We would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who signed up to take part in our Step into January campaign which launched last week. It’s all about getting active during January, focusing on its benefits and how this can improve our mental health and wellbeing. If you did sign up, we hope you are enjoying the campaign so far!
We know that with the new lockdown, you may feel a little stuck with what to do for Step into January so we wanted to give you some ideas.
There’s lots of things we can do to keep moving at home and exercise doesn’t just mean going to the gym or going for a run.
Here’s some ideas to help you get moving:
- Learn a dance and get the kids involved too! It’s great fun learning a dance and hard work. You’ll have lots of laughs and the more you practice, the better you get! You could also teach yourself something like salsa, there’s lots of information online to get you started.
- Play more with your pets – whether you have a garden or not, having a pet offers lots of opportunity to get active.
- Working from home? Every hour try to stand up and sit down again 10 times, it will raise your heart rate and get your blood moving.
- Create an obstacle course in the garden. You could use hoops, cones, sticks, balls, mats, mini trampolines, cushions and tunnels. Set them up so that it makes a course involving jumping, running and balancing and then do the course a set amount of times. This is a great one with the kids too, just make sure they help you tidy it all away!
- If you have stairs, use them! three 20-second fast stair climbs a day can improve fitness in only six weeks.
- Play Hopscotch. Either buy a Hopscotch mat or better still, chalk one onto the drive.
- Dancing to your favourite song gets your blood moving and releases endorphins into your bloodstream – lots of people are videoing themselves and sharing their moves on social media
- Wash and hoover the car, it will be gleaming afterwards and you’ll feel better for moving!
- Get creative – a suitcase with a handle, a pile of books, even bags of sugar or flour can all be used in home-based workouts.
- Skipping is a great activity for cardiovascular health – 10 minutes of skipping can burn over 100 calories.
- Tidy up the garden. Gardening is a great form of exercise, if you are lucky enough to have a private outdoor space.
- Walk the dog! It’s still fine to be out of the house if you are walking your dog – a great excuse to spend more time bonding with your pet canine.
- Cleaning can be a great workout! Not only does it obviously help to keep your immediate environment as clean as possible, but activities like hoovering and scrubbing tough grime can burn up to 190 calories an hour!
We hope these give you some more ideas of how to get moving at home. We would love to hear how you’re getting on. Share your snaps on social media @MindNEL or in our closed Step Into January Facebook Group.
