Question:
How much physical activity do kids need?
Answer:
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 recommends
that children and adolescents engage in at least
60 minutes of physical activity on most, and ideally
all, days of the week. Daily physical activity
helps children maintain a healthy weight and reduces
their risk for chronic diseases, such diabetes
and heart disease. It improves their fitness,
relieves stress, builds self esteem and increases
their capacity for learning. Along with adequate
calcium intake, getting kids up and moving helps
them build the strongest bones possible, and most
important, it puts them on track for a lifetime
of physical activity. Short bursts of physical
activity spread throughout the day can all add
up to the 60 minutes kids need:
- Add a two-minute fitness break between subjects
during the day.
- Make sure that children get out for daily
recess, and avoid withholding it as punishment.
- Serve as a role model by joining children
in their activities and talking about ways you
are physically active.
- Talk about ways children can add more physical
activity to their day and have them keep a physical
activity log.
- Most important, teach children that a few
minutes here and there can add up the 60 or
more minutes they need each day.
Related Resources
Physical Activity Brochures for Parents, Teachers
and Principals
Food
and Fitness Relay Activity
Eyewitness
to Fitness Activity
A
Journal of Movement Activity
Making
Fitness Time Together Time Handout (PDF)
Related Book
The
Busy Body Book: A Kid's Guide to Fitness
(Booklist Editor's Choice and Books for Youth
Awards)
by Lizzy Rockwell
Crown Books for Young Readers, 2004
Kids walk and skate and tumble through the pages
as Rockwell explains how their bones and muscles,
heart and lungs, and nerves and brain all work
together to keep them on the go.
