A brisk walk a day helps keep health woes at bay

Research shows that this counts as a form of intense physical activity and can make a huge difference to people’s health, Hampshire County Council has said.

The authority also encouraging residents to download the new Active 10 app on their smartphones.

Councillor Patricia Stallard, the council’s health boss, said: ‘Summer is the perfect time of year to spend a little more time outside and be more active, but the busy nature of modern life means that it is often difficult to fit physical activity into our days.

‘The Active 10 app has been designed to help you start briskly walking for 10 minutes and build this into your day. You can download this to help measure your 10 minutes of brisk walking daily and use it to gradually build up to multiple ‘Active 10s’.

About 600,000 people across the country have downloaded the app, she added.