June 4, 2018

Summer is the perfect time of year to spend a little more time outside and to be more active, but the busy nature of modern life means that it is often difficult to fit physical activity into our days.

But the good news is, brisk walking counts as a form of intense physical activity and just 10 minutes a day can make a huge difference to your health, both in the short and long term – it gets the heart pumping faster, can make you feel better, more energetic and improve your mood. Over time, brisk walking can help to lower the risk of serious illnesses like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It’s for these reasons that healthcare professionals are recommending high intensity physical activity, like brisk walking, in order to improve their patients’ health.

Bruce Lawson, Senior Manager, Development at Active Cumbria says;

"In Cumbria, almost 100,000 adults aged 16+ are deemed to be inactive, that is they do less than 30 minutes of any activity each week.  We also know there are inequalities in participating in activity with many groups in our communities such as older adults, disabled, women and girls as well as those from low socio-economic groups who are more likely to be inactive.

Walking is a great way to turn the tide on inactivity. It is the nearest activity to perfect exercise. It makes people happy, it gets them out and about and stay healthy. We recognise this and want to do as much as we can to promote walking. This week is Volunteers week 1-7^th June we’re working with Cumbria CVS to recruit new walk leaders as part of a wide roll out of Walking for Health groups (apply here). We’ll be providing training to those volunteers lead short walks over an easy terrain, they will be open to everyone but are especially aimed at those who are least active. The walk leader will be on hand to provide encouragement and support, and make sure no one gets left behind."

To help you on a journey to a healthier you, Public Health England is encouraging adults to download the free ‘Active 10’ app to help complete your 10 minutes of brisk walking daily and to gradually build this up to multiple ‘Active 10s’. The app is the first of its kind to show how much brisk walking you’re doing and when you are doing this at a high enough intensity and long enough to get health benefits.

So, this summer, why not join the 600,000 people who have downloaded the Active 10 app so far and get walking to a healthier you?

One You website http://po.st/Active10_Cumbria 

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