For women, finding time to exercise is only the first hurdle

I started running to impress my neurologist. I downloaded the little app, where Jo Whiley encouraged me over the weeks, and put on a simple T-shirt and sneakers, and threw myself out the door. And adorably, I continued to do it every other day, even after telling my neurologist twice, even after finishing the application - instead I listened to podcasts on for example, " What this small-town American police department did wrong" and "Hey, did you know that some people can smell dementia? and, as I sweated past the vegetable gardens and down to the lake, "Let me talk to you from that old lady - did my boy have chutzpah!"

I've never been into PE. I hate yoga, I find it very horrible I lack the competitiveness necessary to practice a team sport and the idea of ​​going to "the gym", a place so aesthetically moribund, so heavy with the weight of vanity and the regrets of others, puts me off. Yet earlier this year, when the neurologist suggested I make a few "lifestyle changes" before I hit the big meds for my migraines, I decided to try running - the least bad option on a badly stained menu.

But – it wasn't that simple only that. Last week it was reported that nearly half of British women had done "no vigorous exercise" in the past year. The title bothered me. I kept reaching for it again, like a sock that wouldn't stay in place. It was the same feeling of discomfort I remembered when, in those twilight months of early parenthood, I read a breastfeeding study in the papers that suggested that the longer a baby is breastfed, the more successful and intelligent he becomes. The headlines fell and shattered on the tiles as they often do, in a selection of shards of judgment. While the study was important, the way it was reported left many of my maternal peers, each desperately trying to keep their newborns alive through the spring, feeling ashamed and guilty. It wasn't that they hadn't tried to breastfeed their child, it was that there was no milk, or that they had to go back to work after six weeks, or that the outside world was inhospitable for a woman, on a bench, with her left nipple leaking.

This exercise study landed the same way, inspiring familiar guilt. Everyone knows the reasons why women exercise - health, fitness, losing a stone before Alison's wedding. But the reasons women don't exercise are rarely discussed. Doing so requires a brooding breakdown of the factors, the narrative of which grows quieter and sadder as the list grows. Why do half of women not exercise? Because it takes time, time alone, time that, if they have children, many have to pay for. The NCT reports that the average cost of a part-time nursery place is now over £7,000 a year, or more in areas like London. Two-thirds of parents spend more on their childcare bills than on their mortgage or rent. Outside of office hours, women do on average 60% more "unpaid work" than men, such as caring for children or elderly parents, cleaning the house and cooking a meal for five people that takes less 30 minutes and costs less. less than £6. Their time is not theirs - the clock has melted.

And of those who are able to carve the NHS recommended 150 minutes a week into their jobs of the time, some continue to struggle with poor body image, which means they feel anxious and vulnerable about showcasing their Lycra-ed bodies to the world. A recent survey by Women in Sport found that a significant number of girls disengaged from sport in their late teens due to “confidence, ability and body image issues”. Others feel "unsafe to exercise outside" - Runners World found that 60% of women said they were harassed while running; 11% told them that because of the harassment, they had stopped running altogether. And that's before we even start talking about gyms – how expensive they are, the intimidation therein, the way they smell like someone sprayed dewberry body spray on some terrible crime. After a minute, it seems the original headline was the wrong way: isn't it more remarkable that half of UK women have exercised in the past? past year?

After seven months of regular running, I still don't like it. People talk to me about the rush, the calm, how it makes them feel uplifted, high. For me, it's still largely hard work, with moments of toothy pride. But aside from the impact it had on my migraines, the main benefit of regular exercise has been the freedom I feel. Every time I tighten my sneakers and...