‘Step into health’ coordinator, Dr Ez Aldeen Ibrahim, speaking to participants at Aspetar.
DOHA: Aspire Zone Foundation’s (AZF) new community-centred fitness programme ‘step into health’ has already attracted over 13,000 individuals, among which 60 percent are Qataris, since its launch six weeks ago.
The initiative, which is sponsored by Commercialbank Qatar, RasGas, and Qtel, is aimed at engaging the people of Qatar in a self-managed lifelong plan based on a moderate amount of daily healthy activity.
The programme is unique as it is based on non-competitive and recreational exercise that can be easily fitted into everyday life. It has been designed for everyone aged 16 and up and for all fitness levels. Hilal Al Kuwari, President of AZF, said, “At Aspire Zone, we continuously aim to find ways in which we can inspire members of the Qatari community to enhance their fitness levels and transition smoothly into a healthier lifestyle. To do so, we build on all our accumulated knowledge, resources and expertise.”
“Modern scientific research has confirmed that the majority of people do not undertake three to five thousand steps daily, depending on the nature of their work. Moreover, it has been proven that the impact of increasing movement on an individual’s health doesn’t manifest until they have started walking ten thousands steps a day or more. Therefore, walking 10,000 steps a day has a bigger impact on our health than exercising three hours a week,” said Dr Mohammed Gaith Al Kuwari, Director of the Healthy Lifestyle programme at Aspetar.
Over 50 percent of the registered Qatari participants are women. Dr Ez Aldeen Ibrahim, ‘step into health’ Coordinator, added that more than 60 percent of all registered participants fall in the 25-45 age bracket.
Mohammed Abdullah Al Malki, one of the participants enrolled, expressed his satisfaction with program’s enabler, a pedometer saying, “I’d like to express my gratitude to AZF for this initiative and making the device free of charge for all participants. This is an excellent AZF programme designed to encourage members of the community not only to participate, but more importantly to continue in the long term and make this a daily part of their routine.”
A number of participants agreed the secret to achieving the goal of 10,000 steps a day is uploading the data from their pedometers and regularly checking the results through a mobile app made available for free from AZF. The Peninsula
