What’s the issue? Cardiometabolic diseases are among the most commonly managed conditions in primary care, affecting around a quarter of Australians 45yr+. Physical activity, including walking, aerobic and resistance training, is key. However, current physical activty prescriptions and programs can be undermined by low uptake and adherence, to a large extent because of they are often viewed as too complex, costly, time consuming and interrupting daily routine.

What do we know? People are more likely to start and maintain lifestyle change if it aligns with their intrinsic motivations and can be conducted in settings that empower them to adopt the new behaviour. Nature’s green (eg, parks and hills) and blue spaces (eg, lakes, rivers and beaches) offer a largely underutilised, low/no cost opportunity in chronic disease management that can both attend to people’s interests and provide attractive settings for sustained increases in physical activity. The flocking of individuals to green spaces as a means of coping with the seismic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the size of the opportunity that exists.