Supporting your well-being

Do you find yourself thinking about the following questions?

• Taking up a sport is difficult. How do I start?
• I need tips to make my everyday life more active. Who could help me?
• Where can I find information about the sports opportunities offered on my campus or in my city?

You’ve come to the right place! On these pages, you will find many useful things for more exercise in everyday student life.

Students: this is how to get enough exercise without doing sports

• Try to find things in your daily life that you prefer to do standing up. Things like phone calls and routine study tasks are easy to do while standing up.
• When going to lectures, choose a spot where you can stand up. Listen to some of the lecture while standing, or take breaks from sitting every 30 minutes.
• Create a ritual of exercise breaks throughout your day. By using a timer it is easy to schedule in your exercise breaks.
• When meeting up with a friend, listening to an audio book or discussing group work, turn it into a walk!
• Become a stair spotter!
• Drink enough water (around 1.5 litres/day), and you will get automatic breaks from sitting down when you go to the toilet!
• You can easily build a standing desk at home by placing a box or a chair on top of a table.

Tips to increase exercise in your study day

Have you contemplated how you could add physical activity to your everyday routines and studies?

It is difficult to form a universally applicable guideline, since every student is different – both when it comes to exercise and when it comes to study style. What works specifically for you may not necessarily work for somebody else, and vice versa.

What matters is that you find the physical activities that work for you. We have included a selection of tips for finding your very own exercise style. Make use of the ones that suit you best now!

Daily activity

You can add a surprisingly large number of steps or cycling kilometres to your daily routine.

So, when you need to go to the campus, cycle or walk there. A few kilometres in the open air gets your blood pumping and improves both your physical condition and your learning results in the long run. After all, the weather is just an outfit issue!

Go to the store on foot or by bike. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Fitting more exercise in your daily routine is largely about making choices. Not all options are possible for everyone, but each of us does what each of us can! Investing in your own health is worth it. It is the best investment of your life.

Lectures and studying

Remember to take breaks from sitting! Tip off the lecturer about it beforehand. When explaining where you are coming from, emphasise the benefits of sitting breaks to maintaining one’s state of alertness and improving one’s learning outcome.

Try to take breaks from sitting once in an hour or so during a lecture. If this is not possible, try to change your seating position and maintain a good posture!

During group assignments, remember to stand up every once in a while and stretch your legs. Try to convince the rest of the group to do the same. You may even finish the assignment faster and with better results! These measures also help prevent shoulder and back pains. Win-win, right?

Free periods

Sometimes you may have longer breaks during your day, and you may have trouble finding things to do. This might be a good time to go jogging or hit the gym.

You can usually find a gym at most higher education institutions or in the vicinity of them, and they are likely less crowded in the middle of the day than during the afternoon. So, make the most of your free periods!

Hobbies

When the day is done, it’s time to study some more – or do nice things you enjoy, such as watch a show on Netflix or meet up with some friends at a café.

What if, instead of sinking into the recliner at home or at the café, you would head to a group fitness class with your friends, go kick a football at the sandlot by the nearby school or take a walk in the woods? Non-competitive sports are a good way to spend the evening with friends.

Don’t worry if you have not yet found the sport for you. Everyone finds what works for them by trying things out. All it takes to find your favourite sport is the courage to try new things!