National Fitness day

What is fitness?

In the world of fitness we can often get caught up in the complexities of “how is the best way to get fit”…

But for many moving more, challenging yourself and burning up a few calories can be done without spending money.

Getting fit is one of the best things I’ve ever done, I LOVE being fit and healthy. After finishing my pentathlon training, plagued by injury niggles, I needed to find another fitness challenge. After a lull of about 6 months I got my act together and had a go at adventure racing, Amazing fun and you do it as a team. So that got me going again into being fit and healthy for life.

Today, instead of getting complicated with fitness, keep it simple, its National Fitness Day today, and I want to inspire people with how easy getting fit could be…

Here are 10 ideas that are FREE…

1. Commit to walking more, maybe set a target of 10,000 steps per day and use your smart phone to track that, most phones track steps.

2. Dust off your trainers, go for a jog even if its for 5 minutes, we all start somewhere, in a few weeks you’ll be running for 30 minutes and enjoying it

3. Join a local park run, aim to run a 5k every weekend and challenge yourself to reduce your time each week, there are many around the UK and they are all free

4. Grab a bit of fitness equipment that’s lying about (we’ve all got some kicking about) or see what’s local on Facebook Marketplace often being given away, and commit to something as simple as skipping for 5 minutes per day

5. Set yourself “The stairs challenge”. Its something I do with clients that claim they don’t have time to exercise, every time they go up or down the stairs at home they have to do it 3, 5 or 7 times instead of 1, why? It all adds up, and walking up stairs can be tough work

6. Try a simple home workout, even if its for 10 minutes using your body weight. There are so many workouts on youtube that you can look up, and if you feel you’re struggling for time with the family, get them involved, do it as a challenge together

7. Make fitness part of the family routine, instead of going to the cinema this weekend plan a big family walk with a picnic, get outdoors, get active, save some money.

8. Where you can find time in your day for fitness? could you wake up 15 minutes earlier and get outside, could you do something small at lunch like a brisk walk, could you incorporate another daily activity with fitness, like a walking meeting at work?

9. Get creative with the family and make a mini Olympics events with stuff you have in and around the house, do running relays, hurdles, one-legged races – have fun creating races.

10. Sign up to a challenge, get external accountability so you have to get fit, then I bet once you start you’ll enjoy it and want to carry on. For many that extra push is what it takes, if that feels like what you need, do it, anything that helps!

WE all start somewhere, and it all adds up, fitness doesn’t have to be an hours workout, it can be 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 26 minutes, it literally doesn’t matter, but it does all count

What can you do today to be more active, to improve your fitness?

National Fitness Day is a day to be inspired…

keep being your best

Sarah