RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS PA—Many parents spend oodles of time worrying whether their kids are sitting still in school. According to the results of a new Canadian review of studies, their time would be far better spent worrying over how much their children are moving. Researchers from McMaster University in Ontario found evidence that school-based exercise programs can lead to higher physical activity levels—both in school and at home—and better aerobic fitness in school-age children. They recommend physical activity in schools be further promoted and no longer confined to a 45-minute gym class. That’s where you come in.
THE DETAILS: McMaster researchers reviewed 26 studies of school-based programs that focused on “changing multiple risk behaviors associated with adult-onset cardiovascular disease”—one of the biggest of which is inactivity. And they found that school-based activity did help children spend more time being active and less time watching TV during their nonschool time. The researchers expect that the exercise habits are likely to carry over from childhood to adulthood. “Physical activity patterns track from childhood into adulthood,” says lead study author Maureen Dobbins, PhD, associate professor at McMaster’s School of Nursing. That’s why, she says, it’s so important to nurture activity in kids early on.
WHAT IT MEANS: According to the latest numbers from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 16.3 percent of U.S. children ages 2 through 19 are obese, placing them at serious risk for a truly harrowing list of health concerns, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis. These conditions can’t, of course, be addressed and corrected by a couple dozen PE-class jumping jacks. But the results of the McMaster study prove that in-school activity can boost out-of-school activity levels, which can be key for weight loss. Especially if you help. “Parental involvement could be an integral part of the school-based interventions,” conclude the study authors.
University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Weimo Zhu, PhD, recently led a roundtable discussion called “We Move the Kids,” which made recommendations for integrating physical activity programming into curricula in schools across the U.S. Here’s how he suggests you lobby for more active schooling in your area:
• Be an example. The most important way to create an environment that encourages physical activity—in and out of school—is to model healthful behavior, says Zhu. “You can’t encourage your children to be active from your perch on the couch,” he says. “You have to show them what you mean by being active yourself. Your own behavior is the most powerful means of influence you have.”
• Lobby your principal. Get him or her to do what’s necessary to open the school’s gyms, pools, and/or playgrounds to students and community members before and after school hours—even if it’s just 1 or 2 days a week. Do that, and the neighborhood school becomes a place people go to be active. It’s a paradigm shift.
• Lobby your principal some more. Speak to the principal about expanding opportunities for physical activity beyond PE class. A science teacher might take children on a nature walk to scout out local plants, or run with students to demonstrate what happens inside the body when you start to move. An art teacher might spend 5 minutes of class time encouraging students to mimic the dance moves featured in the paintings of Edgar Degas. The idea is to free physical activity from the confines of gym class and make it a curriculum staple.
• Volunteer your time. Organize an annual health fair or physical activity event (say, a running club that meets on the school track after school once a week) that emphasizes the importance of physically active lifestyles for people of all ages.
• Get them stepping. Give your kids pedometers and challenge them to rack up an ever-increasing number of steps every week. Award prizes to the family member who outsteps the rest. Two kid-friendly picks: RYP Sports Digital Mini Pedometer comes in bright pink or blue, $17.95; Sportline Talking Pedometer announces distance traveled and plays seven different melodies that make exercise fun, $19.99.