For many people in the United States, staying in shape means getting in your car and driving to the gym. Movement is something on a to-do list, siloed off from the rest of daily life.
That mentality is quintessentially American, according to Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a professor of history at the New School and the author of “Fit Nation.”
“There’s this crazy paradox where America is, in many ways, the center of the commercial fitness industry, but it’s also a place where by pretty much every measure people are extraordinarily unfit,” she said.
Only about a quarter of American adults get the recommended amount of physical activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and inactivity contributes to 1 in 10 premature deaths.
Part of the problem, Dr. Mehlman Petrzela said, is the “pay-to-play experience” embedded in American fitness culture. There are endless gyms, classes and products that promise to make you fitter, as long as you hand over your credit card.
But there are other ways of approaching exercise. In many nations, movement is baked into everyday life — as a way to commute from one place to another, to build community or to connect with nature. Here are some lessons Americans might learn from those cultures, according to fitness experts.
Finland: Walk wherever you can, even when it’s freezing.
When you live in a nation like Finland, where daylight only lasts for some six hours in the dead of winter, you learn to embrace extremes.
So it’s no wonder that the Finnish have a “no bad weather, only bad clothes” type of mentality, said Mika Venojärvi, a professor of exercise medicine at the University of Eastern Finland. It’s always popular to explore the outdoors, Mr. Venojärvi said, even in frigid temperatures.
As in many European cities, walking is a default form of transportation. “We are also used to using our legs — not the car,” said Tiina Arrankoski, the president of the International Council of Nordic Walking.
Nordic walking, or walking with specialized poles, is a proud Finnish tradition. It’s an accessible sport that encourages people to get outside and enjoy the public parks and forests. It was originally founded by cross-country skiers in the 1930s, as a form of cross-training. Plus, the poles can turn an ordinary walk into a full-body workout.
If it’s really too cold for outdoor exercise, Finland also has robust infrastructure for physical activity, about 80 percent of which is run by local authorities, according to a 2021 study by the World Health Organization.
Still, Dr. Venojärvi has a pretty high bar for staying indoors: He draws the line at 22 degrees below zero. Otherwise, “it’s very nice when the sun is shining,” he said.
Japan: Embrace short bursts of exercise.
Every day, a short exercise routine known as radio-taiso is broadcast across Japan on YouTube and Japan’s national radio station. In parks, office buildings and schoolyards, groups of people join together throughout the day in a three-minute, 13-move calisthenic routine — no equipment required. Movements include arm circles, forward bends, backward bends and star jumps, which are similar to jumping jacks.
Even a little exercise, especially if you increase the intensity, can improve your health. While ideally you should work out for longer than a few minutes at a time, there are still clear benefits of routinely elevating your heart rate, said Dr. Jeremy Swisher, a sports medicine physician at UCLA Health.
Radio-taiso was founded in the U.S. in 1920, as public health initiative sponsored by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, but it didn’t really take off. It took hold in Japan around 1928, according to Satoru Kanamori, an associate professor at the Teikyo University Graduate School of Public Health.
Thanks to its simplicity and adaptability, radio-taiso has become a “deeply rooted” part of Japanese culture, Dr. Kanamori said.
He fondly recalls doing the exercises as a child almost every morning. Now, he sees people practice the same routine communally: construction workers in the morning, office workers in the afternoon and the elderly throughout the day.
The United Kingdom: A workout can be a community event.
Twenty years ago, a runner named Paul Sinton-Hewitt invited a small group of friends to what he called the Bushy Park Time Trial: a five-kilometer run with the promise of coffee afterward. They had a great time, and Mr. Sinton-Hewitt decided to do it again the next weekend, and the weekend after that.
That event gradually grew into Parkrun, an organization that now hosts roughly 2,500 free running events every weekend in public spaces across 23 countries, including Ireland, Malaysia and Namibia.
Some participants run fast, while others go for a leisurely stroll. The magic comes from the simplicity, consistency and community, said Russ Jefferys, the chief executive of Parkrun. Crucially, it’s always free. After the finish, many runners and walkers share coffee or breakfast nearby.
It’s a world away from the road races in the U.S., where the average 5K race costs about $30, according to a 2023 running industry report.
“You don’t necessarily have to participate every week,” Mr. Jefferys said. “Sometimes life gets in the way. But whenever you’re ready, it’s always there”
Brazil: Make fitness feel like a party.
Brazil’s beaches are routinely packed with people jumping, sprinting, squatting and skating. Beach volleyball and soccer games dot the sand, sandwiched between walkers on boardwalks and surfers in the Atlantic.
There’s so much activity that “if you go to Rio de Janeiro and Copacabana at 5:30 p.m., it will be hard to walk in a straight line,” said Luiz Guilherme Grossi Porto, a professor of physical education and public health at University of Brasília.
“Brazilians are more prone to do things together than by themselves,” said Victor Matsudo, the chairman of Agita São Paulo, an initiative in the state of São Paulo that created new green areas, sports facilities and improved walkways.
The program, which was launched in 1996, also hosts fitness “mega-events” that are reminiscent of festivals, with activities like dancing, volleyball and seminars on the importance of an active lifestyle. The initiative has since been replicated around Brazil and Latin America.
If you’re trying to build a habit, it never hurts to make it fun.