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Keeping active when options feel limited

Keeping active when options feel limited

This blog covers different ways to keep active and have includes lots of ideas to help you get up and move more in a fun way.

Keeping active is linked to positive mental and physical health and well-being, so it’s vital that we take care of ourselves. There are a variety of ideas, some that you can do indoors and some outdoors, on your own or with other members of your household. Select one or two ideas to start with and have a go at incorporating them into your week. Having structure to your day is essential for your mental health, so why not make a list of “physical activity to do’s” with our suggestions below?

Indoors:

Think of your favourite uplifting song and create your very own dance moves to it; you can do it by yourself or with other members of your household. That’s approximately three minutes of moving more per song right there.
Play catch with a ball, or if you don’t have a ball, use a pair of socks wrapped up to mimic one. Try and see how many catches you can do with each hand in one minute – adds a bit of fun using the non-dominant hand! You could have a fun competition with each member of the household, trying to beat your own time or the overall highest.
Try some chair-based movements or exercises. Remember, even if you are not mobile on your feet, you can still move whilst in the seated position – to get started, find our exercise videos in your app resources.
With a bat and ball see how many hits you can make in a minute before dropping the ball, and try to beat that each time. Again, you could have a fun competition with each member of the household.

Try some gentle yoga stretches. Different types of yoga may suit different abilities; it’s about finding a method that suits you. Here are a couple of examples that you could try: yoga or pilates
Play an at-home scavenger hunt – this could be done indoors or outdoors, but with the cold, wet weather, you may want to try it at home instead. Choose a theme, for example, hiding alphabet letters to make up a word, or household items that represent something. Create clues to find the ‘treasure’ as a fun and innovative way to get children involved and active, too, especially if they are at home.
See who can do the most repetitions in a minute of star jumps/sit ups/hops / jumps from side to side – play against yourself or other members of your household.
Upgrade your household chores from the regular routines to doing some DIY. We are spending more time at home so could you spend some time giving that dull wall a fresh coat of paint or update kitchen cupboard door handles?

Outdoors:

See how far you can walk down the road in 5 minutes and try to get a bit further each time.
If it’s windy outside, go out and try to catch the leaves. Or if you are on a walk, see if you can collect up to 10 different types of leaves – not only does this get you out, but it also connects you to nature and makes this a more mindful exercise as you can observe the differences/similarities between them whilst keeping active.
Walk or run against the wind. We always tend to walk in the same direction as the wind, but why not try walking against it – it can add some resistance to your walk, and you may even feel a more fulfilling accomplishment.
Get green-fingered. If gardening got you through the last lockdown and the weather is keeping you away from it this month, why not try some indoor planting? Indoor plants can help you feel calm, improve air quality, lift your mood and get you moving too.

Create an outdoors treasure hunt. They are great fun, easy to organise and adults and children can do them in lots of different places. Examples for children could be: Things to find in a park i.e. some daisies, a long stick, a leaf with more than one colour in it, different types of leaves, a feather, smooth stones, rough stones. Once they’ve found all these, you could take them home and create a nature type of collage/display.
Try the lamp post challenge, when on a walk try jogging or running between the lampposts. Not only does it get you to your destination quicker (and passes the time!), but it also adds to your daily physical activity recommendations.
Time yourself walking around the park and see if you can beat it by a few seconds each week.

With all of these activities, please bear in mind social distancing and the importance of children being supervised and road aware. Finally, a note to say that not every day is going to be the same. Take a moment each morning to check in with yourself and see where you at emotionally and physically. Then according to where you are at, set goals that are in line with how you feel. There will be days when we are more organised and motivated than others, so remember to be kind to yourself. Good luck and keep active.