Activity toolkits and guidance available to help you stay active in Birmingham during the pandemic

Although the onset of colder weather and the restrictions to combat coronavirus (Covid-19) are making it a challenge right now, Birmingham is continuing to encourage people to be as active as possible through the autumn and winter months.

Our message is simple – being active is good for your physical health and mental health and being as fit as possible right now is a great way to deal with illness and viruses.

We know people are feeling concerned and anxious, but we also know being active can be a genuine antidote. It's also a way of staying connected with people – current rules allow you to meet one other person, not from your household, outside the home and there's a wealth of online classes and support tools that can help you feel part of a wider community.

That's why we want to continue providing support, advice and encouragement to help people feel able and motivated to be as active as possible. We also want to make sure our community understands what is and isn't allowed.

People can continue to exercise outdoors daily, both alone and with members of their household. They can also exercise with one person from another household, so long as they're social distancing. There's no limit on the amount of time spent exercising outdoors, or the number of times someone can do it.

The balance of keeping people safe but allowing them to enjoy the benefits that being active brings, we believe is vital and we're proud of the work so many of our local providers are doing to support activity while keeping people safe.

Over the course of the lockdown period, Sport England has conducted nationwide research to gain an insight into activity levels and attitudes towards being active up and down England, and close to 70% of people say they've used being active to help manage their mental health. However, we're all concerned about recent drop-offs in activity levels and will be doing everything we can to support our communities to get more active. People can access a host of free workouts for all ages and abilities on Sport England's Join the Movement website.

Sport England Chief Executive, Tim Hollingsworth said:

"Being active is a vital tool to help us cope mentally with the challenges the months ahead will bring and physically to be fitter and healthier, to boost our immunity and to ward off illness. "We know that people face real challenges right now in their daily lives, whether that's anxiety about the virus itself, financial concerns or uncertainty about what is or isn't allowed. Our message is that there has never been a more important time to take some time to be physically active. That might be going for a walk or run outdoors or working out at home". "We've got loads of great resources to help on the Sport England website, including tips on how to get started."