Move More

The health benefits can be significant

By becoming more physically active you too can enjoy the benefits of an active lifestyle.

Regular physical activity of moderate intensity, such as taking a brisk walk, instead of driving or taking the bus, can contribute to reducing your risk of developing chronic diseases – such as coronary heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – by up to 50%.  And, there is growing evidence of the positive effect of physical activity on mental well-being.

How much activity?

The Chief Medical Officer recommends that:

• children and young people should aim for at total of at least 60 minutes of at least moderate intensity physical activity each day
• for general health benefit, adults should aim for at least 30 minutes a day of at least moderate intensity physical activity on five or more days of the week
• the recommendations for adults are also appropriate for older adults. Older people should take particular care to keep moving and retain their mobility through daily activity
• the recommended levels of activity can be achieved either by doing all the daily activity in one session, or through several short bouts of activity of 10 minutes or more.

Making the Change – Change4Life

To help get you started and thinking about the ways in which you could become more active click on the link to the Change4Life programme.

Active kids are happy kids!

Kids need to do 60 minutes of activity a day to help them stay happy and healthy. They don’t need to get their 60 active minutes all in one go – they can clock them up bit by bit through the day and it doesn’t have to be organised sport.

• Skip to it! Grab a skipping rope and hop, skip and jump towards your 60 minutes of activity a day.
• Take a boogie break! put on your favourite track and dance to music or with a dance mat
• Spend time playing active games such as skittles or hide and seek
• Help with household chores such as washing the car
• Get them off the bus and out of the car – if it’s walkable, walk it!
• ‘2 hours max’ it maybe helpful to limit the amount of time your children sit still in front of the TV, computer to 2 hours max a day.
• Find some friends or family and a frisbee and have a chuck around in the park
• Scooting, slate-boarding and roller-blading are all great ways to move around

If you are concerned about whether your children are getting enough physical activity, and for ideas about how to ensure your children keep active, visit our local programmes page.

For more fun tips like these search online at Change4life or call 0300 123 4567 and join us to receive your free welcome pack with games, quizzes, recipes and much more.

See Related pages for further information on keeping yourself healthy.

If you would like to read the Chief Medical Officer’s report published on 15 March 2010 go to: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/DH_113912