Over 100 leisure facilities and gyms will throw open their doors tomorrow, Friday, September 16th, to offer free ‘come and try’ activities as part of Ireland’s National Fitness Day.
The initiative being held for the first time in Ireland, forms part of the European Week of Sport.
Fitness Day is a celebration of the role physical activity plays in Ireland and the positive impact fitness has on people’s lives and their health and wellbeing in particular. The initiative is being led by Ireland Active, the representative body for Ireland’s leisure and fitness industry and is supported by Healthy Ireland and Sport Ireland.
Physical activity is key to maintaining health and well-being with adults requiring 30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 times each week.
This rises to 60 minutes of vigorous activity every day for children.
Whilst overall physical activity rates have been rising, with Ireland now ranked 6th out of 28 countries in Europe in terms of regular exercise, there remains much room for improvement.
Only 32% of Irish adults meet the minimum physical activity recommendations which drops to 19% for primary school students and 12% for secondary school pupils.
Leisure facilities are Ireland’s favourite place to work out with 16% of Irish adults choosing to exercise in the gym. 850,000 Irish adults are gym, leisure and fitness facilities members and personal exercise is the most popular form of exercise in Ireland with 12.2% of the population over 16 years old participating each week, an increase from 7% in 2007.
“Fitness and physical activity has played a key role throughout my life,” said Fitness Day Ambassador Anna Geary.
“I have seen first-hand the positive impact of regular physical activity on the health & wellbeing of people no matter what their age.”
“We see this in Ireland’s Fittest Family where every member of the family contributes. I am delighted to support National Fitness Day which will hopefully highlight the many different ways in which people can get physically active.”
“National Fitness Day is a part of the European Week of Sport, it’s being celebrated right across Europe and we’re delighted to roll out the initiative for the first time in Ireland,” said Conn McCluskey, Chief Executive of Ireland Active.
“We’re encouraging everyone to go along to their local leisure facility, gym or park and try out some of the free activities on offer such as zumba, yoga, gym sessions and group exercise classes.”
“National Fitness Day is an opportunity for everyone to try out a new physical activity and who knows it might be an activity that you continue to participate in long after National Fitness Day is over.”
