The fitness industry in Europe is uniting today (30 May) to launch #beactivehour, a free one hour workout at 5.00pm CET/3.00pm GMT.

The event has been organised by EuropeActive and ukactive with support from the European Commission, as an antidote to the lockdown.

Huw Edwards, CEO of ukactive, said “The inaugural #BeActive Hour event coincides with the date for the now cancelled UEFA Champions League final. We hope football and non-football fans alike across the country will mark the date by committing to getting fitter and joining in the family workout.

"Across the summer on dates originally marked for global sporting events such as Wimbledon, Test Cricket, the Open and the Olympics and Paralympics we hope to encourage fans with different sporting interests to commit to a fitness programme that will boost their health and immune systems. This will culminate on National Fitness Day on Wednesday 23rd September, where BMF with Bear Grylls will lead the nation in a mass public workout."

The May 30th celebration comes in the form of a one-hour live family-friendly workout. Fitness professionals from across Europe will also be getting involved to unite the whole continent around the role physical activity can play in all of our lives.

The organisers are encouraging coordinators, partners, community leaders and influencers to spread the message and help it reach the broadest audience possible.

Today's workout (30 May) will be led by Bear Grylls from BMF and you can sign up here.

Grylls said: “Now more than ever, we need to help our communities stay active, healthy and positive in the face of this global crisis. This is why our team at BMF have teamed up with fitness industry’s lead bodies ukactive and EuropeActive to unite the sector on a European scale in its mission to help the continent stay active and physically fit.”

Event partners include Technogym, Matrix Fitness, Go fit, Les Mills, Life Fitness, FIBO and Myzone.

You can join other workouts today here:

FIBO – Live Link/

Facebook

GOfit - Live Link/Youtube

Les Mills – Live Link/Youtube

Life Fitness – Live Link/All Social Media Accounts

Myzone – Live Link with David Lloyd Leisure

Technogym – Live Link

BACKGROUND BRIEFING

ukactive is the UK’s leading not-for-profit health body for the physical activity sector, with more than 4,000 members, ranging from activity providers to major consumer brands, training facilities and equipment manufacturers. Members come from across the private, public and third sector and are united by ukactive’s longstanding and uncompromising commitment to getting more people more active, more often. ukactive facilitates high-impact partnerships, conceives and drives breakthrough campaigns, conducts critical research and galvanises key stakeholders to develop and deliver key projects that support and champion the physical activity agenda. The organisation’s efforts are centred on supporting a national ambition to “turn the tide of physical inactivity”.

EuropeActive is a not-for-profit organisation representing the whole of the European fitness & physical activity sector in Brussels. It currently represents approx. 25,000 facilities and 20 national associations spread across 25 countries in Europe. Membership is open to all stakeholders - public or private - including operators, suppliers, national associations, training providers, higher education and accreditation institutions. EuropeActive aims to co-operate with the European Union and other international organisations to achieve its objective to get more people, more active, more often.

The European Commission (EC) is the executive branch of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU.

National Fitness Day, an initiative designed to get the nation active, was founded 10 Years Ago by énergie Fitness Group. The event grew beyond all expectations and Jan Spaticchia, (then CEO of énergie and now vice chair of BMF and NED at énergie) realised that the initiative was bigger than any one operator.

For this reason, énergie gifted National Fitness Day to the industry, passing the stewardship of the event to ukactive to support its mission to get more people more active, more often. Since 2010, National Fitness Day has grown to become the most important day in the fitness calendar, with more than 5m people active on the day, with 20,000 fitness events across more than 6,000 venues with a media reach of more than 60m and social media reach of more than 65 million.

Bear Grylls OBE, has become known worldwide as one of the most recognised faces of survival and outdoor adventure. Trained as part of 21 SAS Regiment, Grylls went on to become one of the youngest climbers ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He then went on to star in seven seasons of the Discovery Channel’s Emmy Award-nominated Man vs. Wild TV series, which became one of the most-watched shows on the planet, reaching an estimated 1.2 billion viewers.

Since then he has gone on to host more extreme adventure TV shows across more global networks than anyone else in the world, including six seasons of the global hit TV show Running Wild with Bear Grylls. His Running Wild guests have included President Barack Obama, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Roger Federer, Julia Roberts, Prime Minister Modi of India and many others. His autobiography, Mud Sweat and Tears, spent 15 weeks at Number 1 in the Sunday Times bestseller list and he has written over 90 books, selling in excess of 18 million copies worldwide.

He is an Honorary Colonel to the Royal Marines Commandos, the youngest ever UK Chief Scout, and the first ever Chief Ambassador to the World Scout Organization, representing a global family of some fifty million Scouts.

Be Military Fit (BMF), is one of the UK’s largest and fastest-growing outdoor fitness franchise, with 65 parks operating across the UK and a rapid rollout planned in the UK and Internationally. Backed by NM Capital the business was acquired in 2018 as British Military Fitness the original Boot Camp operator that operated for over 20 years. BMF and its franchisees are on a mission to 'get the world active outdoors'.