Dr Joel Chidley's Tea Break Exercise video transcript

By The Corporate Communications Team - 8 April 2020

Helo. I'm Dr Joel Chidley from the University of Derby's School of Human Sciences and I want to take a quick minute to talk about physical activity at this really challenging time while we're all doing our best to fight Covid-19.

So, we've been encouraged quite strongly by the World Health Organization as well as the UK government to remain active, to complete our daily walk, run or cycle. But what are we doing the rest of the time?! I know from from my own perspective I'm working from home which means a lot of sitting rather than going out to meet colleagues, or having conversations and meetings with students and walking around campus. I am pressing buttons, I'm looking at comments feeds and I'm responding. So those little periods of physical activity that break up my day when I'm moving around, up and down the stairs, they're gone.

We know from research that prolonged periods of sitting are really harmful to our health and they're harmful even for individuals who meet the recommended daily levels of physical activity at a moderate to vigorous level. So, what do we do about it?

Now, it's recommended that we have periods of light intensity exercise throughout the day to break up those long periods of sitting or sedentary behaviours and that's going to look different for everybody. We all have a different solution waiting for us. For some people it might be putting washing out on the line or doing some hoovering or other chores, doing some gardening, whatever it is the break up the day and break up those periods with regular amounts of activity. Rather than saving all the chores to the end of the day or the weekend, maybe spread them out to ensure you have a reason to stand up regularly.

For me, I've got a suggestion. This is a really simple thing that I indulge in very regularly throughout the day and that is a cup of tea. So I figure it takes a couple of minutes to boil my kettle, so why don't I use that little time to do some exercise. Let me demonstrate.

[Joel stretches and exercises up and down the kitchen whilst waiting for kettle to boil]

[Joel stops exercising, picks up kettle and pours water into a mug]

So, while we're all staying at home to stay safe, protect our NHS and save lives, take a minute to stay active.