Move More Month

“In January 2020, the Board of Directors of the AVA: America’s Walking Club, declared the first seven days of April to be “National Walking Week” which would include the traditional “National Walking Day” sponsored by the American Heart Association from 2007 to 2019.”

At VITALIA Active Adult Community® – Solon in  Solon, OH, we strive to make sure that our residents stay active and healthy to ensure they enjoy their golden years in the best ways possible! Each of our residents has unique interests when it comes to fitness – some enjoy walking outdoors at local parks while others get their workout in at our cardio drumming classes. With that in mind, we adapt our fitness programs according to the tastes of our residents, utilizing both in-house fitness classes and our vendor partnerships to provide a variety of choices for our residents to stay active. Due to our unique resident group, the classes we provide may vary from those of our sister communities so that we are all meeting the needs of our individual residents. 

My residents love to exercise! As the Resident Services Director, I personally provide two classes per day, plus five or more “active” events a week including chair volleyball, walking club, bocce, putt-putt, cornhole, and KanJam. The residents enjoy the variety of activities that are offered each day and really get into cardio drumming, chair dance, and balance-ball-boxing-barbell exercise. We also offer yoga with a certified instructor. The goal here at VITALIA Solon is to provide unique types of fitness events that are both interesting and healthy.

When we think of celebrating National Walking Week, we don’t just see a way to stay active. We see an opportunity to interact with those in our communities and meet new friends along the way. In celebration of this week, walkers are encouraged to find the motivation to get active.

To celebrate National Walking Week, we revamped our current walking club that meets on Sundays to incorporate scavenger hunts to encourage more participation. The plan for this week is to create a step challenge by asking residents to log their steps through an app on their phone, to get to a total number of steps for the community, and then to end the week with a party when we reach our goal!   

I hope to not only continue a walking effort throughout the year but to keep the step competitions going. It would be great to ultimately make a companywide club that residents could be a part of and possibly compete between communities.

If you would like to participate in National Walking Week efforts in your area, visit https://ava.org/national-walking-week/ to find out more! 

Sources: https://ava.org/national-walking-week/

www.walkvirginia.org)