Youth Physical Activity – Building positive attitudes and habits for children with regard to physical activity is extremely important. Most children fall short with regard to the amount of physical activity needed to maintain health. One of the biggest barriers to physical activity for young people is related to time and technology. With the increased use of technology, sedentary behavior has increased and time spent being physically active has decreased. Thus, one of the 5210 goals is to limit technology time to two hours or less per day. This can, in turn, help children reach the recommended amount of at least one hour of physical activity per day.
Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
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Physical activity refers to any bodily movement produced by the contraction of skeletal muscle that increases energy expenditure above a basal level. In the Guidelines, physical activity generally refers to the subset of physical activity that enhances health. Exercise is a form of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive, and performed with the goal of improving health or fitness. Although all exercise is physical activity, not all physical activity is exercise.
Being physically active is one of the most important actions that people of all ages can take to improve their health. Physical activity fosters normal growth and development and can make people feel better, function better, sleep better, and reduce the risk of a large number of chronic diseases. Health benefits start immediately after exercising, and even short episodes of physical activity are beneficial. Even better, research shows that just about everyone gains benefits. The evidence about the health benefits of regular physical activity is well established, and research continues to provide insight into what works to get people moving, both at the individual and community level. Achieving the benefits of physical activity depends on our personal efforts to increase activity in ourselves, family, friends, patients, and colleagues. Action is also required at the school, workplace, and community levels.
The Health Benefits of Physical Activity—Research Findings
- Regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces the risk of many adverse health outcomes.
- Some physical activity is better than none.
- For most health outcomes, additional benefits occur as the amount of physical activity increases through higher intensity, greater frequency, and/or longer duration.
- Both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity are beneficial.
- Health benefits occur for children and adolescents, young and middle-aged adults, older adults, and those in every studied racial and ethnic group.
- The health benefits of physical activity occur for people with chronic conditions or disabilities.
- The benefits of physical activity generally outweigh the risk of adverse outcomes or injury.
- Benefits of physical activity for children also include improved cognition (performance on academic achievement tests, executive function, processing speed, memory) and reduced risk of depression or depressed mood.
Physical Activity Guidelines for Children and Adolescents
Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for developing movement skills, learning healthy habits, and establishing a firm foundation for lifelong health and well-being. Regular physical activity in children and adolescents promotes health and fitness. Compared to those who are inactive, physically active youth have higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and stronger muscles. They also typically have lower body fat and stronger bones. Physical activity also has brain health benefits for school-aged children, including improved cognition and reduced symptoms of depression. Evidence indicates that both acute bouts and regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity improve the cognitive functions of memory, executive function, processing speed, attention, and academic performance for these children.
Youth who are regularly active also have a better chance of a healthy adulthood. Children and adolescents do not usually develop chronic diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or osteoporosis. However, current evidence shows that obesity and other risk factors for these diseases, such as elevated insulin, blood lipids, and blood pressure, are increasingly appearing in children and adolescents. Exercise training in youth with overweight or obesity can improve body composition by reducing overall levels of body fat as well as abdominal fat. Regular physical activity also makes it less likely that these risk factors will develop and more likely that children remain healthy when they become adults.
Preschool-aged children (ages 3 through 5 years) should be encouraged to move and engage in active play as well as in structured activities, such as throwing games and bicycle or tricycle riding. To strengthen bones, young children should do activities that involve hopping, skipping, jumping, and tumbling. Although the specific amount of activity needed to improve bone health and avoid excess fat in young children is not well defined, a reasonable target may be 3 hours per day of activity of all intensities: light, moderate, or vigorous intensity. This is the average amount of activity observed among children of this age and is consistent with guidelines from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth of Australia.
Key Guidelines for Preschool-Aged Children
Preschool-aged children (ages 3 through 5 years) should be physically active throughout the day to enhance growth and development. Adult caregivers of preschool-aged children should encourage active play that includes a variety of activity types.
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School-aged youth (ages 6 through 17 years) can achieve substantial health benefits by doing moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity for periods of time that add up to 60 minutes or more each day. This activity should include aerobic activity as well as age-appropriate muscle- and bone-strengthening activities. It appears that, as in adults, the total amount of physical activity is more important for achieving health benefits than is any one component (frequency, intensity, or duration) or specific mix of activities (aerobic, muscle strengthening, bone strengthening). Even so, bone-strengthening activities remain especially important for children and young adolescents because the greatest gains in bone mass occur during the years just before and during puberty. In addition, the majority of peak bone mass is obtained by the end of adolescence.
Parents and other adults who work with or care for youth should be familiar with the key guidelines in this chapter. Adults play an important role in providing age-appropriate opportunities for physical activity. In doing so, they help lay an important foundation for lifelong, health-promoting physical activity. Adults need to encourage active play in children and encourage sustained and structured activity as children grow older. As children become adolescents, they typically reduce their physical activity, making it all the more important for adults to provide age-appropriate, enjoyable opportunities for physical activity and to encourage youth to participate.
Key Guidelines for School-Aged Children and Adolescents
It is important to provide young people opportunities and encouragement to participate in physical activities that are appropriate for their age, that are enjoyable, and that offer variety.
Children and adolescents ages 6 through 17 years should do 60 minutes (1 hour) or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily:
- Aerobic: Most of the 60 minutes or more per day should be either moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity and should include vigorous-intensity physical activity on at least 3 days a week.
