ADULTS in Warrington – and across the North West generally – should focus on walking briskly rather than just counting steps if they want to improve their health.
This is the advice from Public Health England (PHE) and the Royal College of GPs.
Across England – and that includes Warrington – one in five middle aged adults are physically inactive, meaning they do less than 30 minutes of physical activity per week
Many adults struggle to fit in exercise, with not enough time (30per cent) cited as the main reason, followed by not feeling motivated (25per cent) and being too tired (27per cent)
Just 10 minutes of brisk walking a day counts as exercise and can help protect and improve an individual’s health
PHE is encouraging adults in Warrington to join the 600,000 across the country who have downloaded the free “Active 10” app in order to briskly walk into a healthier life.
Health experts are encouraging people to increase the intensity of their walking, rather than just focus on the distance or number of steps.
Moderate intensity physical activity means getting the heart rate up and breathing faster. Just 10 minutes of brisk walking a day is an easy way for adults to introduce more moderate intensity physical activity into their day and reduce their risk of early death by up to 15per cent.
To help adults do this, PHE’s “Active 10” app has been created and it is the only app of its kind that combines intensity and time, rather than just distance.
Taking a 10 minute brisk walk each day can help build up towards the UK Chief Medical Officers’ recommendation of at least 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. This has been linked to health benefits including a lowered risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
Walking back to good health – briskly!
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