Extraordinary new Sport Ireland figures show that Irish people are exercising now more than ever - with a huge increase in recreational walkers.
There are now over 3.1 million regular walkers in the country, a rise of 18 per cent on previous figures. Recreational walking among those under the age of 35, in particular the 15-24 age group, has jumped from 51 per cent to 89 per cent.
Peter Smyth is the Director of Research at Sport Ireland - he told Eoin and Ger on OTB AM that the walking figures in particular were very surprising.
"Just take something like recreational walking... it rarely varies by more than one per cent year-on-year. Last year for example between March and May about 65 per cent of the population were taking part in at least one recreational walk per week.
"That figure is now gone up to 83 per cent. That extra 18 per cent is the equivalent of 650,000 extra walkers.
"This is all about people getting out - engaging in running, cycling, hillwalking, at-home exercise with online resources. The scale of the activity is incredible."
He added that the large increase in recreational exercise generally can also be put down to the usual barriers in everyday life being largely irrelevant during lockdown.
"Mostly we find that in ordinary circumstances, one of the things that people describe as a barrier to them being active is time. Whether it's in commute time, work time, time to look after family.
"Clearly those sets of circumstances have changed significantly in the current environment. The other issue there is when we ask people what are the things that make them want to go out and be active.
"The sort of things they describe are health and wellbeing, looking after themselves, and also the social dimension.
"We're seeing a spike in female activity because they tend to be perhaps better aware of their health and fitness issues. When we started measuring participation in sport about 15 years ago the gap in participation between men and women was about 15 per cent. That gap has now disappeared in the current context."
The research was conducted by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of Sport Ireland, with over half of adults in this country now engaging in sufficient levels of activity to meet the national physical activity guidelines.
"During a period unprecedented in modern times, it is highly encouraging that Irish adults are seeking to look after their own health and well-being through taking part in regular sport and physical activity"
Read more https://t.co/u9ejucovNX#InThisTogether #BeActive pic.twitter.com/fHNHSLwqQE— Sport Ireland (@sportireland) May 28, 2020
Smyth said the closure of many sporting facilities doesn't seem to be having any dampening effect on the numbers getting out and about.
"If you think of the activities people are engaging in at the moment, they seem to be able to do them irrespective of the fact that these facilities are shut down.
"Clearly now we have new people engaging in various activities like running and cycling and exercising and so on that didn't do it before. We also have people presumably that are transferring from other sports that have been closed off to them.
"People will find a way to do things."
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