Team sports are a great way for kids to get their daily activity requirement, but competitive sports aren’t for every child. Here are some ways to encourage “non-athletes” to get active.

• Kids can be embarrassed to participate in sports because they have the notion that they’re not good enough. If this is the problem, find time to practice together. This can help build confidence and prepare them for the next step — small group play with their peers.
• Some kids simply don’t like competing in sports. That’s fine since there are many other ways to be active. Examples include leisure swimming, cycling, dancing, skateboarding, yoga, and hiking. Explore areas of possible interest for your child by learning what goes on at the local YMCA, community sports fairs or park district programs.
• Never make exercise a punishment. Forcing your child to go out and play may create resistance. Try using physical activity to ease into something viewed as being even less desirable. For instance, make it a routine to allow for 30 minutes of biking before starting homework. Don’t be surprised if your child ends up begging for 10 more minutes outside!

“Fail to plan and you can plan to fail.”

Think of your plan as a road map and your goal as your destination. Without a plan and a specific goal, you are left without focus and can easily get lost or side-tracked. This happens all the time to people who, without much thought, join a gym or start running. They end up just doing whatever — no activity plan and no nutritional plan. Soon, they wonder why they are not making progress.

Having a plan lets you take specific action each day. There is no wondering or guessing — you just do it. A proper plan can provide the necessary structure that not only keeps you moving forward, it also helps develop good habits for activity and nutrition that will benefit you long after you have reached your goal.

“Believe you can or believe you can’t. Choose one and you’ll be exactly right.”

Once you have started on your plan, you need to believe wholeheartedly in what you are doing. It is important to stay focused and avoid overly-critical people. If you have to, don’t discuss your plan with people who say things like “you can’t do that” or “you’re wasting time and money”. Basically, do not let anyone negatively influence your success. When you have reached your goals, those same people will likely be asking for your advice.

Modern guidelines state that normal weight adults need at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise on four or more days of the week. Adults focused on weight loss need 60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise four or more days per week. The same 60 minute requirement applies to all children, regardless of their weight. However, in all cases, the required activity time can be divided into two or three parts in different times of the day.

Commonly referred to as the Consensus Public Health Recommendation, these guidelines are supported by the U.S. Surgeon General, USDA, Dept. of Health and Human Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health, and American College of Sports Medicine.

Having said that, do not be discouraged by the amount of activity required. You can work up to the 30 or 60 minutes if you have been sedentary, pregnant, ill, injured or are significantly overweight. Furthermore, being active is not an all-or-nothing proposition. We need to simply accept the occasional lapse and just get back on track.

As an adult, you are probably well aware why you need to be active. However, you may not know to what extent obesity and sedentary living is affecting our youth. More than 60% of children do not exercise on a regular basis. A Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study from 2006 found that daily physical education classes are offered in just 3.8% of elementary schools, 7.9% of middle schools, and 2.1% of high schools. It is little wonder that the CDC also finds at least 15% of American children and teens are now overweight — more than triple the number in 1970. These numbers have very serious implications:

• Children are being diagnosed at an alarming rate with Type 2 Diabetes — a disease previously associated exclusively with middle aged or senior adults.
• Obesity, now classified as an epidemic disease, holds more harm for today’s children than exposure to tobacco, drugs, and alcohol combined.
• Today’s kids have a shorter life expectancy than their parents — the first time ever in U.S. history.

Involving your kids in a health-promoting lifestyle should be a high priority for every caring parent. However if you want fit and healthy kids, you should at least be on the path to getting fit and healthy yourself. Many studies have shown that family environment is one of the strongest predictors of childhood obesity.