Last year National Fitness Day encouraged more than 10 million people to get active.
The day is a celebration of health and fitness and highlights the role physical activity plays in making us healthier. The campaign, led by UK Active aims at raising awareness and motivating the nation to get up and get moving.
This year’s National Fitness Day theme is ‘Your Health is for Life’ – which emphasises that the day isn’t just about a one off moment in time but about taking small steps towards a lifestyle that can protect and promote your health.
Feel Good Suffolk knows that getting active isn’t always easy and for lots of people in the UK getting up and getting active is beset with difficulty. We have a range of advice and support to help you to get moving, whether that’s referring into our 1-2-1 support or just getting the lowdown on what’s available locally, we can help. It’s certainly worth having a look at our Be Active pages, which has links to national and local initiatives. Like Parkrun, walking and cycling routes and the well-loved ‘Wellbeing Walks’.
Walk for your wellbeing
One of the easiest ways to get moving is to go for a walk. A regular walk can help people in all sorts of wonderful ways. From lowering anxiety and stress levels to boosting your energy levels walking can have a big impact. Walking also builds stamina and helps people manage a myriad of health conditions, not to mention improving the quality of sleep.
How many steps?
Not all steps are equal and tracking every step isn’t necessarily the most effective way of improving your fitness. The ‘10,000 steps a day’ mantra isn’t always doable or feasible and it is important to know the difference between low intensity steps and moderate intensity.
In practice, moderate-intensity means around 100 steps a minute. But obviously, this may differ depending on your ability levels, and this step rate should be kept up for at least 10 minutes.
- So, adding 3000-4000 moderate-intensity steps a day is a good goal to aim for
- Your ultimate aim may be to reach 30 mins a day
- If it seems too much then break it down into smaller chunks
- Try short bouts such as 5-10 mins and build up over time.
Wellbeing Walks
Feel Good Suffolk partners with ‘Ramblers UK’ in offering a wide range of free, organised group walks across Suffolk. Ramblers Wellbeing Walks are found all over England and there are some within easy reach of where you live in Suffolk. All walks are led by an experienced walk leader along tried and tested easy-to-reach routes.
There are over 80 free guided walks across the county a month, varying from countryside walks to urban walks.
Every walk is graded from 1 to 5 based on difficulty, ensuring that there is something for everyone.
You can find which walks are local to you here via the ‘find a walk near you’ link, which will take you to the Ramblers UK website which has all the upcoming walks across the county.
Whatever your age, there is strong evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life. The important thing to remember is to start slowly and build up and find something that you enjoy doing.
In the words of Confucious –
‘A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step’
Happy Rambles!
Julie Chapman
[Images are from Suffolk Wellbeing Walks]
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