Last week, I was interviewed for a Tesco Living article about how to get kids more excited about fitness. I talked about the best equipment, reward charts and my favourite apps. You can read the full article here but today I am talking about the role of parents in encouraging their children to be more active.
The government’s recommendation for physical activity for 5-18 year olds is to aim for at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day – ranging between moderate-intensity activity, such as cycling and playground activities and vigorous-intensity activity, such as fast running and tennis. On three days a week, these activities should involve muscle-strengthening activities, such as push-ups, and bone-strengthening activities, such as running.
Many children and young people, however, are not meeting those guidelines and spend to much time sat down at school and at home – in lessons, at break and lunchtimes, and watching TV or playing computer games, which can lead to weight gain, poor health, fitness & wellbeing and ultimately could lead to illness and diseases in adulthood.
Some children are not active enough at school but it’s not necessarily the role of the teacher to encourage children to run around in the playground at break times, because in a school with hundreds of kids that just isn’t possible. If children are encouraged to be more active in their free time at home then they will be more likely to run around at school too so it’s important to encourage your child to be more active at home – after school and at weekends.
Research from Cambridge and Southampton Universities also suggests that the more active a mother is, the more physically active her child will be so mums (and dads!) need to start setting a good example and show that exercise is important to you and not just for kids. Exercising as a family at least once a week will help enforce this – go for a walk or play in the garden or park or do some exercise challenges at home.
If you want to buy some equipment then my recommendation is a mini trampoline because it’s suitable for all ages, it can be used indoors and outdoors when the weather is nice, you get a total body workout (strength training, cardio & toning), it’s low impact so it won’t damage the joints, a great calorie burner and most importantly it’s fun so you won’t be able to get the kids to stop bouncing!
You don’t, however, always need equipment and if you’re stuck for ideas try the Change4Life Fun Generator app for inspiration.
Finally, what worked really well with my clients is to draw up an exercise chart and buy some gold stars and award 1 star for each activity mum, dad or the children take part in throughout the week. Don’t make up too many rules about how much you have to do to get a star as the main thing is that kids are thinking about being more active and ways they can get more stars. At the end of the week, add up how many stars and give the winner a reward – preferably not food as we want to disassociate from food being a ‘treat’ – perhaps let the winner decide what activity you do as a family at the weekend instead. You can also use the chart to set goals for the next week – for example aim to increase your stars by 5 next week.
So next time the kids ask to go to the park and you say no it’s raining or you’re too busy – think about the example you’re setting and how that will affect them and their attitude towards exercise in later life.