Nature Rocks, American Heart Association encourage increased physical activity among all Americans

Families challenged to make "60 Miles in 60 Days" Summer Walking Pledge for Families

Today Nature Rocks, a national program created to inspire and empower parents to take their families to play, explore and enjoy quality time in nature, announced a collaboration with the American Heart Association's Start! Initiative.  Start! encourages increased physical activity among all Americans, emphasizing walking because it's easy, free and has the lowest dropout rate of any form of activity.

In January, the American Heart Association identified physical activity as one of the seven measures necessary for ideal cardiovascular health. However, only 15 percent of American adults achieve the association's recommended levels of moderate aerobic exercise (150 minutes per week or more).  With the "60 Miles in 60 Days" Summer Walking Pledge for Families, Nature Rocks and the American Heart Association are helping families close that gap.  Participants in "60 Miles in 60 Days" can sign up on the registration page of [www.startwalkingnow.org] and visit www.naturerocks.org to download a free guide – complete with tips, a walking checklist and mileage tracker – to help complete the challenge safely and successfully.  The first 60 people to sign up will receive prizes from Nature Rocks and American Heart Association. Everyone who completes the challenge will be featured in Nature Rocks and Start! social media.

"Increasing physical activity and aerobic fitness are major goals of the American Heart Association in our efforts to improve the heart health of all Americans by 20 percent by the year 2020," said Barry Franklin, Ph.D., director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. and national Start! spokesperson. "Through this collaboration with Nature Rocks, we will reach more families with our proactive message: get out and get moving for your health."

To kick off the collaboration, Nature Rocks will feature rotating Start! Walking Paths and American Heart Association content on www.naturerocks.org homepage and "Find Nature" page, which enables parents to find nature-related activities by zip code.  Additionally, Start! participants will be  exposed to the "families plus nature" component of Nature Rocks and be inspired to get outside and explore nature now with over a hundred activity ideas, guides and events listings.

"The benefits of nature to families involve health, but they also involve the heart; families that go outside together, stay together.  By partnering with the American Heart Association, we're bringing nature to the workplace and an important health component to family," said Richard Louv, co-founder of the Children and Nature Network, Nature Rocks' organizing partner.  "The American Heart Association is among the most esteemed health organizations in our country and we're proud to align our goals with theirs – encouraging heart health by motivating families to go outside and start walking."