For adults betwenn 19-64 years, to stay healthy it is recommended we do two types of exercies, aerobic exercises and strength exercises. Experts say about 20 mins of aerobic activity (that raises your heart rate a little) such as walking or cycling and exercise that strengthen all your muscles.
Thats easy to say, but difficult to do if you have a busy life like us! It can also be difficult for people with limited mobility, as some of us have. Some of the things we try and do to help us get more exercise are:
Walking to work, school,or the local shops instead of driving, or parking further away from work or school and walk or use a mobility aid for the last little bit.
Parking at the far side of a supermarket car park to get more exercise in.
Doing hand weights with small weights or objects at home.
Minimise sitting if possible.
Use the stairs in work than the lift.
Arrange to exercise with a friend, so it’s harder to chicken out!
Go for a walk or exercise with a mobility aid around your workplace building in your lunch break- even if its for only 10 minutes.
Try to do sit-ups or core strengthening exercise and build them into your daily routine eg. after brushing your teeth.
Try going for a walk, cycle or do an outdoor activity on the weekend, rather than going shopping or watching TV.
Little things daily are more realistic than playing team sports every day! We’d certainly love to have the time to do this, but have other time committments in our life, so that perhaps we can only fit sports in once or twice a week.
Good luck trying to build exercise into your life! We’ll be trying to do the same! We hope that it keeps us active and well for as long as possible.
