Be Active
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- Published on Wednesday, 08 August 2018 15:37
Be Active
We want to inspire you to Be Active!
Whether you need ideas for activities, tips to reduce screen time, or just want to know why it's so important, we have the information you need!
Moderate physical activities include:
- Walking briskly (about 3/12 miles per hour)
- Bicycling (less than 10 miles per hour)
- General gardening (raking, trimming shrubs)
- Dancing
- Golf (walking and carrying clubs)
- Water aerobics
- Canoeing
- Tennis (doubles)
Vigorous physical activities include:
- Running/jogging (5 miles per hour)
- Walking very fast (4 1/2 miles per hour)
- Bicycling (more than 10 miles per hour)
- Heavy yard work, such as chopping wood
- Swimming (freestyle laps)
- Aerobics
- Basketball (competitive)
- Tennis (singles)
You can choose moderate or vigorous intensity activities, or a mix of both each week. Activities can be considered vigorous, moderate, or light in intensity. This depends on the extent to which they make you breathe harder and your heart beat faster.
Only moderate and vigorous intensity activities count toward meeting your physical activity needs. With vigorous activities, you get similar health benefits in half the time it takes you with moderate ones. You can replace some or all of your moderate activity with vigorous activity. Although you are moving, light intensity activities do not increase your heart rate, so you should not count these towards meeting the physical activity recommendations. These activities include walking at a casual pace, such as while grocery shopping, and doing light household chores.
Tips to Be More Active
- Take a walk to the water cooler (and drink another glass of water instead of soda!)
- Park in a spot that forces you to walk a few extra steps to the store or office.
- Plan an active family time . . . like going to the park, playing musical chairs, working in the garden.
- There are 1,440 minutes in every day. In order to meet this goal, you need to devote less than 5 percent of that time doing something - anything - that gets you to breathe a little harder and your heart to beat a little faster.
Benefits of being active
- Better sleep
- More energy
- Improved self-esteem
- Stronger muscles and bones
- Less body fat
10 Tips for becoming more active as a family
Tips to reduce screen time:
- Start by cutting out 15 minutes a day each week to get down to less than 2 hours.
- Come up with fun ideas to do as a family in place of screen time. Start a family game night or go to a nearby park or playground.
- Encourage everyone to try something new: redecorate a room; do a puzzle; color; help with dinner or other household chores.
- Keep cell phones parked during dinner and overnight.
- Take TVs and computers out of bedrooms.
- Parents need to be good role models: read a book, play a musical instrument, build something together.