Active Mile Daily Track is a popular product that has been installed in many schools across the UK. Designed to be used during class time for students to complete at their own pace, this simple activity has been proven to improve the wellbeing of young people and encourage a more active lifestyle as children grow up. It is an inclusive physical activity that can be completed by any child, regardless of age or ability, and helps break up the children’s day.
The Connection Between Active Mile Tracking and Weight Loss
The school-based, highly publicized and widely adopted Daily Mile consists of 15 min of walking/running outside at a self-selected pace each day during class time. It has been anecdotally reported to have a number of physiological benefits including increased physical activity, reduced sedentary behavior and improved fitness and body composition. To investigate the effects of the Daily Mile, a quasi-experimental study was conducted between two primary schools in the same council area. One school was implementing the Daily Mile whilst the other had no intention to do so (the intervention). Children in both schools were assessed on their level of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, fitness and body composition at baseline and after the Daily Mile implementation.
A survey of teachers was also conducted and showed that 81-96% of teachers found The Daily Mile easy to implement in their school. This included the ease of the program, a lack of resources required and the fact that it could be done in most weather conditions. An improvement in shuttle distance, a measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness that is predictive of future all-cause mortality was observed. A difference in shuttle distance of 0.35 ml*kg-1*min-1 is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality of 1.5% [52].