Arlington is the nation’s fittest city for the seventh year in a row, according to researchers with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Elevance Health Foundation.
In fact, the top three spots remain the same this year as they were last year: Washington, D.C. again ranks No. 2 and Seattle rounds out the top three.
The 17th annual American Fitness Index, released July 23, evaluated the 100 largest U.S. cities using two main groups of indicators: community and environmental and personal health. Community and environmental factors include the built environment, such as the number and accessibility of parks and bike lanes, while personal health covered how often people exercised, their fruit and vegetable consumption, and sleep habits. Arlington ranked first overall and in community/environmental factors and fourth for personal health behind Seattle, D.C. and San Francisco, respectively.
Because ACSM gives the community factors a little more weight than the personal health ones, Arlington claimed the top spot, says ACSM President Stella Volpe.
“If the city has park systems that are available to people and they’re easy to access, if they have easy-access bike paths or walking paths, they have easy access for people to get public transportation and/or walk to their place of work, those things are going to rank higher,” Volpe says. “Not that we don’t care about the personal health rank, but…we want to see what those cities are doing.”
In the personal health category, Arlington had the highest number of residents who reported exercising in the previous month (87.8%) and getting at least seven hours of sleep per night (76.4%), and the lowest amount who smoked (3.4%).
One reason why Arlington has earned the top spot since 2017 is consistency, Volpe says. “Part of it is they have the resources,” she says of the county. “Part of it is that they’re keeping it maintained, and the other part of it is—it’s become the DNA of people who live there. It’s part of the culture now.”
To continue its winning streak in the next Fitness Index assessment, Arlington could benefit from boosting personal health indicators, Volpe says. The report provides tips such as increasing funding for mental health clinics and organizing community gardens where residents can grow fruit and vegetables.
“It is pretty impressive that they have held onto it for this long,” she says of the county’s ranking.
Nationwide, the study found that people are walking and biking to work more, and cities have made progress on park expenditures and food security, but the number of people getting at least seven hours’ sleep each night decreased, as did reports of excellent or very good health.
One reason may be that residents in all 100 cities do not exercise enough to meet ACSM’s minimum standards. It recommends at least 150 minutes per week—or 22 minutes per day—of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and strength training twice a week. On average, 78% of adults in the Fitness Index cities reported exercising in the previous month, but only 51% met both guidelines, Volpe says.
Additionally, almost half (45%) of individuals nationally said they had poor mental health in the previous month.
“I hope the reason we might be seeing more [poor mental health reports] is that people might be reporting it more and being more open to reporting it more,” Volpe says. “Remember that exercise can certainly help improve our mental health. That’s one of the things that we as human beings can do that I know isn’t the be-all [and] end-all for people who have mental health issues, but that’s one thing we can do.”
Data shows that even short amounts of physical activity can boost mental health, she adds. That includes walking a dog or dancing during TV commercial breaks.
“People think exercise means working out and working out means ‘I have to go somewhere and do something…and I have to go at it hard,’” Volpe says. “The best type of activity is the one that they can do and the one that they will do.”