Isle Be Active

Get your lifetime fitness membership with 1Leisure, and get access to exercise classes, squash courts, pools, and more. Also, join community clubs and groups, walks, fun runs, and activity challenges with Isle Be Active.

These are some of the Be Active community challenges you can join to get involved and get active.

Active Travel Challenge

This activity usually runs throughout February. Contact us to find out when the latest Active Travel Challenge is.

How it works: you will complete our travel chart (PDF, 526KB, 1 page) each day as you travel to or from school by foot, bike, scooter or skateboard. All completed charts will be entered into a prize draw to win a new bike. The winner will be chosen at random.

Medina IOW parkrun

Medina IOW parkrun is run by us and funded jointly by Sport England and the Health Authority. It is to help raise adult and children physical activity levels. Parkrun organises free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world. They are open to everyone, free, and are safe and easy to take part in. You need to register before your first run.

Medina IOW parkrun relies on the generosity of its volunteers who turn up every week and give their time to make this event a weekly success. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please contact us on medinahelpers@parkrun.com.

Health walks

The health walks programme supports local people to experience the benefits of getting out and staying active. It helps to improve your mental and physical wellbeing and reduce social isolation.

The groups are led by friendly, specially trained volunteers. The volunteers are on hand to provide encouragement and support, and make sure no one gets left behind. The walks are short and over easy terrain. They are open to everyone but are especially aimed at those who are least active.

Our top five benefits for being active are:

• improves mental wellbeing – exercise can boost your mood with the release of adrenalin and endorphins. It can improve confidence that comes from achieving new things
• improves lung health – exercise helps to strengthen your lungs. People who walk or cycle are also exposed to fewer dangerous fumes than those who travel by car
• improves brain power – exercise has been repeatedly linked to brain health and the reduction of cognitive changes that can lead to dementia later in life
• strengthens your immune system – exercise has huge benefits on the health of the upper respiratory system, such as reducing instances of the common cold. There are also many other exercise related health benefits
• environmental and public health benefits – climate is changing and transportation is a leading cause. Reducing traffic by choosing to walk or cycle can lead to positive environmental benefits.

These mapped routes are free to use and available to everyone.

• Newport
• Newport town
• Shide
• Cowes 
• East Cowes
• Gurnard 
• Ryde
• Ventnor
• Sandown
• Shanklin
• Yarmouth
• Fort Victoria
• Newchurch
• Lake
• Alverstone
• Yaverland

In partnership with Energise Me, we have created a new club and activity directory for the Island.

Get active Isle of Wight is a new website that will host activities of all types. It ranges from sports sessions at your local club to exercise classes in your living room. There are helpful tips to get you started and stories about others that have benefited from getting active more often.

Registering your club or activity

Clubs, organisations, groups and instructors can add their session information to the site. To do this, you will need to register for free with Open Sessions and input your session information. This will automatically upload the details you've added to Get Active Isle of Wight. New members and participants will be able to find you and book with you.

Open Sessions have put together some support information about how it works and to help get you started.

In 2018, we successfully applied to the Department for Transport for support to improve our walking and cycling infrastructure. The first Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) was developed for Newport and Ryde (PDF, 12.6MB, 203 pages).

As a result of the extra funding received in 2021/22 three areas have invested in LCWIPs. This investment means Town and Parish councils are informed about their own areas and could benefit from future funding.

Latest LCWIPs

• Cowes, Northwood and Gurnard (PDF, 9.1MB, 110 pages)
• East Cowes and Whippingham (PDF, 3MB, 43 pages)
• Bembridge, Brading and St Helens (PDF, 9.1MB, 113 pages)

LCWIPs explained

LCWIPs are identified in the government’s strategy. They are a new strategic approach to identifying cycling and walking improvements at a local level. LCWIPs enable a long-term approach to developing local cycling and walking networks. This means local authorities can apply for capital improvement funding, when it is available.

The key outputs of LCWIPs are:

• a network plan for walking and cycling. The plan will identify preferred routes and core zones for further development
• a prioritised programme of infrastructure improvements for future investment
• a report which sets out the underlying analysis carried out. It also provides a narrative which supports the identified improvements and network.

By taking this strategic approach to improving conditions for cycling and walking, LCWIPs will help us to:

• identify cycling and walking infrastructure improvements. For future investment in the short, medium and long term
• ensure local planning and transport policies and strategies consider cycling and walking
• make the case for future funding for walking and cycling infrastructure.