According to a WHO report, Sweden has one of the lowest rates of insufficient physical activity in Europe, with only 20% of adults falling short of recommended activity levels. This is significantly lower than the European Union average, where 45% of residents never engage in sports or exercise.
Less obstacles to physical exercise
As a Swede, I would love to say that we exercise so much because we care about our health, our society and we are just really good at motivating ourselves! But, having spent many years abroad I am pretty sure that is not true. I think the real reason for why we exercise so much is not because we are more motivated, or better at pushing ourselves to exercise than others - but because we have less obstacles to physical exercise than people in most other countries.
Time to exercise
First of all, we have time to exercise. In Sweden, work-life balance and school-life balance is in general pretty good, so many people have time to exercise during afternoons or evenings, even during the work week. This is quite a difference from my friends in the US who clock in an average work-week at around 60-70 hours.
Our work-life balance also means that we do not have to work on weekends, and we have the time and energy to move regularly.
Another reason for our love for exercise is the cultural emphasis (and social norm) on being healthy and fit. It is important for Swedes to be and appear physically healthy, and exercise is seen as a part of a well-balanced life.
Even as a non-soccer-playing person I have engaged in different sports for as long as I can remember, and every child (and almost every adult) that I know partake in some sort of exercise. This was a part of my upbringing and it was never really a question about whether I would exercise or not, it was more about finding the right sport for me.
Important part of School
Exercise is also an important part of school and almost all kids have sports class twice a week, and extracurricular sport activities on evenings and weekends. This means exercise is a part of our lives from an early age, and many of us continue this into adulthood.
We are also lucky to have good access to sports facilities and nature, and many cities are built or adapted for walking rather than driving. Many activities are free, for example baby-mom exercise classes, and we have incentives to make exercise more accessible, for example friskvårdsbidrag, which is a small grant employers give to their employees to pay for things like a gym card or sports sessions.
All these factors combined is the reason I think we exercise more than people in other countries. Having exercise and movement be a part of my life from an early age, together with good accessibility to make exercise possible for all, is the key to a fit Sweden.
