The University of Ulster is celebrating the 9th World Day for Physical Activity and is urging people to get active for a healthier lifestyle.
Professor Marie Murphy, Co-Director of the Ulster Sports Academy and Head of the School of Sports Studies encouraged people to take part in a lunchtime walk at the Jordanstown campus at 1pm on Wednesday to kick-start a physical activity programme.
This celebration of World Day for Physical Activity is a global event with people from around the world hosting physical activity promotion days.
Professor Murphy said: “Physical activity is very important to overall health and wellbeing and regular exercise can have benefits. Activities like walking are a great way of staying active and even though small amounts of exercise can add up to improve your health.
The initiative follows the School of Sports Studies ‘Walk@Work’ programme, which monitored the walking habits of over 100 University staff over a ten week period and encouraged participants to increase how often they walked during the working day and the health benefits associated with it. The data for this study is currently being analysed with results expected in the coming months.
“Sometimes all it takes is a bit of encouragement and motivation to kick start someone on the path to well being and the University has developed these initiatives to show that physical activity isn’t something reserved for elite athletes or sports stars, it is for everyone and the health benefits are for everyone,” Professor Murphy said.
Those wishing to take part in the 30minute lunchtime walk on Wednesday 6 April should meet at the sports centre reception at the Jordanstown campus at 12:50pm for a 1pm start.
