One simple change to help regularly meet your exercise requirements
By Paul Bolger. Chartered Physiotherapist at Nano Physiotherapy, Kilkenny (www.nanophysio.ie).
There is one simple thing that many of us can do that would allow us to easily meet our daily exercise requirements. This thing would save us money, boost our mood and improve our health. Not only that – it would help the environment, reduce local pollution and make our roads safer. What is it? Active travel.
Active travel involves using our own energy to move us around – most commonly walking and cycling (I have heard of people kayaking to work!). Allow me to make the case for active travel and how it is a win, win, win, win – for us, our health, our bank account and our local community.
Exercise – Tick!
International guidelines say we all should aim for at least 150 minutes (or 2.5hrs) of moderate intensity exercise per week. So, a commute of 15mins of walking or cycling per day would result in 30mins per day, or 150mins per working week of exercise (assuming you are raising your heartrate and breathing to a moderate level).
Tick.
Now, if it is not feasible for you to walk or cycle to work – say you live a long way from work, or you do the school run – there are still ways you can get involved. Maybe you could cycle or walk to the nearest train or bus. Or, after dropping the children off, you could get in a 15-minute walk on your way to work. Whatever works for you.
Save Money
The savings potential speaks for itself. Less fuel and car maintenance costs. No parking fees.
Active travel drastically reduces costs to our society too – researchers in Denmark found that cycling travel costs are 8x less than driving costs when accounting for collisions, climate change, health and travel time. Scotland, a similar sized country to Ireland, could save over €4 billion per year if 40% of short journeys were made by bike. What could we spend that extra money on?
Help Your Local Community
Active travel will obviously drastically cut down on fossil fuel emissions (with research here in Ireland showing cutting out car journeys <6kms would reduce national passenger transport emissions by 21%!!).
Air pollution would fall considerably – which would have a huge impact on health and respiratory problems locally. Less noise pollution will make being in the local area more pleasant for everyone.
One less car on the road makes the road a safer place, as well as cutting down on congestion for those who need to use the road.
Pedestrian-friendly cities give the local economy a significant boost, with local businesses benefiting from increased footfall and business.
Taking Steps to Better Travel
Safety is paramount – we cannot expect people to do something that makes them feel unsafe. Kilkenny county council can be contacted should you wish to update them on barriers to active travel in your local area.
The bike to work scheme makes cycling more affordable for everybody.
Kilkenny Library Service offers very affordable e-bike rentals for those considering trying out this mode of transport – just get in touch with them.
I would love to live in a place where more people take an active role in their travel. Their health and the health of the local community will thank them – but us physiotherapists will probably be a little bit less busy…
