AUSactive Sunshine Coast activity initiative reaches two Million Moves milestone

The Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay region has achieved a remarkable physical active milestone, with the Million Moves Challenge achieving two million moves across the 21-day challenge that finished yesterday.

More than 1,300 people from the region pledged their commitment to complete a minimum of 75 moves each day for 21 days to highlight 75% of Australians are not getting the recommended amount of physical activity.

Leading the challenge were local parliamentarians including Andrew Wallace from Fisher, Ted O’Brien from Fairfax, Llew O’Brien from Wide Bay and Terry Young from Longman.

AUSactive members opened the doors to their facilities and supported the community through guided workouts, some holding outdoor events. Sunshine Coast women were also given free access to the SWEAT app to work out.

In addition, a number of Sunshine Coast businesses including Youi Insurance, Aldi and Comlink Australia also took part in the team challenge.

Sunshine Coast-based AUSactive Board Member and Chief Executive of MyZone Australia, Emmett Williams, said the pilot program proved a huge success in getting people active while highlighting the importance of regular activity and the benefits on our mental and physical health.

Williams noted “it’s been fantastic to see the community, businesses and teams come together to increase their regular activity and highlight the need for more Australians to get more active.

“The Million Moves Challenge had tremendous support from local MPs who each participated in the challenge themselves and rallied their electorates to participate. The data we’ve been about to record from the past 21 days is invaluable but importantly we’ve helped more than 1,300 people get into a regular routine of physical activity every day.”

Million Moves Challenge Winners

• The Most Active MP Award went to Llew O’Brien who achieved 4,456 Myzone Effort Points (MEPs)

• The Most Active Electorate was Fairfax with 488 people participating

• The Most MyZone MEPs was Fisher with more than 70,000 MEPs

• The Most Active Team was awarded to LiFT Strength and Conditioning who had 106 pledges.

AUSactive Chief Executive Barrie Elvish said the Million Moves Challenge was part of a bigger focus on rolling out a national public health campaign to get more people active and the research component being conducted by Sunshine Coast University had already uncovered some important findings.

Elvish advised “the campaign supports current physical activity trends that show that activity levels are increasing in older adults, with the largest age cohort participating in Million Moves being in the 45-54 age group.

“The data here would support a message that there needs to be a focus on young to middle aged adults to establish increased activity and exercise habits to help prevent future disease and aged related functional decline.

“All participants will be given a booklet with information to support them in continuing their exercise habits and we will survey them again in three to six months to measure results.”

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