Last month I blogged about exercise safety in "Exercise 1: checking it's safe to start", about the helpful GPPAQ - General Practice Physical Activity Questionnaire - described in "Exercise 2: UK Department of Health, resources for assessment & advice", about the excellent advice on how to exercise in "Exercise 3: US Department of Health & Human Services, resources for assessment & advice", and about "Exercise 4: pedometers can help us walk more".  Last week I posted the 5th in this series with "Exercise 5: the recommendation to do strengthening exercises".  Today's post is the 6th and last of the sequence - here I want to talk a little about where to exercise, what choices are available, and broader national & international exercise-relevant links.

The internet is a great resource for this kind of detective work.  Resources like "Meetup.com" are a good place to look for others who might be interested locally in forms of exercise you would like to participate in. 

Here in Scotland, the government's "Take Life On" website has a good section on "Being Active".  Another excellent Scottish resource is the "Active Scotland" site which allows one to search for local exercise groups and facilities anywhere in the country.  I'm also a fan of "Paths to Health" and the way one can search there for a local Scottish walking group.  All these websites have good links to networks of other useful exercise-related resources - for example "Cycling Scotland", "JogScotland", the National Outdoor Training Centre "Glenmore Lodge" (a particular favourite of mine), and the "Physical Activity & Health Alliance".

For the UK as a whole there is a rich set of resources & links on exercise & health at the "British Heart Foundation".  "Green Gyms", "British Swimming"  - the even more broadly geographically focused "Swim4Fitness" - the "Bike List", the "Ramblers", and more locally to England, the "Walking for Health" initiative (with its local walk finder).  

And extending further afield, the many resources include - in Europe, the "European heart network" and the "European network for the promotion of physical activity"; in Australia, the "Healthy and active Australia" campaign and the "Australian sports commission"; in Canada there's "Health Canada" and the "Canadian physical activity guides"; in the USA, "National coalition for promoting physical activity" and the "2008 physical activity guidelines"; there's the "Asia Pacific physical activity network", the researchers' "International physical activity & the environment network", and the World Health Organization's "Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health".