About us

Active Lincolnshire is committed to providing opportunities for everyone in Lincolnshire to be active every day. We work with partners to address inequalities and inactivity, responding to the needs of people and places.

What we do

As advocates for the positive power that physical activity has on everyone’s lives, we work in partnership to improve understanding, influence change, and tackle the challenge of inactivity.

Knowledge Hub

Our Knowledge Hub is the core of our website. Here you’ll find our guidance, advice, insight and support in all areas of physical activity and sport.

Get involved

Want to get involved with us? We depend on your collaboration to create and influence meaningful change. Find out how you can help Lincolnshire move more.

Knowledge Hub: Physical Activity Guidelines

Explore our knowledge hub to access the latest physical activity guidelines and keep up to date with changes to guidelines.

UK Chief Medical Officers' Report

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Physical activity guidelines

The UK’s physical activity guidelines are issued by the country’s Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), providing recommendations for how active adults and children should be to maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are separate guidelines for older adults (over 65), disabled adults, children under five, and pregnant women and new mums.

What are the UK’s physical activity guidelines?

The guidelines recommend that adults do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days a week. The strengthening activity should work all major muscles (legs, hips, back, stomach, chest, shoulders and arms).

Children aged 5-18 should do at least one hour of energetic activity every day, such as running, skipping, swimming or cycling. On at least three days a week, they should do some exercise that helps develop their muscles and bones, such as hopscotch, gymnastics, climbing or lifting.

What is moderate-intensity exercise?

Moderate-intensity aerobic activity means you’re working hard enough to raise your heart rate and feel warmer. Examples of moderate activity include brisk walking, cycling, water aerobics, dancing and hiking.

What is vigorous exercise?

Vigorous-intensity activity makes you breathe hard and fast, meaning you won’t be able to hold a conversation without pausing for breath. Because it’s double the intensity, doing vigorous exercise means you can halve the recommended activity time. Examples of vigorous activity include running, fast swimming or cycling, gymnastics, martial arts, aerobics, skipping rope, walking up stairs, and sport.

Why are the guidelines important?

Physical activity has a host of benefits on physical and mental health. Regular activity has been shown to:

  • Reduce the risk of disease (such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer) by up to 50%, and reduce the risk of early death by up to 30%
  • Reduce the risk of stress, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
  • Help manage existing physical and mental health conditions
  • Improve mental wellbeing
  • Boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy

Although the guidelines lay out how much exercise different groups should be doing, any amount of physical activity is better than none. The benefits of physical activity can be seen with even relatively small increases in exercise – which is why everyone should be encouraged and supported to do as much as they can.

Get Active: A strategy for the future of sport and physical activity

Published in August 2023, ‘Get Active: A strategy for the future of sport and physical activity’ is the government’s national strategy to help get more people active by 2030.

This national strategy details how the Government plan to tackle 1 in 4 adults being currently inactive, with 11 million adults doing less than 30 minutes of exercise a week, and half of the nation’s children doing less than the recommended 60 minutes of exercise per day. The strategy outlines the plan to increase national participation levels with a new National Physical Activity Taskforce from both government and the sector to drive it forward and track progress of the goals to get 2.5 million more adults and over 1 million more children active by 2030.

Read the Strategy

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