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Office Visit 3. The Benefits of Physical Activity.doc
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Module 3

The Benefits of Physical Activity

Objective

Action

Review last week’s goal.

  • Discuss successes and barriers

Define Exercise and Activity

  • Ask the child: “What is exercise?” “What do you think about when you hear the word exercise?”
  • When people hear the word EXERCISE, they think about lifting weights or working out in a gym on the treadmill.
  • “For kids, exercise means playing and being physically active. Kids exercise when they have gym class at school, soccer practice, or dance class. They're also exercising when they're at recess, riding bikes, or playing tag.” Source: http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/fit/work_it_out.html#cat120

Benefits of Physical Activity

  • You feel less stressed.
  • You feel better about yourself.
  • You feel more ready to learn in school.
  • You can keep a healthy weight.
  • You can build and keep healthy bones, muscles and joints.
  • You can sleep better at night.   Source: (Let’s Move!, 2011)

How Much Physical Activity?

  • Kids need one hour of physical activity a day!
  • It doesn’t have to be all at once.
  • You can count recess, playing ball, riding your scooter, or walking to and from school.

Define the Different Types of Exercise

  • There are different types of exercise and they are all important.
  • Aerobic means “with air”. This exercise builds your endurance. An example of this is playing tag.
  • Strengthening exercises help build your muscles. An example of this is crossing the monkey bars.
  • Flexibility exercises help your muscles to stretch. An example of this is bending over to touch your shoes.

For the Provider: 

Activities that are not suitable for the overweight or obese child include those that require repeated attempts to lift the entire body weight. Anything that requires speed, quickness, and lifting their own body weight. For example sprinting and jumping and pull ups and dips. Activities such as stair climbing, jogging, and running should be given low priority because of the load they put on the joints (Sothern, Gordon, Alman, 2006 pg. 72)        

Define the Types of Aerobic Activity

  • Running
  • Dancing
  • Jumping Rope
  • Walking
  • Riding your bike/scooter
  • Roller blading
  • Playing basketball

Define Intensity

  • There are different levels and intensity that you can exercise
  • Light activity: Not sweating, not breathing hard. Examples of these exercises include bowling, walking slowly, yoga, and stretching
  • Moderate activity: This is where you break a sweat. You can talk, but you can’t sing. This includes things like brisk walking, roller blading, yard work, riding a bike, or swimming.
  • Vigorous Activity: Sweating and breathing hard. These include running, jump roping, playing basketball, and walking or biking up a hill.
  • All exercise is important, but the best kind of aerobic exercise gets you sweating and breathing hard!
  • Source: http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines/chapter3.aspx

Define Bone Strengthening Activity

  • Your bones are growing too!
  • Physical activity helps to make them strong.
  • You should include bone strengthening activities, such as jumping rope, hopscotch, tennis or running, at least 3 days per week as part of your activity.  (Let’s Move, 2011)

Define Muscular Strengthening Activity

  • Muscular Strengthening Activity: These exercises are an important part of your overall health. Short bursts of these activities can boost your activity and make your body stronger!
  • Games such as tug-of-war
  • Modified push-ups (with knees on the floor)
  • Resistance exercises using body weight or resistance bands
  • Rope or tree climbing
  • Sit-ups (curl-ups or crunches)
  • Swinging on playground equipment/bars

For the Provider:

Participation in Physical Activity by Young People

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/physicalactivity/facts.htm

Developing a Plan

  • Create a Plan and Stick to It!
  • Go with a plan: Use a calendar to schedule the activities you want to do each week.
  • Go for a goal: Start slow and build on a goal. Start with the activities you are already doing and add to them. You could also pick a new activity and start working on it. Don’t try too many new things at once, you’ll feel too overwhelmed. Start small and build up!
  • Track it: Check your progress by writing down what you do!
  • Reward yourself for a job well done! (Not with food!) Source: (CDC, BAM, 2011)

Choosing The Activity

  • Choosing the Kind of Activities that Work for You!
  • Pick activities that work different parts of the body. If you mostly do activities that require a lot of running, mix in some that build strength or help you be more flexible.
  • Choose activities that you can do indoors and outdoors to keep your activity consistency year round! (Source: http://www.bam.gov/sub_physicalactivity/index.html)

For the Provider:

Components of an Optimal Enhanced Activity Program for Juvenile Obesity

  1. Use large muscle groups (to achieve high energy expenditure)
  2. Move the whole body over a distance (e.g. walking, skating, dancing swimming)
  3. Emphasize duration, deemphasize intensity
  4. Aim at energy equivalent of 10-15% total daily expenditure (e.g. 200-300 kcal per session)
  5. Include resistance training, (particularly if program includes low energy dieting)
  6. Gradually increase the frequency and volume (strive for daily activity 30-45 min per day)
  7. Consider the child’s preference for activities
  8. Emphasize water-based sports and games
  9. Consider life-style changes, not merely regimented activities
  10. Let parents contract with the child to reduce sedentary activities (e.g. television)
  11. Build in token remuneration
  12. Include other obese children in group activities (this reduces inhibition)
  13. Remember the key to compliance is fun, fun, fun!

Bar-r, O and Rowland, T. Pediatric Exercise Medicine: From Physiological Principles to Health Care Application. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2004

        

Staying Motivated

  • Mix it up: Try different activities, your body needs to try new things, mix it up! Pick different activities that you enjoy!
  • Bring a friend!
  • Use different body parts and mix up aerobic activities with strengthening or flexibility.  Source: http://www.bam.gov/sub_physicalactivity/index.html
  • Aim to do physical activity most days of the week
  • Do small increments of activity. Walking to school, roller blading, riding a bike can all add up!

Limiting Screen Time

  • The average American child spends 7 hours and 38 minutes a day in front of a screen, excluding cell phones!
  • Limit your TV, computer time, and gaming to 2 hours a day, combined Source: (Bogira, 2010)

Review

  • Eat  a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables!
  • Drink mostly water and some milk
  • Listen to your body
  • Limit screen time
  • Be active! Source: http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/fit/fit_kid.html#

Motivational Interviewing

  • What are some activities that you would like to do?
  • What are some things you are doing right now?
  • What are some things you want to try?
  • What are some potential barriers to being active?
  • What are some rewards of being active?

Getting the Family Involved

  • What are some ways your family could stay active?
  • Take a staycation
  • Family competition
  • Go retro
  • Learn how to dance
  • Make an activity area
  • Plan a scavenger hunt
  • Be a kid again
  • Go camping
  • Source: (Hellmich, 2010)

Setting Goals

  • Suggested Goals:
  •  Keep a log of all screen time for one week, stick to 2 hours a day
  • What are some barriers to this goal?
  • How can you overcome those barriers?
  • Suggested Homework: For child:
  • Try a new activity this week
  • For Parents:
  • Plan and carry out a family activity
  • Log family activity time

For the Provider:

How Physical Activity Affects the Brain

Source:  (CDC, 2010)