The Professions That Exercise The Most in the UK are not necessarily the ones involving heavy lifting, long shifts or thousands of daily steps. According to PureGym’s UK Fitness Report, accountancy and IT and telecoms workers lead the weekly exercise rankings, while people in retail, transport and hospitality are among those least likely to work out beyond the working day.
The findings turn a familiar assumption neatly on its head. A physically demanding job may keep someone moving, but it does not always provide the time, energy or inclination needed for structured exercise. Meanwhile, workers who spend their days negotiating spreadsheets, sales targets and an unreasonable number of browser tabs appear particularly determined to escape their chairs.
PureGym combined internal customer information, independent survey findings and YouGov data to examine how work affects the country’s health and exercise habits.
The result is not flattering for British working culture.
More than half of people surveyed, 56%, said their job prevented them from exercising. Feeling too tired after work was the most common barrier, cited by 41%, while 34% said they did not have enough time outside their working hours.
Across every profession covered by the research, at least half of workers believed their job negatively affected their ability to exercise and remain fit.
Desk Workers Lead The Weekly Exercise Rankings
Accountancy and IT and telecoms shared first place, with 63% of workers in both sectors exercising at least once a week.
Media, marketing, advertising, public relations and sales followed closely on 61%. Financial services and real estate tied on 56%.
More than half of the professions appearing in the top section of the ranking are primarily sedentary. Sitting down all day, it appears, can be a persuasive advertisement for getting up and doing something else.
Steve, a 40-year-old head of PR working at a marketing agency in Brighton, said exercise provided a necessary counterweight to life behind a desk.
“Making sure I take the time to get my heart rate up, stretch out my muscles and get my eyes away from a screen is incredibly important to me, it helps me to keep feeling my best throughout the week.
If I don’t take the time to do so, I immediately feel the impact of sitting hunched at my desk and feel I have lower energy or am less engaged with the tasks I need to complete. Exercise is what balances out my working day”.
His experience illustrates an important distinction in the findings. Desk-based workers may move less during office hours, but that lack of movement can give them a clear reason to exercise deliberately once the laptop closes.
The presence of construction and manufacturing shows that the division is not simply between people who sit down and people who do not. Personal routines, shift patterns, fatigue and workplace culture all appear to influence whether exercise survives the working week.
Hair And Beauty Workers Feel Most Restricted
Although accountants and IT workers top the exercise table, the wider findings show that no profession has found a perfect balance.
A staggering 90% of those in the hair and beauty industry said their job holds them back from exercising, perhaps unsurprisingly as this career path is known for long hours, often spent standing up. People working in HR (80%) and the arts (69%) are next most likely to feel work gets in the way of exercising, while on the flip side, those in healthcare (50%), manufacturing (51%) and travel (53%) sectors are the least likely to feel this way.
For those considering a career in the healthcare sector, Health care assistant jobs can offer a rewarding role that combines supporting others with an active working environment.
Human resources followed on 80%, while 69% of people working in the arts said their job got in the way of exercising.
Being the least affected group in a table where half the workforce still reports a problem is not quite a victory parade. It is more like finishing first in a queue nobody particularly wanted to join.
An Active Job Is Not Always A Workout
The professions exercising least outside work tend to involve active working days.
Almost half of retail workers, 47%, said they did not work out at all. Transportation and distribution followed on 44%, while hospitality and leisure and manufacturing both recorded 42%.
Among respondents who did not exercise outside work, 24% said they believed their job already provided enough physical activity.
That belief is understandable. Retail workers may spend hours standing, walking, stocking shelves or moving goods. Hospitality employees can cover considerable ground during a shift, while transport and manufacturing roles may involve repetitive movement or manual handling.
Yet occupational activity and a balanced exercise programme are not necessarily interchangeable. A working day can be physically tiring without providing an even combination of cardiovascular training, strength development and mobility.
The fatigue figures underline the problem. Some 57% of retail workers said they were too tired to exercise after work.
Medical and health services appear in both ranking tables, with 46% exercising at least weekly and 41% not working out. It is a sharply divided picture rather than a uniformly active or inactive profession.
How Workers In Physical Jobs Can Train More Effectively
PureGym personal trainer Ian Scarrott said people in active industries could still benefit from combining cardiovascular exercise, strength work and flexibility training.
“Working in industries where you spend a lot of time on your feet and lifting heavy loads, like retail, hospitality, and construction, can be challenging.
While you’re active during the day, it’s important to note that a regular consistent (where possible) habit of cardio, strength and flexibility can help not only enhance how they feel and perform at work but in everyday life too.
Do what you can and try to incorporate 30-60 mins a day 2-3 times a week mixing between cardio, strength and stretching.
This will help maintain a good level of strength and ensure your joints are mobile and your muscles don’t get too tight, both of which will help you to avoid injuries from your work and will also help to maintain a healthy heart and lungs.”
Start with short workouts of a lower intensity and build up gradually, it’s very individual and if you need a set programme contact a trainer/coach who can take the thinking out of training for you.”
The emphasis is on manageable, consistent sessions rather than attempting to compensate for a tiring week with one heroic workout. For workers already spending long periods on their feet, mobility and strength exercises may be more useful than simply adding further volume.
How Desk Workers Can Add Movement To The Day
Phil Carpenter, personal trainer and assistant gym manager at PureGym Portsmouth, recommends introducing more movement during working hours rather than relying entirely on an evening gym session.
A standing desk can help reduce the amount of time spent sitting and encourage better posture. Carpenter suggests using breaks as opportunities to sit rather than remaining seated continuously throughout the day.
He also recommends replacing a conventional office chair with an exercise ball where practical. Balancing on the ball can engage the core and discourage slouching.
Classes including Legs, Bums and Tums, Pilates and yoga may also help desk-based workers maintain mobility and counter some of the stiffness associated with sedentary employment.
None of these changes requires the office to resemble an Olympic training camp. The objective is simply to interrupt long periods of inactivity before the body begins filing a formal complaint.
Employers Have A Role In Workplace Fitness
Individual motivation matters, but the findings also point towards workplace structures that make exercise unnecessarily difficult.
Stephen Rowe, chief marketing officer at PureGym, said employers could help remove some of the barriers.
“With regular exercise playing such an integral part of our overall mental and physical wellbeing, it’s important that we address the many millions of workers who feel their job gets in the way of keeping active.
Having a healthy work-life balance that allows for exercise is beneficial for both wellbeing and productivity.
Allowing employees to work out during work hours, encouraging teams to get out on their lunch, and fostering a culture that allows the time and energy to lead a healthy lifestyle, is key to removing barriers to staying active.”
Flexible schedules, protected lunch breaks and a culture that does not quietly reward exhaustion could make exercise easier to maintain.
Those measures may be particularly important for workers with long, irregular or physically demanding shifts. Telling an exhausted employee to “make time” is simple. Designing a working day that leaves them with some is rather more useful.
The Working Day Is Shaping Britain’s Exercise Habits
PureGym’s findings reveal two different workplace fitness problems.
Sedentary workers must deliberately compensate for hours spent sitting. Physically active workers may finish their shifts with little energy left for balanced, structured training.
The highest exercise rates belong to professions whose workers appear to recognise that their jobs do not provide the movement they need. The lowest belong largely to employees whose jobs already demand plenty from their bodies, though not always in ways that improve overall fitness.
The office chair and the shop floor pose different problems, but neither should get the final say over how a working body moves.
The full research is available in the PureGym UK Fitness Report.
