Active 10

I really didn't find the NHS Active 10 app very helpful when I first downloaded it but I have come to really appreciate it.  The problem was, at the beginning my walks were pretty slow and short.  Just getting out of the house for a walk was huge and doing it by myself was even bigger.  To start, it was mostly just a walk up the road to the shops and I wasn't walking quick enough to get any Active 10 minutes.  I knew how hard I was working so it was a little disheartening, but I didn't delete the app.

That's one of the lovely things about Active 10, it works away in the background using your fitness data.  You don't need to tell it when you are walking, or when you stop.  You don't even have to look at it every day.  After my initial disappointment, and realisation I just wasn't going to get anything from it, I just left it alone for quite some time...

In June 2024, no active 10 minutes but it logged 506 minutes of walking.

In July 2204, it logged four minutes and I did a happy dance (mentally of course, an actual happy dance would have required too much effort).  I also logged 925 minutes of walking.

In August 25 minutes of Active 10 and 1144 minutes of walking

In Septemper my Active 10 went down to 14 but my total walking went up to 1209 minutes.

In October 39 minutes of Active 10 and 1411 minutes of walking.  I am sure you can see what's happening here....

In November, 50 minutes of Active 10 and 674 minutes of walking.  So what happened in November?  Well I started great but then I got a really nasty bug and I took a little bit of time to recover, unfortunately.  My body is not always great with resilience.

So December's 4 minutes of Active 10 and 201 minutes of walking was not a huge shock.

January though saw me recovering as the month went on and I had 55 Active 10 minutes and 1260 minutes of walking.

February 87 Active 10 and 1347 total.  March 150 Active 10 and 1726 mins walking.  April 206 minutes Active 10 and 1828 minutes walking!  It was a really nice feeling to see these sorts of numbers and it definitely was showing in my body.

But things often have setbacks....  We went away at the end of April, beginning or May.  So at the beginning of the holiday I was pretty active but as we moved in to May, this started to drop off as I was struggling with swollen legs and I tried to balance my desire to see and do things while away with not putting too much pressure on my legs.

The week we were away, my active 10 was 64 and total minutes was 831.  The week after I only had 2 Active 10 minutes and 82 minutes total walking.  Generally May hasn't gotten much better.  I caught a bug which began as a sore throat in the airport as we left and has continued with fatigue.  My legs went down relatively quickly, once I was home to my recliner sofa and elevating became the norm, but I have been left with some foot tingling with no obvious cause.  My throat is still a bit scratchy sometimes.

I guess my point is that Active 10 is a bit like a barometer for me, it tells me how the weather is looking, but it also gives me a really simple way of tracking the improvements.  It has badges and I really like these little virtual rewards, no matter the app.  I am sure some supper fit people will get through all the badges quite quickly but over a year since I downloaded the app and I still have plenty to achieve.

Another lovely feature is it includes some NHS articles on health and wellbeing.  There is so much we can do to get started in improving our fitness but it also includes articles on mental health and motivation as well as more general health.

There are things I don't like...  It only retains 12 months of the monthly data, 5 weeks of the weekly data and 7 days of the daily data.  So I can not tell you how many months it actually was since I first downloaded it to when I received my first Active 10 minutes.  I know it was a few...  It would also be nice if the badges recorded the dates you achieved them.  I don't actually know when I received my first Active 10 now.  I do remember how it felt.  That I had finally reached this basic building block of fitness,  that my walking was now at a level where I was OK, felt really good.  Even though I still have a really long way to go, I am not always the slowest when walking in a group, after years of feeling like I am holding everyone back.

If you want a simple and free fitness goal, this is a good one to have.  The app has advice on achieving it and pace checker to help you get the right speed.  It's around 100 steps a minute.  Don't under estimate walking as a form of exercise.  It's something most of us can start to do for free.  The benefits are huge, even if you can not walk very far or fast to begin with.  Just getting out of the house is good for our mental health.

The Active 10 app is provided by the NHS in the UK, so perhaps isn't available elsewhere.  It's focus is to encourage brisk walking as a moderate form of aerobic exercise that contributes towards our recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week.  So even if you can not get the app, you can still practice brisk walking.