• Walking

"MuoviBo": go out for a walk!

Walking is the perfect activity to be healthy. You only need comfortable shoes and a bit of goodwill. If you do not have it, here the navigator that shows paths to Bologna citizens and tourists

Marcello Maccaferri

"MuoviBo": go out for a walk!
UNDER THE 'TWO TOWERS', WITH A DIGITAL PERSONAL TRAINER

No more excuses! As experts and doctors always say, walking is healthy. It is good for mind, humor and body. A necessary movement with many advantages and... completely for free.   

 

Bologna is a city that cares about activities on walk and by bike, it knows the value of a walk not only to improve memory and prevent heart attacks, obesity, diabetes and arthrosis but also to educate people to the beauty of the art and the observation of the nature. At natural rhythms and in freedom, without runs or obligatory breaks.  

A philosophy and a program that today in Bologna have become an App called “MuoviBo”, a navigator to download on your own smartphone created to encourage citizens to do sport and help tourists to discover all treasures of this city.

Promoted by the municipality, the Region District and the ‘Uisp’ (an important Italian sport association), the application turns a smartphone or a tablet into a “training guide”. Moreover, it follows a preset step speed (it sets the rhythm like a “metronome”) and transforms the old city center in an outdoor gym.

Here are mapped 12 km divided in short routes - mostly under colonnades (perfect during rainy days) - full of historical and artistic attractions, with the support of a visual card and audio both in Italian and English.

They are the firsts of about sixty urban trails that go also out of town, coming within the year.

It is an easy but revolutionary idea: the smartphone becomes a guided tour but also a kind of personal trainer, setting the rhythm of your walk depending on your age and your fitness.

You can choose the fast walking (between 4,5 and 6,5 km/h), the slow run (between 7 and 10 km/h) or the urban trekking (at free speed). Moreover, at the mode chosen corresponds a value (‘Pam’ - steps per minute) that, with an acoustic signal, it marks the rhythm of the step, to maintain to follow the chosen speed.

And if you want to verify your fitness and improve yourself, there is a special test: the system asks the athlete to sing three times the song “Volare” while walking and then, at the end, go for another walk at a faster rhythm.

According to Bologna assessor of Health and Sport, Luca Rizzo Nervo, “MuoviBo” is a precious instrument because “a well-training society has something more to give, and to be fit we often need only half an hour of fast walking or slow run. In addition, these itineraries are also new worlds of sociability in which citizens can reconquer the city center and tourists can discover it in a new way”.  

MuoviBo is part of the “Bologna città attiva” (Bologna active city) program, in order to contrast risks of inactivity among the people.

Fabio Casadio, ‘Uisp’ president of the provincial committee of Bologna, explains that “with the technology we all have the opportunity to do sports activity perfect for us and discover the city”.  

In this way, are applied the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) about the amount of physical activity recommended: 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week that are necessary to obtain health benefits.

However, which one is the right ‘dose’ of physical activity? WHO suggests modules of 10 minutes each. Pieces of training suitable also for less trained people, that allow to be healthier. For that reason, the App contains also a “blister” - like a traditional medicine one - to count how many “doses” of training you have done in one day. Every blister contains 150 minutes that are the perfect weekly goal for a moderate physical activity.

Immediate and adabtable, ‘MuoviBo’ could not reach less-technological people. But no problem: there are also paper brochures and guides that are distributed door to door or at strategic places like pharmacies. In this way, you can browse the map and start your walk.

Casadio ends saying that: “It is a proposal for physical activity at zero kilometers (you only have to go out and move), zero impact (it does not need any infrastructure) and completely free (you do not have to pay any subscription for the service)”.

From now on, no more excuses...

 

INFO:

www.uispbologna.it
movimento@uispbologna.it
facebook.com/muovibo

UNDER THE 'TWO TOWERS', WITH A DIGITAL PERSONAL TRAINER
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