Our lifestyles have become increasingly digital – but exercise for children should be encouraged from an early age, as it’s vital for their future development.
What Benefits Can Exercise Offer For Children?
Physical activity and exercise that gets kids moving has been shown to offer a wide range of benefits, and helps a child to establish a lasting relationship with incorporating exercise into their daily lives. These can include, but are not limited to:
- Improves overall fitness
- Provides an opportunity to socialise
- Increases concentration
- Improves academic scores
- Helps to build stronger heart function, bones and muscles
- Encourages healthy physical growth and development
- Improves self-esteem and confidence
- Promotes better posture and balance
- Lowers stress levels
- Encourages a better night’s sleep
- Improves cognitive ability, with increases oxygen and blood flow to the brain
- Helps encourage habits in order to maintain a lifelong healthy weight
Did you know that four out of five Australian children don’t get the recommended physical exercise intake per day? Physical exercise doesn’t have to be within a structured sport environments, as anything that encourages them to get up and moving counts. For children aged over five, sixty minutes per day is the desired target for physical activity. More often than not – children simply love to play.
Ideas On How To Get Your Kids Moving
Let’s face it – big kids and little kids are sitting around more than they used to. More screen time has made us sedentary, but no amount of games, movies or television shows can replace the role of physical exercise for children.
If you’re stuck on ideas for ways to peel them off the couch, then simply take them to the park. Most kids get up to all of these exercises during a regular park trip:
- Playing tag, or chasing someone who’s “it” improves endurance
- Crossing the monkey bars improves strength
- Bending down or stretching improves flexibility
It’s important to note that your kids don’t need to hit their sixty-minute exercise quota all in one hit – little bodies get tired and can have smaller attention spans. Depending on the age of your child, there are plenty of other methods to get moving that can be fun for the whole family – and they often don’t cost a thing.
- Yoga
- Taking a walk or an easy hike
- Bike riding
- Playing “catch” or throwing a ball around
- Swimming and water-based activities
- Gardening
- Playing with pets
Any Questions?
Monitoring your child’s health and development is one of the most important parts of being a parent, but at the end of the day – you’re often the one to know if something’s not quite right.
If you need to speak to a professional, access to a doctor has never been easier with the help of an online telehealth service like 13 Doctor. It’s never been easier for you or your child to speak to a doctor, and all from the comfort of your own home.