MONTREAL- With Spring break from school just around the corner, it might be a good time to talk about kids and physical activity.
Did you know that Canadian Physical Activity guidelines recommend children and adolescents participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day? Whereas school curriculum has been modified over the years to help youth get more activity throughout the day – they are still falling short of the recommendations and it's all about the activity time in the home. In the first study in Canada to look at physical activity levels measured by accelerometer (rather than via self-report survey), less than 10% (in fact, 9% of boys and 4% of girls) of youth aged 6 to 19 years participated in these recommended levels of physical activity. And, we know that activity levels decrease steadily over the years.
We also know that being sedentary is it's own problem. It was once thought that sedentary was the opposite end of the scale to physical activity – and now we see that there are specific health benefits to reducing sedentary time (such as television and computer use, which is combined into what we hear as "screen time") independent of physical activity. The first ever screen time guidelines were published last year and recommend limiting screen time to 2 hours or less per day outside of school and work duties – and none for children under the age of 2 years! Currently, kids spend about 62% of their days being sedentary. If we can change this at all, we are going to help youth stave off some of the worst health problems – cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity…
How do we increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior for our children? Parents, guardians, and family members alike can have a significant effect on helping kids in many ways:
(1) You can be role models by being active (and less sedentary) yourself. Kids are always perceptive!
(2) Try to encourage your children to be more active both verbally and by taking them places to be active, even volunteering to be supervisors at the park or community centers to let your kids be active with others.
(3) Giving your child activity choices is really important, because it makes them feel like they are in control (something all adolescents certainly want!) – try to make the choices all activity-focused rather than offering more sedentary pursuits.
(4) Spending more time in active play (outdoors or indoors) is a great way to get more physical activity and family time.
(5) Active videogames (not necessarily the ones that are designed to be fitness programs, but the ones that require your children to use motion controls such as the wii kinect and ps3 move) can be used to help integrate physical activity into your family day.
(6) Walking to places rather than driving is another great way to be a more active family.
If you have trouble reducing television and computer use with your kids, a few tips might be:
(1) Use the sleep timer on the television and have it go off after 30 minutes;
(2) Have your child participate in making a schedule for their 2 hours a day of screen time – again, letting them choose what programs they want to watch and when is always a good idea;
(3) Choose specific 30-minute shows to occupy the time rather than having the television on as ‘background noise' or choose one game that they can play for a specified time (guidelines that don't work are the ones that your child play until they reach a certain level or milestone in the game – because that goal is not in anyone's control!);
(4) Set family challenges for physical activity and reducing sedentary time – you can even use the apps we discussed a couple of weeks ago to challenge each other.
Don't have kids?
Dogs needs exercise too…For those of you who do not have kids of your own, you may feel that your dog(s) is as much a part of your family. There are no specific guidelines for exercise for dogs – but there is evidence that they can certainly help you achieve YOUR physical activity goals. Men and women who own dogs are more likely to acquire the recommended 30 minutes of physical activity per day. And, in a recent study out of the United Kingdom, dog ownership also helped pregnant women be more active. Dogs can also help kids get more activity too. But one caveat, try to walk with your dog(s) rather than let them walk and you stand – when you go visit the dog park, walk around the gated area yourself rather than stand in one place!
