How Do You Move? Telling everyday stories of physical activity

The physical activity stories of six Bristolians are brought to life in a newly published paper, the final publication to come from ARC West’s How Do You Move? project.

The paper, published in NIHR Open Research, presents first person monologues exploring the experiences of people from diverse backgrounds who regularly take part in physical activity.

The UK government has guidelines about how much physical activity people should do to stay healthy. However, many people don’t manage to do as much physical activity as the government recommends. There are many reasons for this, including  where people live, what work they do or how much spare time they have.

The How Do You Move? project explored how we can improve that way physical activity guidelines are communicated to the public. It was a collaboration between ARC West and Knowle West Media Centre, with funding from the Brigstow Institute at the University of Bristol.

During the first part of the project, many people told the team that they wanted physical activity messages to come from ‘people like me’. So the team set out to find six people who managed to stay active, despite how difficult that can sometimes be in modern life:

• Abiir from Easton who advocates for cycling and supports others to get on their bike
• Ben from Bedminster who campaigns to improve the built environment for walking
• Lesley from Staple Hill whose involvement in the running community has been part of her cancer recovery
• Stephen and Nikki from Easton who have used physical activity as a way to manage mental health challenges
• Vince from Bedminster who does boxing, along with other group exercise, to support his mental health

These six people were interviewed about their physical activity, then the team worked with them to write their experiences as personal stories.

Four of the stories were also made into short films. Watch the films on YouTube:

Zoe Trinder-Widdess, Head of Communications at ARC West and lead author of the paper, said:

“I’m delighted that we can share the full stories of our six amazing public contributors. I hope that these stories make people think differently about physical activity and what it means to them. I also hope that our methods for developing the stories inspire others to use narrative as a way of bringing complexity to life.

“I would especially like to thank our public contributors for their openness and willingness to have their stories told in this way. And their patience with me throughout my efforts to get this paper published!”