Nation of screen slaves shape up for E-mail Free Friday

Sport England launched a national ‘E-mail Free Friday’ on the back of claims from a leading health expert that office e-mail culture is a major factor behind the obesity epidemic.

Bosses at Sport England called on office workers to support the first ever E-mail Free Friday on October 21 with a blanket ban on internal e-mails to get people walking around the office.

The event is part of Sport England’s Everyday Sport campaign, which encourages employees to build activity into their working day.

International heart expert Dr Dorian Dugmore warned: “We need the nation to get behind E-mail Free Friday as we are losing millions of hours of exercise through the explosion of email.

“The average energy expenditure of deskbound workers falls well below the recommended amount of 40 minutes per day. We are now all familiar with the five servings of fruit and vegetables every day and now it’s time to start applying the same principle to our working lives.

“The sedentary lifestyles we lead are not just down to the couch potato epidemic at home that has swept through our society, but the new ‘screen slave’ office culture that is taking over.

“People email colleagues who sit next to them, never mind those who work over the other side of the office. It might seem like a small change to make, but we need to start somewhere in a bid to change people’s increasingly lazy attitudes.

“On their way to work, people will take the escalators up from the train station, take the bus to the nearest possible point to their offices, take the lifts up to their floor and spending more and more time sitting at their desks emailing.

“A cocktail of ‘couch potato’ and ‘screen slave’ lifestyles could be a fatal combination.

“Increasing activity levels by just 10% could save 6,000 lives and £500 million per year and one million fewer obese people in England could mean 15,000 fewer people with coronary heart diseases, 34,000 people developing type 2 diabetes and 99,000 fewer people with high blood pressure1.

Matthew Delaney Director of Sport England London, added: “We have a big task to increase the number of people who are physically active and what better place to focus our efforts than in the work place. We want to get people in offices, factories, supermarkets and hospitals on the move and building activity into their daily lives.

“Taking part in physical activity and sport has a whole range of benefits – from supporting weight loss and dramatically improving your health to beating stress or simply helping you to feel more confident and making you smile.”

E-mail Free Friday will be the first of a series of office events staged by Sport England as part of its month-long Everyday Sport Office Games initiative, which starts on October 17.

Everyday Sport Office Games will offer practical tips and advice on how to build exercise into your journey to work, working day and journey home and runs until November 18. Activity can be anything from a lunch break or after work kickabout with colleagues, to taking the stairs instead of the lift, getting off the bus a stop early or brisk lunchtime walks.

Workers will have the chance to earn medals for their Everyday Sport efforts. For example, taking part in a team sport merits a bronze medal; an after work kickabout, a walk, running, cycling and a visit to the gym earn a silver medal, whereas getting off the bus/train early, taking the stairs rather than the lift or a lunchtime swim score a gold medal.

Prizes are up for grabs for organisations that show they are changing their workplaces with Everyday Sport.

Workplaces will need to appoint a manager to organise and motivate the team and keep a tally of the medals achieved each week. For an Everyday Sport Office Games starter pack, log on to www.everydaysport.com.

The Everyday Sport campaign is all about small steps making a big difference. Everyday Sport can mean different things to different people, from taking the stairs instead of the lift or getting off the bus a stop early to joining a sports club or registering for an exercise class.

Sport England has been set a target by Government of increasing participation in sport and physical activity by 3% in the next three years. Everyday Sport is the first major initiative in this long-term plan.

International studies demonstrate that long terms campaigns hold the key to increasing participation in physical activity and sport. In countries such as Finland, Canada and Germany, the combination of high quality facilities, significant investment in clubs, coaches and volunteers, underpinned by campaigning and performance measurement, has increased participation.

Everyday Sport already has the support of more than 60 famous faces from the worlds of politics, celebrity and sport, including Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, Sports Minister Richard Caborn, Sebastian Coe, Rio Ferdinand, James Cracknell, Jonny Wilkinson, Steve Cram, sports commentating legend Barry Davies, Jonathan Edwards, Nell McAndrew, Donna Air and Jayne Middlemiss.

Sebastian Coe, Chairman of London 2012, said: “Winning the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London is the most fantastic opportunity that any generation in this county has ever been granted. It will kick-start a huge amount of interest and opportunities for everyone, particularly young people, to take up sport and physical activity. A new generation of young athletes will be inspired to become the champions of tomorrow. We want this country to be one of the most enthusiastic and active in the world about sport when we host the London Games in 2012. A campaign like Everyday Sport will be a major catalyst for making this happen."

To find out how you can incorporate Everyday Sport into your lives, to find out where you can take up a new sport or activity or for more information about the campaign, log on to www.everydaysport.com or call the Everyday Sport hotline: 0800 587 6000.