- Muscle-strengthening: As part of their 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity, children and adolescents should include muscle-strengthening physical activity on at least 3 days a week.
- Bone-strengthening: As part of their 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity, children and adolescents should include bone-strengthening physical activity on at least 3 days a week.
Explaining the Guidelines
The key guidelines for school-aged children and adolescents focus on three types of activity—aerobic, muscle strengthening, and bone strengthening. Each has important health benefits. Certain activities can be aerobic as well as muscle or bone strengthening. Illustrations of these activities can be found in the real-life examples at the end of this chapter.
Aerobic activities are those in which young people rhythmically move their large muscles for a sustained period of time. Running, hopping, skipping, jumping rope, swimming, dancing, and bicycling are all examples of aerobic activities. Aerobic activities increase cardiorespiratory fitness. Children often do activities in short bursts, which may not technically be aerobic. However, the Guidelines uses the term aerobic to refer to these types of activities, even if they are done only briefly.
Muscle-strengthening activities make muscles do more work than usual during activities of daily life. This is called overload, and strengthens the muscles. Muscle-strengthening activities can be unstructured and part of play, such as playing on playground equipment, climbing trees, and playing tug-of-war. Or they can be structured, such as lifting weights or working with resistance bands.
Bone-strengthening activities produce a force on the bones of the body that promotes bone growth and strength. This force is commonly produced by impact with the ground. Running, jumping rope, basketball, tennis, and hopscotch are all examples of bone-strengthening activities. As these examples illustrate, bone strengthening activities can also be aerobic and muscle strengthening. How Age Influences Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents Children and adolescents should meet the key guidelines by doing activity that is appropriate for their age. Their natural patterns of movement differ from those of adults. For example, children are naturally active in an intermittent way, particularly when they do unstructured active play. During recess and in their free play and games, children use basic aerobic and bone-strengthening activities, such as running, hopping, skipping, and jumping, to develop movement patterns and skills. They alternate brief periods of moderate- and vigorous intensity activity with periods of light-intensity physical activity or rest. Any episode of moderate- or vigorous intensity physical activity, however brief, counts toward the key guidelines for children and adolescents ages 6 through 17 years. For preschool-aged children, activity of any intensity counts, including light intensity.
Children also commonly increase muscle strength through unstructured activities that involve lifting or moving their body weight or working against resistance. Children do not usually do or need formal muscle strengthening programs, such as lifting weights. However, these programs are safe for children if they are properly prescribed and supervised.
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As children grow into adolescents, their patterns of physical activity change. They are able to play organized games and sports and are able to sustain longer periods of activity. But they still commonly do intermittent activity, and any period of moderate- or vigorous-intensity activity can count toward the key guidelines.
During the transition to adolescence, sex differences in physical activity behavior appear. The amount of physical activity done by girls tends to decrease dramatically compared to that of boys, and the disparity persists into adulthood. Therefore, adolescent girls may need additional support and encouragement to maintain health-enhancing physical activity.
Adolescents may meet the key guidelines by doing free play, sports, or structured programs. Structured exercise programs can include muscle-strengthening activities, such as lifting weights, working with resistance bands, or using body weight for resistance (such as push-ups, pull-ups, and planks). Muscle-strengthening activities count if they involve a moderate or greater level of effort and work the major muscle groups of the body—legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.
Levels of Intensity for Aerobic Activity
Children and adolescents ages 6 and older can meet the key guidelines by doing a combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activities or by doing only vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activities. Youth should not do only moderate-intensity activity. It is important to include vigorous-intensity activities because they lead to greater improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness.
The intensity of aerobic physical activity can be defined on either an absolute or a relative scale. Either scale can be used to monitor the intensity of aerobic physical activity:
Absolute intensity is the amount of energy expended during the activity, without considering a person’s cardiorespiratory fitness.
Relative intensity uses a person’s level of cardiorespiratory fitness to assess level of effort.
Relative intensity describes a person’s level of effort relative to his or her fitness. As a rule of thumb, on a scale of 0 to 10, where sitting is 0 and the highest level of effort possible is 10, moderate-intensity activity is a 5 or 6. Young people doing moderate-intensity activity will notice that their hearts are beating faster than normal and they are breathing harder than normal. Vigorous-intensity activity begins at a level of 7 or 8. Youth doing vigorous-intensity activity will feel their heart beating much faster than normal, and they will breathe much harder than normal.
When adults supervise children, they generally cannot ascertain a child’s heart or breathing rate. However, they can observe whether a child is doing an activity which, based upon absolute energy expenditure, is considered to be either moderate or vigorous intensity. For example, a child walking to school is doing moderate-intensity activity. A child running on the playground is doing vigorous-intensity activity. However, children with low fitness may experience activities that are moderate intensity on the absolute scale as being vigorous intensity. Some activities, such as bicycling, can be moderate or vigorous intensity, depending upon level of effort.
Special Considerations Children and Adolescents with Disabilities
Children and adolescents with disabilities are more likely to be inactive than those without disabilities. Youth with disabilities should work with a health care professional or physical activity specialist to understand the types and amounts of physical activity appropriate for them. When possible, children and adolescents with disabilities should meet the key guidelines. When young people are not able to participate in the appropriate types or amounts of physical activities needed to meet the key guidelines, they should be as active as possible and avoid being inactive.
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