If you are worried about your child's health, please do make an appointment with your GP for help and advice. You can also talk to us online via our live chat service, email us at call us on our helpline on 08 to speak to trained family support worker. It may help to chat to other parents on our forums to find out how they are dealing with this issue within their family life. You could also try encouraging your teenager to work exercise into their social lives, instead of a trip to the cinema, you could suggest bowling or skateboarding. Make it clear that doing a little, whenever you can, will still be beneficial and that your teen should be able to work some activities into their schedule – even if this is only taking a walk to the shops or putting on an online exercise video. Try to introduce family walks as a way of spending more time with each other and being active.īalancing school and seeing mates, plus any number of other pressures, can mean that your teen feels they don’t have much time to exercise. Use the stairs rather than the lift, walk up escalators, get off the bus one stop early and leave the car at home whenever you can. 1 Regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence is important for promoting lifelong health and well-being and preventing various health conditions. Work exercise into a family routine so that it becomes a whole family approach. Schools are in a unique position to help students attain the nationally recommended 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. Exercise isn’t all about sports make them aware that there are plenty of other options like dance, karate, swimming, skating or yoga available. Talk to your teen about what they would enjoy doing and support them by finding out what facilities there are in your local area.įor some teenagers, suggesting a sporty activity may bring back unpleasant memories from PE lessons. Do your research and give them plenty of choices. Instead, introduce them to the idea of doing something fun and active that you feel they would enjoy. How to help your teen become activeĪvoid telling your teenager what to do as they most likely will switch off what you are trying to communicate to them. Competitive and non-competitive sports encourage people to communicate and interact with each other and will help your teenager to develop team building and boost their self-confidence. The UK department of health recommends that young people (aged five to 18) should get at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day.įitness can also boost concentration so your teen may work better at school or college if they exercise regularly. Encouraging your teen to work up a sweat may result in the added benefits of them having more energy and positive mental and emotional health. It produces endorphins which are chemicals that cause you to feel content and happy. Keeping fit and active has a proven link to good health in later life. With social media and gaming consoles being a part of their daily lives, trying to motivate them to put them away and exercise instead can be a frustrating battle. Most of the boys indicated they did not want girls or older boys involved.Encouraging your teen to be more active can be difficult. They also said they'd be more likely to participate if their parents were actively involved in encouraging or requiring participation and if the program was specific to sixth grade boys. When asked to discuss ideas for increasing physical activity, the boys indicated that they would be interested in participating in after-school physical activity programs held from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. This is particularly true if healthier choices, like exercise equipment and access to parks, aren't readily available. As a result, they often choose to stay inside playing video games and eating junk food, rather than making healthier choices. They're left to make their own decisions regarding food, physical activity and exercise. Many sixth graders are home alone after school because their parents work. Upon discussing these issues with the boys, it became evident that many of them lack the after school resources to participate in regular physical activity. More: How to Encourage Your Kids to be Active Personal preference for playing video games and watching TV.Few neighborhood options for physical activity (few parks, small yards, etc.).Lack of available exercise equipment at schools.Lack of personal motivation to exercise.Regularly cited barriers to exercise included: The boys were encouraged to talk about the things that prevented them from wanting to participate in exercise as well as things that might make exercise more appealing. Seven focus groups consisting of racially diverse sixth graders from two separate public middle schools were formed to discuss physical activity.
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