Taking the Little Steps into Becoming Active Everyday!
Being more active in your everyday life could make a real difference to your health and wellbeing, but that doesn’t mean you need to be a very sporty person and visit the gym a lot, it can simply be taking a peaceful stroll around your local town or an easy bike ride around the local park!
Everyday Active aims to encourage people to become more active in their everyday lives, with easy, accessible and fun activities! There are many health and wellbeing benefits of being active every day, especially by walking and cycling such as;
- Keeping physically active can reduce the risk of heart and circulatory disease by as much as 35%
- Research shows adults who cycle regularly have fitness levels of someone up to 20 years younger.
- Physically active people have a 33-50% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Regular brisk walking will improve the performance of the heart, lung and circulation.
- Walking regularly at any speed will improve flexibility and strength of joints, muscles and bones, and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Taking the small step to being active every day!
For the people who have never been active and do not regularly take part in physical activity can be quite daunting and hard to get back into physical activity, however, we want to make it easier for you to take the smaller step back into being active!
Here are some top tips on how to start walking and cycling for beginners:
- Until confident at cycling, any bike will do when first starting cycling.
- Buying a second-hand bike could be a good starting point as a beginner to make sure you are not investing lots of money into a bike you may not use forever. A good place to purchase second-hand bikes is Ashford Re-Cycle.
- Making sure you cycle safely, check out we are cycling UK to find out how to cycle safely.
- When starting out walking for exercise, make sure to be wearing appropriate footwear to reduce injury.
- Walk around places which have flat, even paths where you know where you are to reduce injuries and getting lost.
- Using a map or GPS is a great way to explore different parts of your area, it will also reduce you getting lost. Check out the Go Outdoors page to find out the walking essentials.
To kick start your first steps into walking and cycling why not check out so of Explore Kent’s easy access trails, which are accessible for everyone which are normally quite short and have flat surfaces with no stiles and gates.
Here are some of our favourites easy access trails all around Kent;
- Clowes Wood Easy Access Trail
- White Horse Wood Easy Access Trail
- Shorne Woods Country Park Easy Access Trail
- Samphire Hoe Easy Access Trail
To find all other Easy Access Trails around Kent, check out Explore Kent’s easy access page.
Other easy and fun ways to make your life a little more active are by taking part in local active groups, whether that’s running, walking, cycling or a fitness group, there will be something for everyone! Health Walks are a great way to get active every day as they are not only getting you active but also meeting like-minded people.
The NHS puts on health walks all over Kent which you can sign up and involved with today!
Another active group which we are sure you will love for becoming more active is, ParkRun! ParkRun is an organised free, weekly 5km timed run all around the world which is open to everyone and safe and easy to take part in.
These events take place in pleasant parkland surrounding and in most local areas to Kent, they encourage people of every ability to take part so become a ParkRunner today and sign up!
Another easy way to take little steps into becoming more active every day is actively travelling, not only is it good for your health and wellbeing you are also helping reduce pollution. A good resource to use while actively travelling is the Explore Kent Walking and Cycling town maps, a good way to find the best routes to get around the key towns of Kent by foot and bicycle as well as showing where the major transport links are too.
Here are the towns we cover so far;
We hope we have helped you make the first little steps into becoming #EverydayActive! Becoming active can improve your life in so many health and wellbeing ways there is no reason to say NO!
To find all other activities from cycling to horse riding, check out Explore Kent’s Activity Page, as well as our event page for all those feeling a bit more adventurous!
For more information and ideas on how to become everyday active…