Walking habit gathers pace

A NEW fitness craze is beginning to hit community centres and parish halls around the country: teaching walkers how to squeeze every ounce of fitness out of their walking – indoors.

The fitWALK programme shows walkers how to improve their physical fitness, flexibility, muscle strength and fat loss through walking and teaches the techniques of stride walking, power walking and the increasingly popular Nordic walking with ski poles.

The programme, which has been developed by physical recreation and active living consultancy Fizzical Ltd, has been rolled out through the HSE and Local Sports Partnerships (run by the Sports Council of Ireland) in a limited number of locations to date, but will be expanded across the State next year.

Shirley O’Shea, health promotion officer with the HSE South, said in the US and Australia, indoor walking has become very popular, especially for those who live in states with extreme temperatures – groups even gather in shopping malls before opening time to walk together.

The HSE South health promotion department and the Cork County and City Local Sports Partnerships held a fitWALK clinic in Cork last night to teach those who enjoy walking how to get the best health benefits from the activity.

“A lot of people who walk regularly often find the long, dark nights of our winters very challenging so indoor walking is ideal. People don’t tend to think about technique when they are walking but the fitness walking programmes teach people how to use their upper bodies as much as their lower bodies so they are getting a full body workout and burning a lot more calories than ordinary walking,” said Ms O’Shea.

Frank Fahey of Fizzical Ltd told Healthplusthe fitWALK clinics are followed by a five-week programme of one-hour sessions which is becoming very popular.

• For further information on running a fitWALK programme in your area, contact Frank Fahey at Fizzical, tel 086-8290971 or e-mail fizzical@eircom.net