National Fitness Day is held annually in September – look up the date, tell your friends and family and start planning now for how you can take part and celebrate and join in the fun.
National Fitness Day was launched by UK Active as a celebration of physical activity and encourages mass participation across the nation in a single fun day of sport and exercise.
It might seem hard to believe if you tuned into the all inspiring Olympics in Rio last month, but it seems that a worrying trend is afoot, and that is we are turning into a nation of couch potatoes, preferring to sit on our backsides rather than take part in active pursuits.
It is widely recognised that regular exercise provides us with many positive health benefits, from improving our moods and reducing the girth of our expanding waistlines right through to reducing the incidence of major chronic illnesses including Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer and Coronary Heart Disease.
If we’re being honest, most of us would have to own up to being aware of the benefits of exercise – so why do the majority of people in the UK still struggle to make such an important positive change to their lifestyles?
There are many barriers that prevent people from participating in sport and exercise – lack of time, lack of confidence and lack of dosh to name a few have all been given as reasons . Frankly, the scaremongering can leave us feeling guilty for not heeding the advice, so for one day, we ask you to cast aside your guilt and your excuses and have some fun being active.
Free Activities
Here at Active Nation, we support National Fitness Day by offering a huge variety of FREE activities for everyone over the age of 16, at each of our venues around the country. Activities take place throughout the whole day to fit in with your schedule and no booking is required, just turn up to your local Active Nation venue.
FREE activities include;
Exercise classes
Gym Sessions
Swim sessions
Exercise Advice and Health assessments
Pool discos
Watt bike challenges
Spin challenges
Climbing races
Indoor triathlon
Aqua Aerobics
Find out what’s going on at a venue near you on National Fitness Day www.activenation.org.uk
In the meantime
Let’s face it – we could all walk more than we do. The NHS recommends that we walk 10,000 steps a day , which depending on your stride length, is approximately 5 miles. This may seem like a tall order if you are just starting out, however there are many ways to include walking in your daily lives that will ratchet up your step count without you really noticing.
Why not leave the car at home and walk into town to do your shopping, or if this isn’t realistic, get off the bus one or two stops earlier. If you work in an office try going for a walk at lunchtime or take the stairs instead of the lift, even if only some of the way to start with.
Don’t forget to buy a pedometer or download one of the many available apps to your smart phone that will track your activity levels for you. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll be regularly checking in to see if you’ve managed your 10,000 steps.
