Walking is free, simple and accessible to most of us. You don’t need expensive clothes and you don’t need to learn a new skill.

Yet according to Public Health England four in ten middle-aged adults – six million Britons – are failing to manage even one brisk 10-minute walk a month. As a result, we are increasing our risk of developing potentially fatal illnesses.

It’s easy to say just go for a walk but sometimes we are short of time, we have too much to juggle and this is Scotland so the weather is not always encouraging.

So here’s how we can cunningly walk more more in our daily routine, without actually going for a walk.

Just remember to register and take your phone for our Walk to the Moon challenge because every step counts towards taking us to the moon.

 Sitting less at work

• Hold a walking meeting (although realistically this suits two people). Standing meetings also have the happy consequence of keeping them short.
• Take the stairs to another floor’s restroom.
• Use break software or a timer to remind yourself to stand, stretch or take a recovery break.
• Move or stretch at least 3-4 minutes every hour.
• Move your feet by doing ankle circles or flexing them up and down to improve circulation.
• Use the waste bin, printer or copier furthest away from your desk.
• Walk to get more water and stay hydrated throughout the day.
• Take the long way round to a meeting or buying a coffee.
• Walk to have a chat with someone instead of phoning or emailing them.
• Stand when talking on the phone, reading documents or participating on conference calls.
• We all complain about parking on the campus but actually we can turn this to our advantage. Park in a space further away from your office and you’ll quickly gain as much as 1,000 extra steps every time.

Sitting less at home

• Exercise while watching TV. Obviously you’ll want to concentrate when your favourite drama is on, but adverts or less demanding TV is an excellent opportunity for a mini-work in, mini-walking or yoga exercises.
• When you’re on the phone, you can walk about and chat at the same time.
• An intense housework session can burn up 200 calories an hour.
• Park further away from your home or the shops to sneak in those extra steps.
• Enjoy a good dance to your music.
• Follow an exercise or yoga video on YouTube.

Get active your way

There are many ways we can build physical activity into our lives. Find out more on the NHS website.

See also

The benefits of activity…and how you can get more active

Walking: 12 reasons why it’s so good for you

Step counts on campus

Join us and Walk to the Moon

We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing (July 20, 1969) and getting active by walking to the moon! That’s a mere 238,855 miles to walk between February 19 and July 20 so we need everyone to get involved.

Find out more and register to #walktothemoon with us.