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Healthy body

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Being active is great for your physical health and fitness but can also improve your mental wellbeing

  • raising your self-esteem
  • helping you to set goals or challenges and achieve them
  • causing chemical changes in your brain which can help to positively change your mood

This page has some tips to help you improve your physical health and fitness and links to resources for free tool, support and offers.

Muslim women indoor exercise class

Tips

Aim to be active every day

Aim to be physically active every day. Any activity is better than non, and more is better still

Do strengthening activities

Do strengthening activities that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) at least 2 days a week

Do some moderate intensity exercise each week

Do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week. This does not have to be running or cycling, it could be swimming or dancing.

Reduce your inactive time

Reduce time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity.

Get your free NHS health check

If you are 40 or over you can book your free NHS Health Check. During this free ‘midlife MOT’ you’ll be asked some lifestyle questions and a health professional will do some simple tests.

During the 20-30 min session, they will check your Blood pressure, Height, Weight, BMI (a measure of whether you are a healthy weight), Cholesterol and HbA1C (diabetes).

Find out more about the NHS Free Health Check

Screening programme checks

Screening tests are a way to identify apparently healthy people who may be at increased risk of a disease or condition so they can be treated or monitored. Find out about the types of tests offered at different ages in the image below.

You can find out more about the Screening Programme here.

Population screening timeline

Resources