In Ireland, we don’t exercise enough. According to a 2019 Healthy Ireland report, only 54% of men and 38% of women in Ireland are meeting the minimum national physical activity guidelines each week. This number decreases even more as we age. For the 55-64 age group for example, only 40% of men and 30% of women are meeting the minimum targets. Living a sedentary life into older age can lead to a loss of functional health, due to deficits in strength, endurance, and flexibility that are consistently related to inactivity. Aging affects the ability to move, but lack of movement in turn accelerates the aging process.
Those statistics include all forms of exercise. If we single out resistance exercise, the numbers are even more stark. According to a CSO study in 2019, only 16% of Irish adults aged 55-64 are engaging in muscle-strengthening or resistance exercises. Based on previous findings we can assume the figure for women in this age category is lower again.
We’re not great for promoting the importance of exercise in Ireland and when we do, it’s almost always cardiovascular exercise that is promoted. Cardiovascular exercise is incredibly important but resistance exercise is equally as important but it gets very little attention.
parkHIIT’s mission is to change that and we need people like you to help do it.
