Tina McCarthy first plucked up the courage to get on a bike when she was in her mid-40s.

Donning the requisite lycra shorts, she and a friend decided their debut ride should be in Melbourne's CBD, along a path that snakes through the city and along the Yarra River.

Yet it wasn't long into the ride when Ms McCarthy was put through what so many women exercising outside dread: the male heckle.

Tina McCarthy was heckled the first time she rode her bike — and it hasn't stopped. ( Supplied )

"This was one of the first rides I was brave enough to venture out on and suddenly, I hear these boys behind me say, 'God look at that, fat chicks shouldn't wear lycra'," she recalled.

"I just felt so embarrassed, hurt and angry — it's stayed with me forever".

Ms McCarthy, now 55, is far from alone when it comes to being shamed and judged while simply exercising.

Chances are that many women have experienced this, or know someone who has.

And while a lot of women will not speak about this openly (shame runs deep), many opened up to me when I put the question out via social media.

The responses came in privately, and from all age groups: whether it was the mid-40s executive who was so body-shamed by family members she developed bulimia, or the woman who elects to do private personal training sessions in a closed room, just to avoid entering a public gym.

Most women have some sort of story that induces a heart twinge.

Women can feel judged on how they look when exercising and it discourages many from working out. ( Supplied: Daniel Carson )

Many women respond by giving up

Inspired by recent VicHealth research which found that 50 per cent of the 2,000 women surveyed experienced actual shaming, heckling and judgement while getting active — with some women opting to stop exercising altogether as a result — I wanted to see if this stat reflects my immediate circle of friends and acquaintances.

It does.

"I don't run for this reason," Karen wrote on Facebook.

Grace said she cancelled her gym membership "because of people looking at my stretch marks".

Another woman recalled the time when she decided to sign up for a gym membership for the first time, the personal trainer (PT), "quite a young guy", asked her what she weighed.

"When I told him he smirked and just said 'whoa'," she wrote. "I was devastated and never went back to that gym. It shattered my confidence. Luckily, I decided to try my luck again about six years later, and I now have an amazing PT."

Ms McCarthy's story is just one that reflects the survey that accompanies VicHealth's fitness campaign for women, This Girl Can Week. It aims to encourage more women to give physical activity a go or return to exercise after a break.

Campaign manager Mel Fineberg said the inspiration for the scheme came from a similar one run by the English Sports Council in 2015. The Victorian campaign has already resulted in an increase in women's participation in sports and activities.

"We first launched the campaign this time in 2018, and in the first year alone we inspired more than 285,000 women across Victoria to go it and get active," Ms Fineberg said.

Victoria's "This Girl Can" campaign was inspired by this 2015 UK campaign.. ( Supplied )

Exercise: the magic amount

As it stands, three in five Australian women are not sufficiently active. This is defined as participating in less than 30 minutes of physical activity on four or more days a week. And one in five do not do any physical activity in a week.

And while some articles and studies have suggested that women do more exercise than men, there are caveats.

For example, a 2016 study which found that women tend to exercise more than men also highlighted that the reasons for this were very different — and not often conducive to better quality life for women.

"Women reported exercising for weight loss and toning more than men, whereas men reported exercising for enjoyment more than women," the researchers wrote.

"Exercising to lose weight or for fitness was associated with lower quality of life, while exercising to improve mood or health was associated with higher quality of life.

"The first of these findings is consistent with previous research where exercising for appearance was associated with higher disordered eating, lower body-esteem, and higher body dissatisfaction."

Encouraging women to exercise for the right reasons is instrumental. It is well known that exercise can help prevent a wide range of illnesses such as cardiovascular disease (the biggest killer of women in Australia) Type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke or certain types of cancers, such as colon and breast cancer.

Tying exercise primarily to appearance, however, can significantly reduce mental health and, as is evidenced by VicHealth's survey, even prevent women from exercising for years.

Three in five Australian women are not sufficiently active and one in five don't do any physical activity in a week. ( ABC News: Mike Kliem )

Coping with comments

For Ms McCarthy, the comments have not stopped — but they have gotten easier to bear.

"I worked through that and continue to cycle," she said.

"And while I guess I take it with a grain of salt, I can't say it still doesn't hurt."

Seeing only one type of woman exercising in advertising and the media (tall, tanned, slim and blonde with what Ms McCarthy calls "the flicky plait") is also disheartening, and projects the "ideal" image of how a woman exercising should look to both men and women.

"We get so used to the heavily processed images that the media dictate to us that we forget that most women getting out there to exercise are not built like that," Ms McCarthy said.

"We have lumps and bumps and curves and they tell stories of women who've had children, or struggled with other issues and injury, and people who make those comments don't know how much hurt they spread when they say these disgusting things.

"Those sorts of comments can be the make or break of people, and as a man, and even a woman, you need to consider that."