Optimistic Brits blow £260m a year on home fitness gadgets they will never use

Over the last five years UK adults spent more than £1 billion on home health and fitness equipment they rarely use.  Three quarters of adults have bought at least one piece of equipment so they can pursue health or fitness goals in the comfort of their own home.  However, just 21 per cent of these people use the equipment regularly and 41 per cent admit to using it briefly when they first buy it and then giving up.

The research from Nuffield Health, the UK’s largest healthcare charity, suggests that the average home exerciser spends £235 on equipment that doesn’t get results. The survey revealed there are around 82 million items of health and fitness equipment currently in households across the UK, with exercise bikes, weights and workout DVDs proving most popular.

Much equipment that doesn’t get used ends up cluttering up attics and spare rooms (60 per cent), while some ends up being put to other uses, including drying washing (6 per cent).

In response to this, Nuffield Health has launched an Equipment Amnesty, urging people to ‘give up’ equipment they’ve bought and don’t use for a free two-day pass to use at their local Nuffield Health Fitness and Wellbeing Centre. 

Natalie Mumford, Director of Fitness and Wellbeing at Nuffield Health, commented: 'Exercising at home can be difficult to commit to. Think about joining our Equipment Amnesty. Send us a photo of yourself with your old at-home fitness equipment and download a free pass to try out one of our Fitness and Wellbeing Centres – we have experts on hand to help you.'

Question 1. Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text.

a)  Seventy five percent of British people have bought a home exercise device. 

b)  Some people interviewed do use their home exercise machines.

c) Nuffield Health is a small organisation. 

d)  Natalie Mumford says that working out at home is easy to do. 

Question 2. Answer the following questions in your own words.

a)   What happens to the exercise equipment in many homes?

b)   How does the ‘Equipment Amnesty’ work?

Question 3. Find a word or a phrase in the text that means the same as:

a) for a short time (para. 1) 

b) organisation that helps ill people (para. 2) 

c) document that allows you to use a service (para.5)  

Question 4. Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning.

a) Over the last five years UK adults spent more than £1 billion on home health and fitness equipment they rarely use.

      Despite ……………., UK adults rarely use it.

b)   Nuffield Health has launched an Equipment Amnesty, urging people to ‘give up’ equipment they’ve bought.

      An Equipment Amnesty ……………………….. by Nuffield Health and people …..………. to give up equipment they’ve bought.

c) Natalie Mumford commented: 'Exercising at home can be difficult to commit to. We have experts on hand to help you.'

Natalie Mumford commented that exercising at home …………………………. and that ………………………….

Question 5. Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:

‘There is no excuse these days for not being fit and healthy.’  Do you agree?