The Active 10 app is the first free app to show you when you are walking fast enough and long enough to get health benefits – it combines intensity and time, rather than just distance or steps
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.
What is brisk walking?
Brisk walking is simply walking faster than usual, at a pace that gets your heart pumping faster and makes you feel slightly out of breath.
How can you measure walking this summer?
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.
