Today we launched our Move for 10 national challenge that makes physical activity more accessible by offering an achievable goal.
Move for 10 minutes, 10 times in a month.
To help women track their activity we’ve developed a free online tracker as well as a paper version.
The challenge has been designed to tackle the stubborn gender activity gap, and This Girl Can’s director of marketing, Kate Dale, is hoping it will show women that activity can come in many forms.
“For too long, women have been made to feel that being active only counts if they can find the time for a ‘proper’ workout. Move for 10 challenges that idea,” she said.
“We know that for many women, especially those from underrepresented groups, the barriers to being active are complex.
“That’s why instead of asking them to find more time they simply don’t have, we’ve designed a challenge that works around real life.
“10 minutes of movement is achievable, flexible and, crucially, it can be the gateway to a more active lifestyle.
“We want to take the pressure off and help more women experience how good movement can make them feel.”
At the heart of the challenge is a simple but powerful idea: starting with just 10 minutes can be the gateway to being active more often.
10 minutes of movement, 10 times over the course of a month. Any time, at any pace that works for you.
And with more than half a million fewer active women than men in England, and the Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity guidelines showing that even small increases in activity can have meaningful health benefits, we’re keen to get as many women as possible taking on the challenge.
So, in addition to the trackers, we’ve also produced a series of assets and copy that will help you promote the challenge to your networks.
Move for 10 was launched with support from broadcaster Charlene White, TV medic Dr Zoe Williams and Coronation Street actress Sair Khan.
And for Dr Williams the key to making activity achievable is doing it at a pace that works for you.
“My advice is to connect movement to things you're already doing,” she said.
“Walk while taking a phone call, get off the bus a stop earlier, dance around the kitchen while making dinner or spend a few minutes stretching before bed.
“It doesn't need to be perfect. The most important thing is finding something that works for you and making movement part of your everyday routine.
“Don’t worry about whether you’re doing enough; focus on starting small and finding something that works for you.”
Since launching more than 10 years ago, This Girl Can has inspired more than four million women to get active, however significant inequalities remain.
Our own research shows that women on lower incomes, particularly those from underrepresented groups – including Black women, South Asian Muslim women, pregnant women, mothers with children under one, and women aged 55-74 years old – continue to face some of the greatest barriers to being active.
In fact, just 14% of low-income women achieve the recommended 150+ minutes of physical activity per week.
And Coronation Street actress and toddler-mum Sair Khan is calling on women to join her in the Move for 10 challenge, to help lay the foundations for an active lifestyle.
“Using the tracker to log how I moved and reflect on how I felt afterwards gave me a real sense of achievement and showed me that small moments really do add up,” she said.
“That’s why I want more women to sign up. We should all get to enjoy the benefits of physical activity – and Move for 10 can help us do just that.”
