” your routine is.
When you run that first mile and feel like it doesn't count because it took you fourteen minutes, I want you to know that most people are not running at all. When you track your water intake and try to get more vegetables into your meals and set an alarm to go to bed earlier, every single one of those actions puts you in a statistically healthier position than most of the population.
The public health research on this is consistent and clear: the greatest improvements in health outcomes come from sedentary people beginning to move, not the rare elite athlete or 24-year old gym influencer (no shade to them!).
Social media has built a fitness culture that makes beginning feel like you’re already behind. But the science and the evidence say otherwise.
So keep showing up, keep trying (whatever that looks like to you), and bonus points if you can bring your sister, friend, or neighbor along with you!
You’re crushing it.
WELLNESS ROUND UP
Strength Training Will Change Your Life
This substack article breaks down a recent longitudinal study from Harvard University that found that resistance training for two hours a week “was associated with the lowest risk of all-cause mortality.” This means you are less likely to develop cardiovascular (heart) disease, neurological diseases (like Alzheimer’s and dementia), among others. If you read this newsletter, you likely already do some form of resistance training (Pilates counts too!) so you’re already set up for success. Just remember to keep doing it to see benefits for all the years to come.
I’m a little biased because I know the host of this podcast, but last month I listened to the “Have Some F*n Audacity” episode of The B is For Podcast and let me just say, it was everything I needed. I often preach how building a workout habit is more mental than physical, and I DEEPLY believe that your mindset determines 80-90% of your outcomes. BUT I’m human, and I often struggle with reorienting my mindset to claim success. This podcast episode, only 17 minutes, was the wake up call I needed to reorient & keep going. Hope it can be yours too!
