Physical Wellbeing

Positive wellbeing is essential when it comes to ensuring you get the best out of university, and life in general. Good physical wellbeing can also help boost quality of sleep, general mood, energy, and self-esteem.

What Is Physical Wellbeing?

Physical wellbeing involves looking after your body in a way that helps you to maintain a healthy quality of life. Good physical wellbeing helps your body work for you, meaning you are able to make the most of your time without being troubled by physical tiredness, stress or pain. When we think of physical wellbeing we may instantly think of exercise – but it covers so much more than that. It also includes what you eat, how you sleep and whether you take time for self care. A healthy body is also proven to have a direct link to a healthy mind – so pay attention to your physical wellbeing. You only have one body, and you can’t do without it!

Physical Wellbeing and Food

Eating healthily is probably something you’ve heard people mention a thousand times over – and for good reason! What we put in our bodies directly affects everything inside them, so it’s important to keep an eye on what you’re eating – without stressing about every bite. Here are some top tips for eating healthy – don’t worry, you can still have your favourite snacks too!

Think about what’s in your food. Protein, fat, salt, and sugar all have different effects on your body that can be both helpful and harmful. It’s all about the quantity. For example: protein (usually found in foods like chicken, lentils, eggs, yoghurt, and fish) helps your muscles, strength and good health hormones. Whilst saturated fat (usually found in foods like oil, cheese, butter, and red meat) can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems if eaten to often.
Read the label! All food packaging in the UK is required to display a ‘traffic light label’ in order to help you easily see what is in the food you are buying. This label is visible on the outside of the packaging and tells you the nutritional values of the product in a green, orange and red colour scale. These labels also show a percentage value underneath each nutrient, indicating how much of your daily recommended intake that food would give you. Checking these labels is a good way to tell how much of that food you should be eating, but it’s important not to obsess about it. All foods are okay in moderation, so just use the labels as a guide to help you stick to recommended daily intake whenever you can. You can find some useful information and guidelines on how much of eat nutrient to eat per day here, and more info about the food labelling system here.
Fibre is your friend! Fibre helps with digestion and can reduce the risk of conditions such as heart disease and bowel cancer. It also makes you feel fuller for longer, meaning you’re less likely to reach for sugary snacks throughout the day. The NHS recommends that adults eat around 30 grams of fibre a day. High-fibre foods include starchy carbohydrates such as wholemeal bread, wholewheat pasta, brown rice and potatoes with the skins left on; pulses such as lentils, chickpeas, and beans; and various vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Get your Five-A-Day! Speaking of vegetables - eating at least 5 portions of fruits and vegetables every day is proven to have significant health benefits. They help to lower the risk of serious health problems while making a great healthy snack, being both full of flavour and low in fat and calories. Try to vary the types of fruits and vegetables you eat to make sure you’re benefitting from all the various nutrients they have to offer. The best part is that it’s not only fresh fruit or vegetables that count – you can also eat them frozen, canned, dried, or juiced. You can find more information on the NHS pages about Five-A-Day here.
Stay hydrated! Drinking enough fluids is vital to your body’s everyday functioning. Being severely dehydrated can have many effects, including difficulty in regulating your temperature or reducing good blood circulation. Mild dehydration can still be harmful, and may result in headaches, dry mouth, and feeling tired, which can all make daily life a struggle. The NHS recommends drinking at least 6-8 cups of fluid a day. Water is the best – and it’s free! If you don’t like the taste, try adding a slice of fruit or grab some flavoured water instead. Milk, tea, and other sugar-free drinks also count, but try to limit fruit juice to one cup a day, as it has a high sugar content. Don’t forget to drink extra fluids if you’ve been sweating more than normal due to being out in hot sunshine or hitting the gym!

Physical Wellbeing and Exercise

Getting a good amount of exercise is also vitally important to your physical wellbeing. The NHS recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensityactivity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous/high-intensity activity per week. You should try to spread your exercise out evenly throughout the week.

