Get fit and healthy Hawke’s Bay

Sport Hawke’s Bay aims to get more people out and about more often, as it works to improve the health and wellbeing of the region in 2016. This new focus for the regional sports trust will see an aggressive promotion of living a more active lifestyle.

The new initiative will see Sport Hawke’s Bay lead a region wide project which is set to be launched in July 2016. The project is being developed to help address the regions poor health outcomes, as highlighted in a health equity report released in 2014.

Sport Hawke’s Bay chief executive Mark Aspden said the regional sport trust will focus on getting “more people more active more often. Hawke’s Bay has more people with poor health, fewer people physically active, more people living in the most deprived parts of the community, and more people dying younger than the rest of New Zealand” he said.

“On a positive note an Active NZ survey revealed 65.6 percent of adults are interested in trying a new sport or activity and since the region offers excellent natural and man-made facilities, we need to promote ways of increasing physical activity” added Aspden.

“The regions councils have created many fantastic facilities and amenities that enable physical activity; we want to inspire people using them more often. It’s well known that some form of regular physical activity is good for us, and yet many in our community do not take advantage of the opportunities which are available”.

Sport Hawke’s Bay plans to work collaboratively with like-minded organisations to identify how to increase physical activity and create a good exercise habits.

“Many of us go on a fitness or health binge at some stage but very few of us manage to keep it going for an extended period, so the aim is to provide encouragement to do some form of physical activity on an ongoing basis.

“We’re not attempting to create a competition or a new large event as the region already has great events taking place throughout the year. We are also aware these events aren’t for everyone. We are looking to promote activity that anyone can do whatever their physical baseline is” he said.

The aim is to inspire people in Hawke’s Bay to be more active, promoting the benefits of being active along with the opportunities and options for activity and the means of accessing them.

The recommended guidelines for physical activity are at least 30 minutes of exercise on five or more days each week according to the Ministry of Health. 42.9% of the Hawke’s Bay population met these guidelines, a decline of 12.8% since 2006. This figure is significantly lower than the NZ average of 53% with both men (49%) and women (38%) in Hawke’s Bay lower than the NZ averages (NZ men 56.6%, NZ women 49.6%).

Sport Hawke’s Bay plans to launch the initiative in July 2016.

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