What you can do
You need 30 minutes of physical activity each day to maintain good health and wellbeing. Here are some tips and ideas to help you become more active.
First, it’s important to set small, achievable goals. Don’t aim for a marathon if you can’t run a lap of the oval. Be realistic about what you can achieve right now and think of ways to build exercise into your daily life – without making it seem daunting or overwhelming.
Essentially, you need to find ways to swap sedentary behaviour (sitting or lying down) with physical activity, that is, anything that gets your body moving, your heart beating and your breath pumping.
Here are some ways you can become more active everyday:
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator
- Park a few blocks away from your destination and walk
- Get busy in your garden
- Join a walking group
- Join a dog walking group
- Go for a bike ride
Then, you should aim to start building more intense activities into your regime, like jogging, aerobics, fast cycling or organised sport. These will help to really boost your fitness so you start reaping the many health benefits that exercise brings.