National Fitness Day 2023
Your health is for life!
National Fitness Day takes place every September, this year being on Wednesday 20th. It's a day to highlight the role that physical activity plays in people’s lives and to help us raise awareness of its importance in helping our communities to lead healthier lifestyles. A day when people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities come together to celebrate the fun of fitness. Your health is for life!
This year, we're doing our bit by challenging as many of our customers to get active throughout the day in a simple way - by completing 10 squats. Come down and get involved by completing 10 to help your local centre total up as many as they can!
If you can't make it to us today, simply take a walk in your lunch break, hit the gym after work or sign up for that group exercise class you've had your eye on - whatever suits you!
The benefits of exercise on mental wellbeing
The theme for this year's campaign is 'Your Health is for Life', with one of its key areas being mental health.
This doesn’t just mean go and run a 10k and all of your problems will disappear! The key is to find whatever works for you and do it as often as you find comfortable.
The specialist eLearning programme is informed by best practice and research that’s been tailored to the leisure environment. Most importantly, it is informed and shaped by the experiences of people living with dementia.
Dementia is the ‘umbrella’ term used to describe a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, perception, problem solving or language. In a leisure centre environment there are a number of challenges to navigate from difficulties communicating when booking an activity, to lane ropes in the pool being perceived to be gaps, and cluttered layouts causing confusion and trip hazards.
With the benefits that leisure centres can offer, both in terms of health and social benefits, it’s imperative that operators are aware of these challenges and can offer the right support. As Alzheimer’s Society explains, “accessible environments are incredibly important to support people living with dementia to continue to do things for themselves for longer and access their community. Small changes to layout or signage, for example, can go a long way to reducing stress and confusion.” (Dementia Friendly Business Guide Alzheimer’s Society 2017).
The dementia awareness eLearning programme developed with training provider Elearn4business covers a range of topics from common types of dementia and how these can affect people, to how dementia can impact a person’s leisure centre experience and effective communication with customers living with dementia.
Rob Latter from Elearn4business comments, “We are delighted to have created and made available a tailored and accessible dementia awareness course that has enhanced accessibility in over 120 Places Leisure facilities across the UK. Through our established partnership with Places Leisure it’s exciting to see the impact that this type of training can have on our local communities and the difference that it can make to people’s lives.”
Nutrition, recovery and what to consider
Aptly, this year also focusses on nutrition and recovery. Encompassing a good balance of nutrition, exercise, and recovery, is a great stepping stone to better wellbeing, now and in the future.
Good nutrition can mean different things to different people, but if you're not sure how to get started, we've released a brand new blog especially for National Fitness Day, offering guidance and tips.
Plus, in case you missed it...
"If you could do one exercise for the rest of your life, what would it be?"
We asked our customers and colleagues the simple question, which gathered a range of answers from all ages - from our young gym enthusiasts to our weekly Dance Fit go-ers!
What exercise would you do for the rest of your life? Tag us on Facebook and use #FitnessDay and #PlacesLeisure in your post to let us know!
