The Irish Heart Foundation teams up with parkrun to get people moving

The Irish Heart Foundation has teamed up with parkrun Ireland to launch ‘Parkwalk’ which aims to encourage local communities throughout Ireland to get walking for the good of their hearts.

With Parkwalk people across Ireland are invited to join with others in their community and take part in their local free park walk.

Parkwalk is a new six-week programme held in conjunction with the normal parkrun where participants can join the parkrun team and walk the route, at their own pace. Walkers will be supported with a six-week walking challenge, video demonstrations, tips on heart health and opportunities for free CPR training.

On Saturday March 2nd, the Irish Heart Foundation is encouraging walking leaders, walking groups and individuals to attend their nearby parkrun event. Register for parkrun choose #IrishHearts as your club and print the barcode before turning up to walk with your local community. With events in 85 locations in Ireland, parkrun is free, safe and easy to take part in with your local community.

The Irish Heart Foundation will provide parkun volunteers with the opportunity for free CPR training, giving them the knowledge and confidence to perform CPR in an emergency and parkrun e-zine subscribers will now receive heart health information; healthy eating tips, video demonstrations and information on physical activity.

People looking to get active can also take up the Irish Heart Foundation’s Move More Challenge ; a six-week programme to support people to achieve physical activity guidelines and walk a 5km route at their own pace with the goal of completing a parkrun walk. Each week, participants will be encouraged to increase their step count, increase the distance they walk and introduce some mobility, stretching and strength exercises.

Janis Morrissey, Head of Health Promotion, Information and Training at the Irish Heart Foundation said, “The Irish Heart Foundation has a long-standing commitment to promoting walking through the Slí na Sláinte programme, with mapped and measured walking routes throughout Ireland and Walking Leader Training for those wishing to lead a walking group in their community or workplace. We are delighted to team up with parkrun to encourage more people to walk at parkrun events and will assist people with information on healthy eating, physical activity and heart health.”

Matt Shields, Country Manager at parkrun Ireland said, “By teaming up with the Irish Heart Foundation, we are delighted to get more people walking and assist them with video demonstrations and heart health information along the way. Volunteers will have the opportunity to access free CPR training and help protect the lives of our members.”

Regular physical activity can improve wellbeing and reduce the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.