Benefits of Being Active
Being active should be an important part of your every day routine. It helps you burn up excess energy (calories) and helps prevent you putting on too much weight. Not only that, it helps strengthen your bones and muscles, keeps your body healthy and makes you feel good.
What’s in it for me?
- Feel fitter
Being active more often will help you feel much fitter and healthier.
- Maintain a healthy weight
People who are “always on the go” burn more energy and are less likely to become overweight.
- Help lose excess weight
Increasing activity can help people who are overweight to start to lose some of this weight.
- Can help you feel less stressed
Being active causes your brain to release endorphins and other feel-good hormones. These chemicals give you a natural buzz and feeling of well being. This can help you cope with stressful times (like exams) and stop you from becoming depressed.
- Be healthier
By being active you’ll help to keep yourself healthy by strengthening your bones and muscles and keeping your heart and lungs healthy.
Being active can help improve your confidence and helps you feel good about yourself.
- Help make new friends
Being out and about and trying new activities means there will be lots of opportunities for you to meet new people and find new friends.
What does being physically active mean?
Being active doesn’t always mean having to do exercise like going to the gym or getting out on a football pitch, its much more than that. Everyday activity such as walking, dancing, doing a paper round, cycling to college or helping around the house all count.
How should I go about it?
There are lots of different things that you can do. If you like sport, check out our Get Involved in Sports page for endless ideas of how to get active.
If you don’t like sport but want ideas for hobbies and things you could take up that encourage activity check out our Ideas for Non-Sporting Activities page.
Find a venue or location near you for a particular sport or activity in England.
Should I get a pedometer?
Pedometers are great for helping motivate you to do more activity. On average teenagers take about 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day. If you want to find out how many steps you normally take each day then get hold of a pedometer - they are usually quite cheap - and can be bought online or at sports shops, chemists and department stores.
Fix the pedometer to your waistband and log how many steps you do each day for a few days. Then try to gradually increase the number of steps you do by 200 a day over the next few weeks, aiming for 10,000 a day.
Ideals of how to increase your steps:
- Walk to and from school, college or your place of work everyday
- Walk part of your journey each day
- At break-times go for a walk
- Go shopping (supermarket, local shops or shopping centres all offer opportunities to walk more)
- Offer to walk the dog more often
- Walk to family or friend’s house
- Walk up and down stairs more often
- Call round to see your mates or relatives more often
- Check out local tourist sites, playgrounds, places of interest
- Train for a local charity walk
- Find out about local walks in England
Remember being active more often is not only good for you; it helps you feel good about yourself and more confident too.