‘Find Your Fit’ on National Fitness Day

Wednesday 25 September was ukactive’s annual National Fitness Day, the most active day in the calendar year!

A day to bring the nation together, NFD reminds us why it’s so good to move, and highlights the role that physical activity plays in helping us lead healthier, happier lives.

Physical inactivity has been listed as a leading cause of preventable diseases and conditions such as type-2 diabetes, some cancers and osteoporosis. In the UK there’s a physical inactivity crisis, with evidence from ukactive showing that Brits spend twice as long making tea per week as exercising, and the average adult spends eight times longer watching on-demand TV than exercising.

We want to spark a conversation about all the benefits physical activity has, both to you personally and society as a whole. Being active is not only proven to improve our physical health, it also has a positive effect on our mental health, our confidence and development, our social connections and our communities. Research suggests employees who start the day being active enjoy lower stress levels, are better decision makers, have more energy, and most importantly, are happier. Companies should be seeing exercise as a top priority and encouraging their people to take a walk at lunch or work flexible hours and get in a morning gym session.

Thousands of clubs, parks, leisure centres and gyms opened their doors and encouraged everyone to get active. If you didn't manage to get active on the day itself, find your own way to get fit sometime this week or next – bike around the park, go for a stroll or do a quick home workout, the choice is yours!

Here at UKAD, we want to promote sport and being active, and encourage everyone to participate in clean sport, free of doping and full of health and wellbeing benefits. A few of UKAD’s employees sat down and thought about what fitness means to them, and what they love about it. Check out their responses below. What does fitness mean to you? Let us know on Twitter – you can tag us at @ukantidoping and @fitnessdayuk. 

Healthy body, healthy minds useful links;

• Why an active workforce is good for business, AXA Health
• Eight best mindfulness apps, The Independent