Moving more without "exercising"

Before any workouts, there's a quieter win: moving more in the life you already have.

The most underrated exercise

Walking gets no respect. Nobody posts a walk with a fire emoji. But it's free, you already know how to do it, and the only kit it needs is decent shoes. The NHS calls it one of the easiest ways to get more active, and a brisk walk counts as moderate activity: about 3 miles an hour, where you can still talk but couldn't sing along to a song.¹

Steps matter too. A big analysis of 15 studies found that people who walked more each day had a lower risk of dying early. The benefit levelled off at around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for people over 60, and 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults.² You don't need to hit that in week one. You need more than last week.

Every minute counts

The UK Chief Medical Officers put it simply: some activity is better than none, and more is better still.³ The target for adults is 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus strength work on two days.⁴ You can build that from small pieces. Ten minutes here. Five there.

Ten minutes every waking hour. Sixteen waking hours. That's 160 minutes, in one day. More than the NHS asks for in a whole week.⁴ Nobody's asking you to do that. But it shows how small the changes can be and still make a big dent.

Break up the sit

The guidelines also say to break up long spells of sitting with at least some light activity.³ A few minutes every hour is plenty. Some ideas:

• Walk about while you're on the phone.
• Stand up every time the adverts come on.
• Take the stairs. Every time. Lifts are for furniture and people with a good excuse.
• Park at the far end of the car park. Your car could do with the walk.
• Walk to the shop, rather than driving to the shop to buy a protein bar.
• Put the kettle on, then do sit-to-stands from a chair until it boils.

Kit you don't need

Here's the full kit list for this chapter: shoes. Comfortable, supportive ones.¹ That's it.

Things you don't need yet: a smartwatch, matching leggings, a gym membership, a weighted vest, a water bottle that tells you you're a legend, or a single supplement. If your phone already counts steps, that's free and it's fine.

All 18 chapters of Basic Training