Lazy lovers ...
British couples admit to having trouble mustering enough energy for a night of passion.
THE British are so lazy that one in six cannot be bothered to change television channel if the remote control is not working, according to a study. More than half said they would take the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs to their workplace, while three quarters had too little energy for sex at the end of a long day. An entire generation risks being blighted by idleness, warned Nuffield Health, a non-profit organisation which commissioned the poll. "Ready meals, remote controls and even internet shopping are all contributing to a dangerously lazy and idle Britain,'' said Dr Sarah Dauncey, its medical director.
"The nation has fallen into a vicious circle of laziness that we must put a stop to,'' she said. And she warned: "If we don't start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most rudimentary of tasks.''
The findings come as Australia's largest health insurer Medibank Private released findings that 77 per cent of the time we spend at work involves sitting and the other 23 per cent of the time we're only engaging in low intensity exercise, such as strolling to the printer, the photocopier or the coffee shop. Two-thirds of those in the Aussie study said they did 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise such as a brisk walk or other activity that raised a slight sweat. But when an accelerometer was used to measure how quickly those in the study were actually moving it found just one-third of participants actually did the 30 minutes a day of exercise required by national guidelines. In the UK poll of more than 2000 adults, 15 per cent said that, if the television remote was broken, they would rather continue watching the same channel than getting up and switching to another program. Thirty-six per cent said they would not run to catch a bus, 59 per cent took the lift instead of walking up even two flights of stairs, and 52 per cent of dog owners said they could not be bothered to walk their pet.
Some 73 per cent had no energy for sex, while 64 per cent of parents were too tired to play with their children - fuelling concern over child obesity, which already afflicts one in six pre-school infants. "People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families, friends and evidently their pets too,'' said Dr Dauncey. [rc]
With AFP and the Daily Telegraph More story content
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