The Walking the way to Health Initiative

Written by The Walking the way to Health Initiative

The Walking the way to Health Initiative (WHI) aims to encourage people, particularly those who take little exercise, to do regular short walks in their communities. With more than 525 supported health walks on the WHI website, you can find your local ones using the fully interactive Walk Finder.

Education for Health's Clinical team comment: "It’s useful to have somewhere to direct patients to in order for them to find ways to increase their physical activity levels, many people prefer to walk in a safe and fun environment with others.  We also recommend that Practice Nurses use the site to find health walks in their area to recommend to their patients".

The WHI also offer some great free resources including leaflets for those thinking of walking more, newsletters, post cards and promotional posters. We particularly like the new version of ‘Walk more feel…the difference’ which can be downloaded free directly from the site. Clearly written and inspirational in style, there are sections on:

• Why walking is the perfect activity for health
• What walking are you already doing?
• A small change is a big step - tips to get started
• Small steps to success - getting started, how you should feel, what to wear and how to develop a walking route
• Building a habit - make your own walking plan
• Picking up the pace - how to walk faster
• Everything you do counts - thoughts on keeping going

Go directly to the WHI website for further information at:

http://www.whi.org.uk

Published: January 2010

Categories: Improvement tools

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