How you can encourage school aged children and young people to be active.
Children between the ages of 5 to 18 should try to be active for 60 minutes per day in moderate to vigorous physical activity across the week.
However, getting that quota doesn’t have to be all in one go. It can be in small chunks throughout the day, and every little counts. You should aim to move in a way that makes you feel warmer and increases your heart rate slightly.
Moderate intensity activities are activities in which you can talk but not sing while doing them.
Moderate to vigorous physical activity to make you breathe faster, increase your heart rate, and begin to feel warm include:
Vigorous intensity activities are activities which make it difficult to talk without pausing.
Vigorous intensity activities that require a large amount of effort, resulting in a much faster heart rate and rapid breathing. Activities include:
Children and young people should engage in a variety of types and intensities of physical activity across the week to develop:
Activities that strengthen muscle and bone include:
For older young people, activities include:
Movement skills can be developed by activities focused on fundamental movement skills, such as:
Physical activity can strengthen our muscles by using all of our major muscle groups during the activity and our bones, by stimulating bone growth and repair.
Children and young people should aim to reduce the amount of time spent being sedentary, and when physically possible should break up long periods of not moving with at least light physical activity.
For more information, read physical activity for children and young people: 5 to 18 years.