Keeping Active with a Long-Term Health Condition: You’ve Gotta Boogie!

Active Devon’s Gareth Dix hears from Lili John about why it’s so important to keep active while managing a long-term health condition.

Lili discusses living with Arthritis, and how maintaining an active lifestyle helps her to manage the condition as well as her wellbeing and state of mind.

In the UK, there are more than 10 million people managing Arthritis, and Lily is just one example of someone living in Devon who manages her joints through movement while always being “kind” to herself and her body.

Lili is one of Active Devon’s Active Ambassadors, and through our partnership with national charity Versus Arthritis, has been supporting the We Are Undefeatable campaign. She also provides online walking netball sessions, and inspires many in her community and beyond. To find out more about these sessions you can email Lili.

Doing Something, However Small, is Really Helpful

For Lili moving more ranges from taking short walks to boogying in the kitchen, even when this might be seen as “aunty-dancing”. Her approach is simple and being kind to the body, while gently challenging it, is extremely important to her.

There are often moments when being active does not always feel so straight forward or easy to do, and Lili discusses how to manage the ‘down-days’ while highlighting that just doing something, however small, is actually really helpful.

Lili gives some great tips on how to get active and the things to think about when planning to do a little activity. She stresses the importance of starting with “small steps” and avoiding a “boom and bust” approach.

Versus Arthritis highlights that physical activity is one of the best things you can do to improve symptoms of the condition. These can be done in three or four 10 minute sessions during the day ideally up to five times a week. Walking for health and even climbing stairs are great ways of doing this.

The interview ends by highlighting how the We Are Undefeatable campaign is helping people to manage their health conditions through encouragement and by providing top tips for how to be active safely.

Have a listen to more of our thought provoking Active Devon podcasts here.