Describe a physical activity you do to stay healthy.
A card about running, swimming, five-a-side, dancing or a daily walk. Ordinary activities are easier to speak about honestly than impressive ones.
The task card
Describe a physical activity you do to stay healthy.
You should say:
- what the activity is
- when and where you do it
- who you do it with
and explain why it works for you.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Name the activity and your routine together: 'I swim at the public pool on Tuesday and Friday mornings before work'. Routine detail answers the second bullet almost automatically and sounds far more natural than a definition of the sport.
'Who you do it with' is a chance to contrast: a running partner who talks too much, a team you have played with for years, or the deliberate choice to go alone. A strong answer also admits what you dislike about the activity — the cold, the early alarm — because honesty makes the final bullet credible.
For 'why it works for you', go beyond 'it keeps me fit': it is the only hour your phone is off, it is cheaper than a gym, it suits your knees. The common mistake is listing health benefits in general terms; the examiner wants to hear why this activity, for this person, survives week after week.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
Choose the honest activity
- Walking counts, and a forty-minute commute on foot is far easier to describe than a gym routine
- Swimming, cycling, badminton, a class you attend with someone else
- Something modest you actually do beats something impressive you did twice
Process and routine detail
- The exact timing — which days, what time, how long, and what happens if you miss it
- The equipment and the small rituals: the same locker, the same route, the same playlist
- The barrier you have to get past each time, and how you get past it
The benefit, named precisely
- Sleep, back pain, mood on a Monday — one specific improvement, not general health
- The social element, if there is one; committing to another person is why habits survive
- What you noticed during the period you stopped, which proves the benefit better than praise
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- WHAT — swimming, 30 lengths, pool by the station
- WHEN — Tues + Thurs, 7am before work, ~40 min door to door
- STARTED — after back pain, physio suggested it, ~2 yrs
- WHY — back pain gone + I sleep properly on those nights
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The activity I do to stay healthy is swimming — nothing fancy, just lengths at the public pool near my office, on Tuesday and Friday mornings before work. I've kept it up for about three years now, which for me is a record, because I'm someone who's abandoned gym memberships the way other people abandon diets. The routine is fixed: I'm in the water by seven, I do forty lengths at a fairly unheroic pace, and I'm at my desk by half eight feeling faintly superior to everyone. As for who I do it with — mostly I go alone, and that's deliberate. But there's also what I'd call the seven o'clock regulars: the same eight or nine faces every time, including a man in his seventies who swims twice my distance without apparent effort. We nod, we know each other's lane habits, and we've never exchanged names. It's the perfect amount of company. Why does it work for me? I'll be honest about the downside first — the alarm at quarter past six in January is genuinely horrible, and the changing rooms are always freezing. But swimming has two things nothing else gave me. First, it's the only hour of my week where my phone physically cannot reach me — you can't scroll in a pool, and my brain does its best thinking somewhere around length twenty-five. And second, it's kind to my dodgy knee where running never was. Cheap, quiet, no equipment, no screens — it works because there's nothing about it I can make an excuse out of.
Why this works: The routine detail ('in the water by seven, forty lengths') covers the when-and-where bullet effortlessly, and the nameless 'seven o'clock regulars' is an original, truthful take on 'who you do it with'. Admitting the January alarm and the dodgy knee makes the final explanation credible — and it goes beyond 'it keeps me fit' to the real mechanisms: no phone, no excuses.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- to keep in shape
Natural phrase for maintaining fitness.
- a workout
A session of physical exercise; a useful general noun.
- to build up gradually
To increase effort slowly; strong for describing a routine.
- a good way to switch off
Frames exercise as a break from screens and stress.
- low-impact
Gentle on the joints; useful for swimming, walking or cycling.
- to stick with it
To continue a habit despite difficulty; fits the final bullet.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- to keep in shape
- “It is really the only thing I do to keep in shape, but it seems to be enough.”
- I have got into the habit of
- “I have got into the habit of going straight from bed to the pool without thinking about it.”
- it takes it out of you
- “It takes it out of you at first, but after a month you stop noticing.”
- low impact
- “It is low impact, which matters because running was what caused the problem in the first place.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Keeping fit
Example questions
- 1What kinds of exercise are popular in your country?
- 2How easy is it for people to find time to exercise?
- 3Do you think schools do enough to encourage physical activity?
Health and public policy
Example questions
- 1Should governments fund public sports facilities?
- 2Can you suggest why many people stop exercising after they leave school?
- 3How much responsibility should employers take for staff health?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Activities and habits. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.