How much exercise should my child do every day?

That’s a really good question! Let’s consider this question together.

The World Health Organisation and the Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom have some really helpful guidance on this. They advise that children between the ages of 5-18 should be physically active an average of 60 minutes a day across the week.

This does not need to be done all at once, and can be done in small chunks of activity that build up throughout the day. For example, a 10 minute walk to and from school could count 20 minutes towards this total.

What type of Activity Counts?

Well, the good news is that lots of different types of activity, exercise and sport count! Any kind of activity that makes your child’s heart rate and breath to become faster and for them to feel warmer will count.

Walking, running, cycling, dancing, swimming, climbing, jumping, skating, scooting all count.

Active play in the home, garden, school or park count.

Taking part in exercise, whether it is PE at school, working out to a YouTube video at home, swimming or dance lessons, training at your local sports club or practicing in the back garden counts.

Taking part in sport counts…. the football, cricket, hockey, tennis, badminton, rugby, netball, martial arts.

The key here is to provide options for you child to be physically active. Give them a say in what they want to do, let them pick options that they are most interested in and likely to find fun and want to do it again. Variety is also good, it helps challenge their developing bodies in different ways, improving their strength, fitness, balance and co-ordination. There is no good or bad activity for them, if they are moving, it is good!

Is sitting bad?

Another good question. The guidance we have acknowledges that too much sitting can be bad. It can be linked with poor health, increased weight, behavior problems and reduced social skills.

Some studies say more than two hours of sitting during the course of a day can be linked to these negative effects but there is no clear agreement on this at this stage. So the recommendation is to put a limit on the amount of sitting. Keep it to smaller blocks of sitting, break it up with activity. Set time limits and keep to them.

Final Thoughts

Recommendations state that children between the age of 5-18 should be active for 60 minutes a day on average across the week.

Average is an important word to highlight here. Its an average across the week. Its completely normal that some days your child may be less active than others. This may be due to bad weather, family plans, travelling or feeling under the weather. Don’t worry about these less active days. Some time, no matter how small, is better than none. Aim to help your child be active for 60 minutes a day, accept that its impossible to achieve this every day. Days where you are active for longer than 60 minutes a day help balance out those less active days!

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