Get Active

Always easier to say than do, to be active.

Yet there continues to be more and more evidence to suggest serious, regular, hard physical activity is good for you, right from an early age.

The following is a snippet from a larger article on physical activity. It does not even consider the mental effects that a good endorphin kick gives you though.

Most regular exercisers do appreciate the mental benefit of a good hard workout. It seems that kicking off the sit and look at a screen syndrome IS important especially for children. And habits established in youth tend to persist as an adult.

What do your children do?

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The researchers found that vigorous activity like running, jogging, and playing sports are associated with thicker bones.

The top 25 percent of individuals involved with vigorous physical activity had bones that were seven square millimeters greater than the bottom 25 percent.

However, the top and bottom percentiles of those who engage in light physical activity such as walking showed no difference in bone thickness. The point to take away from this study is that it is important, from an early age, to engage in vigorous physical activity in order to prevent bone problems later in life.

Children should be encouraged to run around and play sports.

Habits such as sitting around, watching TV, and playing video games should be discouraged, because it does young bodies a disservice when they get older. It is a child's natural instinct to run around.

At the early stages of our lives, we all have (or feel we have) much more energy, and that energy should be released. However, for adults, it is important to choose the correct vigorous physical activity so that it does not interfere with other health issues. For example, adults with bad knees can take long distance bike rides rather than jogs. Or people with bad backs can go swimming at a neighborhood fitness center or in their backyard pools.

Maintaining a vigorous workout throughout our lives will help prevent osteoporosis. On the other hand, walking, while still a healthy activity, has little effect on bone health.

Link to published article: http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jc.2010-2550v1