Every step supports your health and the environment

Daily motion is one of the best ways to take care of your wellbeing while also reducing environmental impact. When you choose walking, cycling or another active mode of transport, you support your health and reduce climate emissions.

Physical activity promotes health in many ways

Physical activity has numerous positive effects on physical, mental and social wellbeing.

Regular physical activity, among other things,

• strengthens the heart and improves circulation
• lowers elevated blood pressure
• helps prevent cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and several cancers
• helps prevent weight gain and supports weight management
• supports mental health, helps manage stress and reduces anxiety
• helps improve sleep
• enhances perceived quality of life as well as memory and problem solving capacity
• has positive effects on the condition of the musculoskeletal system.

Daily movement is important at all ages.

Car-free trips and local activity reduce emissions

Active modes of transport, such as walking and cycling, are beneficial for the environment and the climate. Leaving the car at home for short trips reduces traffic emissions and improves air quality.

From a climate perspective, it is advisable to prefer local physical activity, especially outdoor activities such as walking and cycling in natural environments. The direct climate impacts linked with exercise mainly arise from the construction and maintenance of sports facilities and from people driving to those facilities. When you leave the car at home, you may also get a good warm up and cool down on the way to your activity. Regular long distance driving for hobbies is not environmentally sustainable.

Indoor sports facilities will be important in the future due to climate change: darker and wetter winter conditions and heatwaves in summer may reduce outdoor activity. It is worthwhile for individuals to pay attention to the energy consumption of the sports facilities they use and to favour more environmentally friendly options.

Ways to increase physical activity in daily life

Even small amounts of physical activity promote health and wellbeing.

Movement can be increased in daily life in small steps. For example, you can walk or cycle to the shop, school or work, and choose stairs instead of lifts or escalators. Household chores such as cleaning, raking, snow shovelling and splitting firewood are also excellent forms of everyday physical activity.

You can add movement to your working day by spending time outdoors during lunch breaks or by taking short movement breaks during work.

Just 5–10 minutes of daily physical activity improves health if you have not been active before. If you already exercise regularly, you gain additional benefits by occasionally increasing the intensity.

It is advisable to start increasing activity gradually and listen to your body. Choose the forms of exercise that suit you best. It is never too late to start being physically active.

Why is physical activity in natural environments recommended?

Research on the health effects of natural environments – particularly nearby nature in urban areas – has increased significantly in recent years. Access to nature promotes health in diverse and holistic ways.

Nature has particularly clear effects on mental health. Spending time in nature protects against depression, alleviates stress and improves mood. In addition, natural environments have been found to prevent cardiovascular diseases and possibly also respiratory diseases such as asthma and allergies. Among adults, access to green areas appears to be associated with a lower risk of overweight and type 2 diabetes.

In natural environments, people are less exposed to traffic noise and air pollution than in built urban environments. Trees and vegetation also provide shade and cool the surroundings, which increases thermal comfort, especially during heatwaves.

Physical activity in natural environments is often perceived as less strenuous than indoor exercise, even when the level of physical exertion is the same. Varied terrain improves balance and coordination and provides versatile training.