Kids and Health Care: Promoting Physical Activity
Several sets of recommendations and guidelines have been established that define the quantity and quality of activity needed to optimize physical fitness and to identify the health-related benefits of physical activity among kids. Use these to help monitor both your child's health and level of activity.
According to the 1993 International Consensus Conference on Physical Activity Guidelines for Adolescents, adolescents should:
- be physically active daily, or nearly every day, as part of play, games, sports, work, transportation, recreation, physical education or planned exercise in the context of family, school and community activities; and
- engage in three or more sessions per week of activities that last 20 minutes or more at a time and that require moderate to vigorous levels of exertion.
Kids have to be ready to make a change. If a child is not ready to change, provide brief reinforcement about healthy lifestyles and encourage him or her to engage in physical activity. Identifying the current barriers to activity and emphasizing current benefits also can be an important first step. Common barriers to physical activity may include:
- lack of time;
- lack of access to facilities;
- unsafe neighborhoods; and
- dislike of exercise.
Other suggestions for promoting physical activity:
- walking or bicycling for transportation;
- planning physically active rather than sedentary activities with friends (i.e., taking walks with friends rather than talking on the telephone, turning off the TV and putting the Gameboy down);
- planning active times or vacations with your kids;
- participating in dancing, skating and swimming classes;
- identifying activities that can be done indoors, such as exercise to videos, dancing to popular music or using a stationary bicycle;
- encouraging participation in after-school sports programs or club teams;
- allowing kids to utilize local rec centers, parks, and other public venues safe for kids to play; and
- identifying the exercise they already get (e.g., walking, using the stairs whenever possible).
Remember: Organized sports is not the only type of exercise that "counts."
