"Wellness Walk" Initiative Aimed at Improving Fitness During Pandemic

In an age of obvious political polarization, it's very rare that a group of people agree on anything. Even health experts involved with the Covid-19 pandemic have different ideas about the effectiveness of masks and the efficacy of social distancing and shut down measures. Though when it comes to a physically fit body being able to fend off the virus better than out of shape people, experts across the board agree. Though with so many people still sheltering in place, it's hard to find time for physical fitness. This is why some organizations are staging wellness walks, like the St. Joseph County Health Department. Located in Indiana, USA, St. Joseph launched their "Be Well" initiative on Thursday, August 6, with a goal of helping people take guided walks to improve their levels of physical fitness.

The people in charge of this initiative originally intended these wellness walks to be for seniors. The idea behind it was that seniors aren't getting out very much, and thus their physical fitness and immune systems are weaker than younger people. Coupled with the fact that seniors are far more vulnerable to the novel Coronavirus than anyone else, it made a lot of sense to target them for a fitness initiative.

However, as the plans started to take shape, the people at St. Joseph thought it would be more beneficial if this were a community initiative. So, as of August 6, the idea is to offer guided walks to anyone in the community who shows up wanting a walk. The walks will take place in the Bendix Woods County Park every Thursday at 9 a.m. for the foreseeable future.

Some of the benefits here include that the walk is totally free, and attendees do not need to register prior to showing up. A lot of these sorts of initiatives require a fee, or at the very least require someone to go to a chamber of commerce or similar place to register to participate. Though St. Joseph wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to join together as a community to stay physically fit.

The thinking behind guided walks is that more people might show up for the community aspect, with a fitness initiative that's much more like a guided tour of the community. So this isn't anything like going to the gym with other people and having to use the workout equipment. This is a laid-back, leisurely event, where people can wear their tennis shoes and whatever is most comfortable for them.

After the walks conclude, there will also be a short session dealing specifically with wellness topics. The people at St. Joseph want to educate community members on the benefits of physical fitness, particularly in the face of the global virus pandemic. The healthier someone is, the better able they are to fight off this virus. Great physical fitness doesn't show much evidence of preventing the virus, but it does show ample evidence of helping to fight it. Healthy people are able to go through Covid-19 either asymptomatic entirely, or no more symptoms than a common flu strain. The stronger someone's immune system is, the better they deal with it all.

Fitness and Motivation Spread

The virus isn't the only thing that spreads through communities once it infects someone. Mental attitudes regarding fitness also spread. Sociologists have observed for decades that the thing about trends is that healthy trends tend to take off more quickly than unhealthy trends. The bad news with that bit of scientific observation is that unhealthy trends tend to last a lot longer. Things like smoking, drinking and eating poor diets. But just take a quick look at all the diet fads to crop up every year, and you will see that healthy trends can also be just as contagious.

What St. Joseph wants to do is something different to get people to stick with the healthier trends longer. Brooks County is a relatively smaller community, full of good people who have pretty close relationships. The ultimate wish here from the organization is that this takes off as a trend and people, especially seniors in the community, start looking forward to showing up on Thursday's for healthy walks and informative wellness meetings.

The wellness walks have only been going on since August 6, so time will tell how successful the initiative ends up. Though with any luck, a lot more people will stay committed to fitness.