Make Your Move
We believe the best piece of exercise equipment ever invented is you!
We want to create a cultural shift where movement becomes part of Nova Scotians’ daily lives. Make Your Move is a public engagement and awareness campaign that aims to encourage Nova Scotians to move more throughout the entire day. Our goal is to inspire less-active people to think about movement differently and recognize that it’s easy to move more. All the small bouts of movement in your day count toward your overall activity. When we move even a little more, we improve our overall wellness and, more importantly, we feel better. If you want to add more movement to your day, it’s as easy as adding small bouts of movement wherever you can.
It’s simple – walking, wheeling, dancing around the kitchen, getting off the bus one or two stops early, gardening, cycling, taking the stairs more often or playing with your kids all count! Our moves can be adapted to suit your available time, lifestyle and ability.
Check out our Make Your Move videos
Watch the video below to see how Nova Scotians are making their move.
Watch the video to learn how to get more out of every move.
Quick tips for making your move
For quick tips on adding more movement to your day — to get places, for leisure, at home and at work — click the thumbnails below to download our tip sheets. These are great for printing and placing in high-traffic areas at home or at work as a reminder to make your move bit by bit.
To get places
For leisure
At home
At work
Latest blog posts
Make Your Move in the community
If you’re in the South Shore region, Pictou County or the Town of Amherst, you’ve likely interacted with the Make Your Move campaign in your community. In 2021, we joined forces with physical activity leaders in those areas to run a pilot project. Each area was equipped with a digital toolkit containing targeted resources to help encourage community members to move more. We took the lessons learned from that pilot project and have applied them to a three-year campaign called Make Your Move Communities. Lockeport, Antigonish and Yarmouth are all part of a multi-departmental government campaign to create a culture of movement in those communities.
Make Your Move is built on research
The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines are a series of recommendations created by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. The society creates resources for translating advances in exercise science research into the promotion of fitness, performance and health outcomes for Canadians.
The guidelines were introduced in 2020 and offer clear direction on what a healthy 24 hours looks like for Canadians of all ages, addressing sedentary behaviour, all types of physical activity and sleep. According to the guidelines, Canadians need to move more throughout the entire day by engaging in a variety of activities, replace sedentary behaviour with physical activity and achieve better sleep.
A significant change in the guidelines from previous versions is the recommendation for achieving several hours of light physical activity, including standing, and that all movement counts, even in short bouts. The guidelines emphasize that some activity is better than none and state that working toward any of the guideline targets will result in health benefits.
Read their report for Canadians aged 18 to 64 and see how adding a little bit more movement to your day can add up to feeling great.
ParticipACTION is Canada’s national non-profit organization that inspires and supports Canadians to make physical activity a vital part of their everyday life.
In 2021, ParticipACTION released its Adult Report Card, a summary of literature and various surveys on the topic of physical activity, sport and recreation. Canadians received an “F” for sedentary behaviour.
ParticipACTION defines sedentary behaviour as any waking behaviour characterized by very little energy expenditure, while in a sitting, reclining or lying posture.
The Make Your Move campaign seeks to reduce real or perceived barriers to movement, decrease sedentary behaviour and increase small bouts of movement that are easy to fit into the day. Learn more about ParticipACTION’s recommendations to improve the well-being of all Canadians here.