GROUND-BREAKING research is set to reveal why women find sport and physical activity a turn-off.
After increasing public health concerns, the Women's Sport Foundation (WSF) is taking a fresh approach to tackling the negative attitude women have towards exercise.
The foundation is seeking to identify the psychological, rather than physical barriers which turn women off exercise and lead to huge disparities between the amount of activity being undertaken by women and girls compared to men.
The charity hopes that by asking women of different ages, social class and location to discuss their reasons for failing to be active, and what they consider to be healthy behaviours in the context of their own lives, then positive action can be devised to change this long-standing trend.
Ann Cooper-Poole, a personal trainer at Total Fitness in Wrexham said that on the whole, more men participate in exercise than women, but there are different types of exercise that appeal to each sex.
Ann said: 'If you were to look at the aerobics classes, you will find they are full of women, but you will never find women working out in the weights area and I think that's down to two factors.
'Women tend to be intimidated by the big men working out and they are also afraid of building too much muscle and looking masculine.'
'There are all sorts of sociological and psychological factors involved in why less women work out.
'After puberty you tend to find women drop out of sport, but men carry on.
'Women feel self-conscious about how their bodies are developing in adolescence and they psychologically turn away from sport.'
