Physical Activity for Youth

Mothers and fathers around the world are telling their children to get off the couch and outside, but do kids really listen these days? If you were to tell a child to turn off their video game, you’d probably be greeted with a nod and a disapproving look. The lack of physical activity in children today is causing long-term worries for parents and healthcare providers alike. Though children may appear to be healthy, when they aren’t getting regular activity, they are setting themselves up for health problems sooner than they might expect.

The Health Problems of Sitting Around

If you were to sit in a chair for 16 hours a day, you would feel lethargic, achy, and probably bored. Think about what a child does when they are playing video games – about the same thing, right? The human body was not designed to sit for long stretches of time. It was designed to move around in the world. When the body doesn’t move around, it can cause these health problems:

• Diabetes – More children than ever are being diagnosed with pre-diabetic and diabetic disorders.
• Heart disease – Even children are beginning to show high levels of cholesterol in their bloodstream from poor diets and a lack of exercise.
• Weakened immune systems – When the body isn’t functioning properly, it can lead to an increased risk of colds, flus, and even more dangerous diseases.

The body rebels against those who don’t take care of themselves – even if they are just kids.

Getting Your Child Outside

While it might seem impossible to remove the video game controller from your child, as a parent, you have the right to take it away. Take the batteries out of the controllers, remove the video games from the console, and turn your electricity off, if necessary. Your child might whine for a while and try to go to their friends’ houses, but in time, they will begin to find other things to do. As a family, you might want to head to the gym to exercise together. Or you can go to the beach or to a local park as your entertainment.

A Family Habit

Exercise is much more likely to happen if you are able to encourage your child through your own actions. Children model their parents, so it’s time to get up off the couch yourself. Get thee to a gym and see what your child does as a result. You might find they want to tag along. At the very least, exercise at home and make these workouts a challenge to see if your kid can beat you.

Getting more exercise doesn’t have to be traumatic for your child – or for you. You simply need to create the ideal situation to encourage your child to move around more. Whether you bribe them or simply make them walk home from school instead of riding the bus, there are many ways to make your child move more – and, a long time from now, they might even thank you for it.