fitnessbodyequipment.com Home Gym Equipment & Practical Training

Statistics

Home Workout Participation Statistics: Frequency, Strength Training and Equipment

Explore survey findings on home exercise frequency, online workouts, strength training, equipment and reasons for exercising at home.

November 12, 2026 7 min read fitnessbodyequipment.com Editorial Team

Contents

Home workout participation statistics: home activity frequency

Home exercise figures describe different things: how often respondents use home as a place for physical activity, and how often they report offline home activity within specific frequency bands. The distinction matters. One survey asked rural adults in western North Carolina about physical activity during summer 2020, while a UK consumer survey reported offline home activity frequencies in January 2024. Neither measure should be read as a universal estimate of how often people work out at home.

In the North Carolina study, 57.8% of respondents said they frequently used their homes for physical activity during summer 2020. Another 39.7% said they sometimes did so, and 2.5% said they never used home for physical activity. The study included 297 adults from one rural county. Its location question offered “frequently,” “sometimes,” and “never” responses; it did not restrict home activity to structured workouts. The results therefore capture a broad category of physical activity, rather than gym-style training alone. CDC study

The January 2024 UK results use frequency bands for offline home activity. The report says 24% of respondents engaged in it at least twice a week, 39% at least once a fortnight and 44% at least once a month. It also reports that 46% never exercised offline at home. These are percentages of respondents, not counts of exercise sessions. “At least once a month” is a broader frequency band than “at least twice a week,” and the categories should be read using the report’s labels rather than as a set of mutually exclusive totals.

UK offline home activity frequency, January 2024Respondents
At least twice a week24%
At least once a fortnight39%
At least once a month44%
Never46%

The UK findings came from a nationally representative Savanta/UK Active consumer sample, reported across 5 polling waves over 16 months. The report notes that it did not record whether gym users also exercised at home. These results describe reported frequency in that survey; they do not establish how many people used home exclusively or how many total workouts took place there. HCM, page 60

Home workout participation statistics: online and offline home exercise

Online and offline activity are separate measures in the January 2024 UK survey. At least twice a week, 18% of respondents reported online home exercise, compared with 24% for offline home activity. At least once a fortnight, the online figure was 32%; at least once a month, it was 37%. The report said around 53% never worked out at home online.

UK home exercise frequency, January 2024OfflineOnline
At least twice a week24%18%
At least once a fortnight39%32%
At least once a month44%37%
Never46%Around 53%

The comparison suggests that online home exercise was less commonly reported than offline home activity in each listed frequency band. It does not tell us why respondents chose one format, what counted as an online workout, or whether the same people used both formats. The source explicitly says the sample did not record gym/home overlap; the reported online and offline measures also should not be treated as mutually exclusive groups. The “around 53%” figure is approximate in the source, so it remains approximate here. HCM, page 60

A separate 2023 Veridata Insights report offers a broad home-workout indicator: among respondents who exercised, 85% opted to work out from home. This denominator is the report’s exercising respondents, not the entire panel, and the exact number of exercising respondents is not stated. The report surveyed over 3,000 members of a validated proprietary panel, but does not provide field dates for the cited results. Its measure is not directly comparable with the UK frequency bands, which ask how often activity occurs. Veridata Insights, 2023 report

Home workout participation statistics: home strength training

A U.S. HealthStyles study provides a historical look at strength activity and home as a location. Among 1,238 respondents who reported muscle-strengthening activity at least 2 days per week in 2009, 69.0% reported home as a location. In the subgroup reporting strength activity 6 to 7 days per week, 81.3% reported home as a location; that subgroup contained 147 respondents. These are location responses among people already reporting frequent strength activity, not estimates of home strength training among all U.S. adults. Respondents could report more than one location, so home does not imply home-only training. HealthStyles study, Table 3

The same table lists strength activity types among those reporting muscle-strengthening at least 2 days weekly. Handheld or free weights were reported by 58.3%, calisthenics by 54.6%, weight machines by 40.1%, resistance bands by 24.2%, and yoga or Tai Chi by 16.1%. These activity types are not limited to home: the table does not connect each type to a specific location. It therefore shows the mix of reported strength activities in this subgroup, not a ranking of equipment used inside homes.

The data date to HealthStyles 2009, so they should be understood as a historical survey snapshot. The population is the group that reported muscle-strengthening activity, and the results do not describe current participation. Read alongside the location findings, the results show that home was a reported setting among frequent strength participants, while the activity-type responses encompass home and other settings. HealthStyles study, Table 3

Home workout participation statistics: home workout equipment choices

Veridata’s 2023 report gives 2 explicit equipment measures tied to home workouts. It says 16% of respondents worked out from home using dumbbells, while 12% used resistance bands for home workouts. The report describes a survey of over 3,000 validated proprietary-panel members; field dates are not stated. The figures identify home use, unlike the broader HealthStyles activity-type results, but the report excerpt does not give equipment-specific respondent counts or say whether people could select multiple methods. Veridata Insights, 2023 report

These percentages should not be read as shares of all home exercisers unless the report’s full denominator supports that interpretation. The supplied passage calls them percentages of respondents and describes home workout methods, while the nearby 85% figure specifically refers to respondents who exercised. Keeping those denominators distinct avoids implying that 16% of home exercisers used dumbbells or that the 12% and 16% add up to a complete equipment mix.

The findings do establish that both dumbbells and resistance bands appeared in reported home workouts. They do not show how often respondents used them, how much equipment they owned, or whether either item was used alongside bodyweight exercise. The report’s other equipment and exercise figures are outside this limited set because they are not explicitly tied to home use. Veridata Insights, 2023 report

Home workout participation statistics: reasons for exercising at home

The North Carolina study asked people reporting home activity why they used that location. Its home-reason results use a subgroup of 208 respondents, and participants could select multiple reasons. Maintaining health or fitness was selected by 158 people (76.0%); mental health by 155 (74.5%); exercise by 138 (66.3%); and reducing sitting time by 134 (64.4%). Because responses could overlap, these percentages are not parts of a single total and should not be added together. CDC study, Table 3

Reason for home physical activityRespondents selecting reasonShare of home subgroup
Maintain health or fitness15876.0%
Mental health15574.5%
Exercise13866.3%
Reduce sitting time13464.4%
Do something normal12560.1%
Take the kids outside9947.6%
Connect with others2813.5%
Prepare for future events178.2%

The remaining responses show a range of reported motivations. Doing something normal was selected by 125 people (60.1%), and taking the kids outside by 99 (47.6%). Connecting with others was selected by 28 (13.5%), while 17 (8.2%) named preparing for future events. These are reasons reported by the home-activity subgroup in a rural western North Carolina survey about summer 2020. They are not findings about all home exercisers, nor do they demonstrate that a given reason caused someone to exercise at home. CDC study, Table 3

Taken together, the checked findings cover several distinct angles: location frequency, online and offline formats, home as a strength-training location, selected home equipment and self-reported reasons. Their populations and time periods differ, from a pandemic-era local sample to a UK survey in January 2024 and a U.S. strength survey from 2009. The figures are best interpreted within those original definitions and groups.

Sources

Written by

fitnessbodyequipment.com Editorial Team

Editorial team

Independent editorial coverage of home gym equipment & practical training.

More to Explore