January. The month of new beginnings, when the number of gym membership applications rises by 12 per cent. Perhaps you’ve already signed up. Are you a hardcore fitness fanatic, hoping to push yourself even further this year? Or maybe the closest you’ve ever come to having a six-pack is buying a six-pack of Krispy Kremes at your local supermarket, but you tell yourself that 2025 will be the year you finally get a grip on your health. Either way, evidence shows us that when the New Year comes around, most of us have exercise on our minds.

Unless you’re a woman.

What’s the Gender Fitness Gap?

A report published by sportswear brand ASICS found that more than half of women globally have decreased or stopped exercising completely. This data was collected after surveying almost 25,000 participants across 40 countries, making it the largest study into what we now know to be the gender fitness gap.

The gender fitness gap is a global phenomenon which sees women being comparatively less active than their male counterparts. It is so embedded within our society that even the limited research we have conducted on the subject shows that the gender fitness gap is prevalent amongst school-aged children. Both genders cite a lack of free time and the cost of gym memberships as some of their main barriers to getting physically active. But considering that, on average, men in England spend 40 minutes longer per week exercising than women, it’s obvious some factors are dissuading ladies in particular from working out.

Safety While Exercising Outside

Firstly, there is an enormous gulf between how safe different genders feel during exercise. A staggering 79 per cent of women have felt unsafe while out exercising on the streets. The reasons for this could range from being catcalled and looked at inappropriately, to more serious offences like verbal abuse and sexual harassment. In addition, research shows that 72 per cent of women in the UK will change their outdoor exercise behaviour during the darker, winter months. Exercising outside after dark heightens women’s vulnerability, especially when you take into consideration that a lack of adequate lighting may embolden potential predators. For many women, doing a few laps around the block in the dark just isn’t worth risking their safety.

Even international athletes are not immune from fearing for their safety. Rhiannon Linington-Payne, for example, is a sprinter who represents Wales. She made headlines in 2021 after tweeting about an incident where she had ‘things thrown at [her] out of a car window’ while exercising outside:

‘I think I was bent over forwards, just trying to breathe and recover and a group of lads rolled down the window, shouted something about the fact I was wearing tight fitting kit and about my figure and threw an empty beer can at me,’ she told Sky News.

These are the types of experiences that can discourage women from exercising indefinitely. And if someone with a huge platform like Linington-Payne is susceptible to this kind of misogynistic behaviour, then what hope is there for ordinary women trying to exercise on the streets?

Gymtimidation

Unfortunately, women feel just as threatened inside gyms as they do outside of them. Gymtimidation, or fear of going to the gym, disproportionately affects females. A recently published report from PureGym found that 10 per cent of UK women were intimidated by the gym in 2024, compared to just six per cent of men. As psychologist Carly Dober explains, gyms and fitness centres are ‘traditionally very masculine spaces’ in which men perpetuate hyper-masculine behaviours. These include ‘excluding women, not taking the expertise of women seriously, and mansplaining exercises and techniques to female gym-goers,’ she says.

Being ‘mansplained’ or given unsolicited advice can be incredibly damaging to women’s self-esteem. TikTok is flooded with hundreds of videos from British women sharing stories of how they have been made to feel uncomfortable or insecure about the way they exercise. A few months ago, a male gym-goer was caught on camera dumping his equipment directly behind a female fitness instructor while she was weightlifting. And another woman recently went viral after a man came up to her at the gym and ripped a dumbbell out of her hand because it was apparently ‘too heavy’ for her. The video now has almost 90,000 views. These clips reveal how, in a male-dominated environment like the gym, men feel entitled to tell women how they should or shouldn’t exercise, essentially belittling them. They also demonstrate that many men are unaware of the effect that their behaviour might potentially have on the females around them.

Dober agrees: ‘Many men … do not truly understand how intimidating [the gym] can be for some women,’ she says.

Mansplaining is an irritating, alienating experience. If it becomes a regular occurrence for female gym-goers, it could cause even the toughest of women to abandon their membership. The gym is supposed to be an empowering place, but instead, women are being made to feel like outsiders. When faced with condescension at best or harassment at worst, you can begin to understand why 2.4 million fewer females than males enjoy working out.

What’s the Solution?

The aforementioned ASICS report was not all doom and gloom. It sheds light on the most effective way to close the gender fitness gap: the fact that female participants were ‘most motivated to exercise’ when in a ‘safe, welcoming and judgement-free’ environment. The report highlights our collective responsibility to ensure that the gym is an inclusive space for all.

So this January, whether you’re entering the gym for the first or the umpteenth time, remember to respect your fellow gym-goers, regardless of their gender. Don’t patronise them; motivate them. Give them the space they need. And most importantly, stand up for women if they are being made to feel uncomfortable. This year, instead of filling our heads with push-ups and pistol crunches, let’s reflect on our behaviour and make looking out for others our New Year’s resolution.

DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.