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!

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.

In 2006, a worldwide survey conducted by UK based Tesco Ltd. asked 3,500 children aged 7-16 their opinions on playing sports.

When finding out what motivates kids to play sports, perhaps not surprisingly, most children play first and foremost to have fun. Sociability was high on the list, setting “Make friends” as the #3 motivator.Keeping fit was the second most important factor in playing sports, but some cultural differences showed through. 83% of young Chinese do sports to stay healthy compared with just 43% in the US. Stress management turned out to be a significant motivator in playing sports, especially for teenagers. With increasingly difficult school work, social challenges, and the general pressure of the teen years, sports can be viewed by many to be the answer to stress. The figures went up dramatically for 15-16 year olds in most countries. Interestingly, considering current global obesity issues, losing weight was the motivation voted for least.

Slimming down is only one of the benefits overweight kids can gain from exercise. According to a recent study in the Journal of Obesity, an exercise program can help reduce potentially harmful snoring in children. Researchers put a group of 100 overweight children on a 13-week daily exercise program. At the end of the study, they found that the number of kids who frequently snored was reduced by roughly half.

Knowing that an unhealthy weight can develop sleep problems ranging from simple snoring to sleep apnea and chronic insomnia, one take-away from this study that we can use with household members of all ages is that regular physical activity can help make bedtime significantly more restful.

According to the 2006 Tesco Global Sport Report, swimming is the favorite sport in the world for children. Despite the global popularity of soccer, as far as kids’ participation in sports go, the “beautiful game” was surprisingly beaten out for the top position. Children almost unanimously voted swimming as their #1. It came out on top in every country aside for India, where cricket won.

Top Kids’ Sports

1. Swimming
2. Soccer
3. Cycling
4. Basketball
5. Track & Field

In 2006, a worldwide survey conducted by UK based Tesco Ltd. asked 3,500 children aged 7-16 their opinions on playing sports.

When the children of 10 nations were asked, “Which is the healthiest country?”, they often viewed their own to be the best. Of the seven choices, Australia was a big favorite — maybe from images of surfer filled beaches. The US, now known most everywhere for its fast food culture and high incidence of obesity, surprisingly scored much higher on the list than Japan which has some of the lowest obesity levels in the developed world.