Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

Waking up to another beautiful day has me feeling grateful this morning. I’m grateful that the weather has been so good recently that we have had the opportunity to get outside, to get fresh air and to get some vitamin D in a safe way. However, even when the weather isn’t on our side it’s still as important as ever to get up and to get moving.

Being active is not only important for your physical health but also for your mental health. The National Guidelines on Physical Activity for Ireland tells us that children and young people aged 2 – 18 should be active for at least 60 minutes every day. Don’t worry if you’re not currently at this standard, start off slowly, building up the minutes of moderate activity as you progress.

So, what can you do to stay active?

• Active recreation such as hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading, bicycle riding and brisk walking.
• Active games involving running and chasing, such as tag and sports such as Gaelic football, hurling, soccer, rugby, basketball, swimming, tennis.
• Muscle strengthening such as games of tug-of-war, modified push-ups (with knees on the floor), resistance exercises using body weight or resistance bands or sit-ups (curl-ups or crunches).
• Bone strengthening such as games like hopscotch, hopping, skipping, jumping, jumping rope, running or sports such as gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, tennis.

Many people find it more difficult to stay active when confined to the walls of the house so here I have included some alternative suggestions for activity that can be done in the home.

RTE 10@10 - https://rtejr.rte.ie/10at10/
10 minutes of exercise posted daily at 10am which are guaranteed to get your heart pumping. I also love that there is an option of listening to it in Irish, why not give it a try?

Cosmic Kids on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga Yoga and mindfulness made specifically for kids! There’s a huge range of instructional videos available varying in length of 3 minutes up to 15+ minutes which gives you the ability of starting small and building every day.

Go Noodle - https://app.gonoodle.com/
Go Noodle contains a variety of categories, all of which can be done at home. Categories include mindfulness, building motor skills, and lots of movement types such as guided dance, stretch, freestyle, workout and brainercise among others. This gives you the opportunity of mixing it up.

For more information on why physical activity is important, the health benefits of exercise, how to keep active and ideas for adults visit Get Active Ireland on https://www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/healthwellbeing/our-priority-programmes/heal/heal-docs/the-national-guidelines-on-physical-activity-for-ireland.pdf