Being active and following a healthy lifestyle has many benefits for your mind and body. Physical activity can:

  • Help you sleep better
  • Contribute to your mental wellbeing
  • Improve motivation
  • Provide pleasurable and joyful movement experiences
  • Assist in the reduction of a range of diseases.

As a student, it's not always easy to find the time to run 5kms, get to the gym or complete 10,000 steps in a day. But are these the only ways to be physically active? It may surprise you what 'being active' can include.

According to the World Health Organisation (2022), physical activity is, "any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure". Physical activity can include all activity, at any intensity, performed at any time. It includes both exercise and incidental (unplanned) activity in your daily routine.

Athletic training and competition, and leisure activities that involve physical exertion (such as training with a university sports club, hiking or swimming), are examples of intentional physical activity. Physically tough work and activity that forms part of your routine and chores (like manual labour or using the stairs) are incidental. These types of activities are unplanned and unstructured; they typically accumulate throughout the day.

Work through the scenes to see how the student builds incidental physical activity into their daily routine.

Continue on to see how the student builds incidental physical activity into their daily routine in the following situations.

Walking around campus and handing out leaflets improves endurance and fitness, leading to better focus on assignments and retaining information.

Carrying shopping bags home on foot saves on bus fares and also provides strength-based exercise.

Squats and balancing exercises can improve balance and muscle strength and can be incorporated into planned activities, such as doing chores or brushing your teeth.

… And quickly tidying the house for a surprise visit improves stamina, as well as problem-solving strategies for hiding mess!

Dancing is a great way to improve aerobic fitness and socialise with friends at the same time.

As you can see, physical activities can be built in incidentally as part of an active lifestyle. How could you include more opportunities to move and be active into your student life?

Consider the list of activities below and select the ones you would be interested in trying (or continuing if you already do some of these) in the coming month. Once you have finished, use the summary to review and save your responses.

Consider the list of activities below and choose the ones you would be interested in trying (or continuing if you already do some of these) in the coming month.

 Swimming Exploring a local park Skateboarding Yoga Cycling Indoor climbing Finding an online tutorial Hill walking or hiking Trying a new workout or gym class Asking a friend to join you in being active Trying a new university sport or society Playing a racket sport
(e.g. tennis or badminton) Trying a water sport
(e.g. paddleboarding or canoeing) Playing a team sport
(e.g. hockey, or tag or touch rugby) Incorporating muscle strengthening exercises into your routine (e.g. squatting or balancing) Grounding yourself
(being mindful of the environment and others around you)

Moving has huge benefits (some of which we'll explore in the next screen) so start small and find ways to move throughout your day. Think about how you can incorporate movement into your day-to-day activities and make adjustments where you can.