UWE Bristol Sport and The Students’ Union at UWE are committed to helping you to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The MOVE program is a fantastic way of getting active, regardless of your level of experience or ability.

Getting physically active can be tough, especially when you’re new to it, so we wanted to help you understand why exercise is important and how it can support your mental wellbeing.

1 – Makes you feel good!
Moving your body encourages blood to flow around the body and releases endorphins – a pleasure boosting, pain reducing hormone! As a result, exercise is reported to reduce effects of anxiety and depression.

2 – Improves your concentration!
When you exercise, your brain uses more of its interconnections, building it’s ‘mental fitness’. Your mental fitness will translate in to other areas of your life, helping your brain to function at high levels throughout the rest of your day, in lectures, writing assignments and when ticking off your ‘to do’ list.

3 – It helps you sleep!
It still escapes human biologists as to how exactly it happens but countless research studies have reported that exercise has a positive effect on sleep, regardless of the duration, modality or level of intensity.

Essentially, it doesn’t matter how you move, just move!