Join Nearly 30,000 Other Activesmart Members

MEDIA RELEASE

26 September 2008

Join Nearly 30,000 Other Activesmart Members And Get Fit For Summer

Nearly 30,000 New Zealanders have signed up with ACC’s free personalised fitness and nutrition programme ActiveSmart, and even more New Zealanders are encouraged to join as summer approaches.

The web-based programme, www.activesmart.co.nz, was set up in April last year by ACC in association with the Ministry of Health, SPARC, Fitness New Zealand, the Heart Foundation and the Cancer Society.

Members sign up then answer questions about their health before choosing what kind of plan they’d like. The site offers plans for running, walking and cycling, with separate skiing, soccer, and netball fitness plans at sister sites.

ActiveSmart also includes nutritional advice, a five day weather forecast, diagrams and videos of training techniques, email reminders, and a regional events calendar. The site was an official honouree at the Webby Awards earlier this year.

Simon Gianotti, ACC Injury Prevention Team Leader, said having 29,000 people sign up in just 17 months shows how keen New Zealanders are to become more active.

``ActiveSmart is a great way for New Zealanders to get fit for summer, especially if they’ve let their activity levels drop over the winter. The site is focused on preventing sporting injuries so it provides excellent advice about how to get back into activity after a break, or how to increase your amount of activity safely.’’

ACC figures record that more than 26,000 New Zealanders were moderately to seriously injured playing sport in the 2007-08 financial year.

``Often injuries occur when people are unfamiliar with the correct practice. ActiveSmart provides a complete training programme with safe stretches and warm ups. ActiveSmart will design fitness plans to suit all New Zealanders, even if they’ve never done any activity before. And since it’s online, it can be accessed it from the privacy of your own home,’’ he said.

Also because it’s web-based, ActiveSmart is regularly used by New Zealanders living overseas.

``We’ve had some fantastic feedback from ActiveSmart users, including ones overseas. They all say that ActiveSmart has been a great motivator for them and has made a huge difference to their fitness and energy levels. Some also say that being fitter has positively impacted on their mental health too,’’ Mr Gianotti said.

To create your own fitness programme go to www.activesmart.co.nz. Specific sports programmes are also available on the following sites: www.netballsmart.co.nz, www.soccersmart.co.nz, www.snowsmart.co.nz.

-ENDS-

© Scoop Media