Kids trying out for their school’s soccer, baseball or basketball team is a great way to get them exercising, but if you think that’s enough to satisfy their daily activity needs, think again.

According to a new study published by researchers from San Diego State University and the University of California, less than a quarter of children that participate in after-school sports actually meet the physical activity guidelines.

National guidelines suggest kids get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day.

To assess kids’ activity levels, researchers strapped 200 accelerometers to each participating child’s waist.  Their ages ranged from 7 to 14.  Overall, they found that just 24 percent exercised hard enough to maintain or improve their fitness levels.  And that’s overall.  If you segregate the age groups and the sport the kids participated in, the percentages are worse.  For instance, for kids between 11 and 14, just under 10 percent reached the recommended exercise amount.  And for girls that played softball, the number was just 2 percent!

In addition to the accelerometers, the researchers assessed the kids’ exercise based on the length of their practices.  For instance, the longest practice sessions were 217 minutes; the shortest sessions were 35 minutes.  But that’s just the time they spent at practice, not the time they spent actually moving.  When they looked at just movement time, it was about 45 minutes per practice.  Not surprisingly, soccer players made up the majority of that average.

Writing in the pages of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the researchers said, “The health effects of youth sports could be improved by adopting policies and practices that ensure youth obtain sufficient physical activity during practices.”

In addition to their comments and findings, the researchers make recommendations for how coaches can make practices more exercise-centered, such as by using pedometers; creating activities for all of the kids, regardless of their ability, so everyone is working up a sweat; and developing individualized strategies that coaches can modify according to what each kid considers motivating.

Frank’s Take

I think the biggest thing to take away from this study is the fact that something as activity-based as competing in organized sports isn’t sufficient enough among kids.  Kids (usually) exercise much more than adults do.  Further, kids’ metabolic rates are much faster than adults, so what it takes for adults to burn so many calories takes kids half the time.

That’s why if you’re an adult, it’s absolutely crucial to make exercise an everyday part of your life.  Find time in your day so that you can spend at least one hour exercising at a moderate intensity level.  If you can sustain higher intensity levels, go for it, but it should at the very least be at a moderate intensity.  Perfect moderate intensity activities include walking, jogging, bike riding, swimming, elliptical training, snowshoeing or ballroom dancing.  So long as your continuously moving for at least 30 minutes – and hard enough so your heart rate increases – almost any activity will do.

And in light of the aforementioned study, your exercise sessions shouldn’t necessarily end when you walk out your gym’s door.  You can very easily turn everyday tasks into exercise sessions:

Housework

You’d be surprised how many calories common household chores can burn.  Amber Hilton at Helium.com compiled the following calculations, based on a 150-pound individual:

Sweeping for 20 minutes = 95 calories

Mopping for 20 minutes = 83 calories

Vacuuming for 45 minutes = 188 calories

Cooking for 45 minutes = 134 calories

Vigorous cleaning for 60 minutes = 214 calories

Or if your housework is typically done in the great outdoors, the calorie-burning benefits are even bigger:

Shoveling snow for 30 minutes = 214 calories

Mowing the lawn with a push mower for 60 minutes = 429 calories

Painting for 60 minutes = 321 calories

Raking for 20 minutes = 95 calories

Take the Stairs

Elevators are certainly more convenient, but so long as you’re not late for work, why not take the stairs to your office?  The calorie-burning benefits can really pay off, as a 2008 study conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen found.  For two weeks, participants were to do the opposite of what most exercise enthusiasts recommend: seek the easiest mode of transportation possible.  In other words instead of taking the stairs, they were instructed to take the escalator or the elevator.

Just 14 days of this style of living had a significant impact on their health, as the participants’ fat levels rose, their glucose levels were higher, and their livers became less efficient (i.e. the liver took longer to clear the bloodstream of toxins).

Take a Stand

We’ve grown accustomed to sitting, haven’t we?  Whether it’s at our office, at our home or out for a cup of coffee, it seems like we’re always pulling up a seat.  Shake things up and stand up as often as possible.  It will improve your blood flow, and eat up a few more calories.  How much you burn while standing depends on your gender (men burn more than women) and how much you weigh (the more you weigh, the more calories burned).  For instance, a man weighing 150 pounds will burn about 25 calories more standing than he will sitting.

Granted, it doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up over time.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Fidget!

Your parents may have told you not to, but according to a 2005 study performed by the Mayo Clinic, fidgeting is often the difference between being lean and mean or tubby and stubby.

This fidgeting phenomenon was realized when researchers had 20 men and women wear undergarments that could detect and record even the slightest twitch.  Half the men and women were lean, the other half heavy, but none of the participants exercised.  They also monitored what the two groups were eating.

After 10 days of monitoring and interpreting the “twitch” results, the researchers found that the lean participants moved in some form or fashion about 150 minutes more than the heavy-set participants.

It’s a cliché but the small things in life really do make the biggest difference.  Keep yourself moving by turning ordinary situations into exercise sessions.

Sources
myhealthnewsdaily.com
helium.com
walking.about.com
healthcentral.com
ehow.com
washingtonpost.com