Walking briskly
Cycling
Dancing
Rollerblading or skating
Yoga or pilates

Running
Swimming
Skipping
Team sports such as football, rugby, netball, or hockey
Martial arts

Good physical wellbeing is for everyone. If you need adaptions in order to take part in and enjoy exercise, you may want to consider Parasports. These are activities that have either been adapted or specifically designed for people with disabilities or health conditions and include things such as wheelchair basketball, blind football, goalball, para-archery, sitting volleyball, and more! Click here for an online search that you can use to help you find your nearest disability-friendly gym/sports facility.

Your university also makes it as easy as possible for every student to maintain good physical wellbeing. Your Students’ Union has a sports centre for Coventry-based students, with facilities including training equipment, a sports hall where you can play netball, badminton, basketball, table tennis, and more, and fitness classes like yoga and spinning!

Although there aren’t any university-owned sports centres/gyms at the London campuses, there are many local facilities that you can join instead! The closest facility to the London Dagenham campus is the Becontree Heath Leisure Centre, which has three pools, a large gym, a café, a sports centre, and various fitness classes available, too.

The closest facility to the London Greenwich campus is The Greenwich Centre, which has recently been refurbished and offers two swimming pools, a large gym, fitness classes, and even a library that has free Wi-Fi access and study spaces!

In Scarborough you can check out the Scarborough Sports Village, which has two swimming pools, a large gym, a wide range of fitness classes, a sports hall hosting activities such as badminton, netball, and table tennis, plus an outdoor football pitch as well – lots to choose from!

There are many other gyms and centres across Coventry, London, and Scarborough, so you have a huge variety of options to choose from. Don’t forget to check whether they offer student discount when joining!

Physical Wellbeing and Sleep

It is recommended that the average adult should get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night in order for their brain and body to be rested enough to function at 100%. And yet, a 2023 My Student Halls study found that 26% of UK university students reported having an average sleep time of less than five hours each night. Sleep deprivation can have a huge impact on your physical, social, emotional and mental health which of course will impact on your studies too. Symptoms of sleep deprivation include:

Slower reaction times.
Trouble paying attention.
Mood swings.
Reduced sex drive.
Poor judgements.
Low immunity to illness.

Long-term sleep deprivation (Insomnia) can increase the likelihood of mental health struggles such as anxiety and depression.

How to Get Better Sleep

There are lots of ways to help improve your quality and amount of sleep, including:

Set a consistent sleep schedule. Try setting an alarm not only to wake up but also for when you should start getting ready for bed. Going to sleep and waking up at the same time every night will help regulate your body’s internal clock, boosting your quality of sleep.
Avoid going on electronic devices (such as your phone or laptop) an hour before bed. The blue light from electronic screens can make it harder for you to fall asleep; luckily, many devices now have ‘night modes’ where the screen is tinted to warmer colours in order to get rid of more blue light. However, it’s best to just put the phone down entirely and give your brain (and eyes) a break.
Optimize your sleeping environment. Your room should ideally be cool, quiet, and as dark as you can make it. Listening to soft music, having a relaxing bath or warm shower, or doing some breathing exercises and gentle stretches before bed can also help you to feel more relaxed.
Exercise regularly – but not too close to bedtime. Exercise can help you get to sleep more easily, but exercising right before bed can make you feel more alert and awake, which isn’t what you want.
Don’t force it. If you find yourself tossing and turning for an hour instead of falling asleep, it might be better to sit up in bed and do a low-stress activity such as reading a (non-academic) book, meditating, or taking a warm bath if you haven’t already. Low-effort, low-stress activities may help you start to feel sleepy.
Try white noise or music. Many people find it useful to have some background ambience to fall asleep to. The free app called ‘Rain Rain Sleep Sounds’ available on Android and Apple has a large variety of relaxing sounds – or you can also combine them to create your own custom soundscape to fall asleep to.
Try a sleep tracker app. There are a huge variety of sleep tracking apps to choose from, such as the free app ‘Sleep Cycle’ (available on the App Store and Google Play), which tracks your sleep time and includes inbuilt alarm features to help you build a better picture of when you sleep and for how long. Search ‘sleep app’ on your phone’s app store and try a few different apps out to see what works for you!