Exercise
Not only is an active life style great for your child’s health but it’s also a great way to do things together.
Along with a healthy diet, children and young people should be spending time doing physical activity every day. This supports:
- Continued growth and development including strong muscles and bones
- Maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding health issues such as problems with blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes
- A proper and regular sleep pattern
- Building confidence and social skills
- Spending less time in front of the TV, on the computer or playing video games.
Aim for your child to do 60 minutes of physical activity a day
They don’t have to do 60 minutes in one go and this can includes school activities such as PE lessons,
The NHS Living Well and NHS Fitness Studio websites are great resources for activity guidelines, exercises and workout plans, and you can also use them to find out what’s available in your area.
What type of activity should children and young people be doing?
Guidelines recommend that your child should spend around 60 minutes a day, varied across the week between moderate to vigorous aerobic, muscle strengthening and bone strengthening exercises.
- Muscle strengthening activities include gymnastics, football, climbing, tennis and swimming.
- Bone strengthening activities include walking, body weight exercises, martial arts, football and skipping.
See what your local area has to offer
Find out what your local area has in terms of teams, school holiday activity calendars and taster sessions. It’s a great way for your child to try different activities to find what they’re good at, keep them busy and active but also to meet new people. The NHS Change4 Life website has a postcode checker so you can see what’s on at the moment.
Make it a family thing
Staying active together is a great way to spend time as a family and it can be relatively cheap if you try things like going for a walk or bike riding.