Make Your Move
We believe the best piece of exercise equipment ever invented is you!
In Nova Scotia, community matters. We all have the power to make a change.
Make Your Move helps us rethink how we move about and gather in our communities. Whether we are leading group walks, planting neighbourhood gardens or improving active transportation options – being active in community helps us feel better, connect with others and support local businesses.
Join the movement that is transforming communities across our province. Click here to learn how you can activate your community.
Creating a cultural shift
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
With support from the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, the Healthy Tomorrow Foundation is helping five Nova Scotia communities bring the Make Your Move campaign to life.
In Antigonish, Lockeport, New Glasgow, Wagmatcook and Yarmouth, local leaders, organizations and residents are making movement a part of daily life. They’re organizing community walks, improving access to trails and parks, making streets more walkable and turning everyday spaces into places that encourage movement and social connection.
The Make Your Move Communities initiative is about more than physical activity. It’s about strengthening community bonds, reducing social isolation and supporting thriving local economies. By making movement-friendly spaces the norm, these communities are showing what’s possible when we rethink how we move in the places where we live, work and play.
You can be a movement leader your community too. Learn how to bring Make Your Move to life in your neighbourhood and make movement a part of your community’s culture.
Make Your Move 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.