TWO leading bodies have joined forces in a bid to get people fitter.

With an estimated three million middle-aged adults physically inactive across the country, and with more than 37 per cent of adults aged 40 to 60 in the South East not managing at least 10 continuous minutes of exercise each month, Public Health England and the Royal College of General Practitioners are encouraging adults to incorporate brisk walking into their days as a way to improve their general health and well-being.

As part of the push to get adults doing more moderate intensity physical activity each day, health experts are encouraging people to increase the intensity of their walking, rather than just focus on the distance or number of steps.

Moderate intensity physical activity means getting the heart rate up and breathing faster. Just 10 minutes of brisk walking a day is an easy way for adults to introduce more moderate intensity physical activity into their day and reduce their risk of early death by up to 15 per cent.

To help adults do this, Public Health England’s ‘Active 10’ app has been created and it is the only app of its kind that combines intensity and time, rather than just distance.

Taking a 10-minute brisk walk each day can help build up toward the UK chief medical officers’ recommendation of at least 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. This has been linked to health benefits including a lowered risk of type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

A new survey by Public Health England looking at adults perceptions of physical activity in the South East found that:

* Many adults struggle to fit in exercise, with not enough time (32 per cent) cited as the main reason for those in the South East, followed by not feeling motivated (29 per cent) and being too tired (25 per cent);

* More than half of adults (53 per cent) think more than 240 minutes of exercise per week is required to see general health benefits – nearly double the recommended guidance of at least 150 minutes – and one in seven (12 per cent) think that more than 420 minutes per week is required (an hour per day); and

* More than nine-in-10 people (92 per cent) say they walk more than 10 minutes per day, but this drops to just over half (54 per cent) who say they walk briskly for this amount of time.

The current physical inactivity crisis also has a societal impact. In adults, physical inactivity contributes to one in six deaths in the UK and costs the NHS more than half a billion pounds per year.

Angela Baker, deputy director for health and well-being at Public Health England South East said: “Juggling the pressures of everyday life can mean that exercise often takes a back seat, but building a brisk walk into your daily life is a simple way to get more active.

“Taking a brisk 10-minute walk to get your heart pumping is one of the best ways to improve mood, and lower the risk of serious health issues like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. The Active 10 app helps to keep the focus on the intensity of your walk, rather than just the number of steps taken.”

Already, 35,141 people in the South East have downloaded the Active 10 app and in a single month, approximately 167,083 active 10s (10-minute brisk walks) were completed by users.