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From eight years and up physical activity declines till people turn 26, observes National Institute for Health Development (TAI) research fellow Kenn Konstabel – a man involved in international research showing that, in Estonia, only one boy in four and a girl among eight get enough exercise to stay healthy.
One thing immediately strikes the eye, in the report: the girls are a lot less active, physically, than boys. Why?
It starts rather early: in kindergarten, the boys are sent to play ball, the girls will have to sing. The widespread thinking is the girls don’t need too much movement: it’s not ladylike to mess around and sweat, as this is ugly, and the only reason to move would be for the weight. Even so, movement does have other benefits such as feeling good – a thing often forgotten.
For the most part, they blame the new technology for kids getting less movement. Are the computers and smartphones to blame?
Information technology cuts the mild movement like walking, not the moderate or intensive kind. The IT-gadgets will not take the kids away from training sessions, but they do fasten them to the couch – for longer than otherwise.
Here, we may go too far and ban computer for the kids. That will not necessarily raise physical activity as, if replaced by TV watching or just killing time ... it’s not a good idea.
The lack of movement in children will show in 10 to 20 years when the health problems caused by that will probably do a massive outbreak.
Well, the future will tell. The important message is, however, that we can change the situation and it isn’t too difficult. People have grown up in an environment where we had to move a lot more. And we have never had so much to eat as now.
Meaning: we need to pay more attention to our behaviour: we need to pay attention to what we eat and how much we move. If, some 20,000 years ago, it was natural you had to run after some beast or otherwise you wouldn’t catch it and would go hungry, now we need to find some other reason to keep the body active and stay in shape.
How much harder is it to force oneself to move while an adult, if not so accustomed while a child?
For sure, we will make the life ahead easier for the children if we help them try various ways to move, be it swimming, skiing, bicycling, ball games, or even climbing a tree. Of course, an interest towards movement may occur later, but there’s a «but» or two.
Firstly, if you have only been sitting in front of the TV and go straight to running a marathon, this is outright dangerous. One has to do it gradually. Secondly, not good to all out force oneself to do something: it becomes repulsive. One must find something he likes to do: that will be permanent. For which is better: to force oneself to run ten kilometres a day until you start to hate it and then quit, or to do something you rather like but in a way that would last ten years non-stop?
Is one reason for little movement that being sporty is not «in» among the youth like it used to be? Like it doesn’t earn you points anymore?
Well the options of things to do have multiplied. To press for achievements in sports may be cool, but it will not necessarily serve the broader goal. Speaking of the overall wellbeing, it is more important for all Estonians to move themselves for half an hour, twice a week, say, rather than have five Olympic champions.
If under physical activity we only mean sports, that would undermine the idea that such people who have no desire to be sportsmen should also have some movement. But it is just as beneficial for these people to find some activity that they like and that will help everything else in their life. All told, their health and quality of life will improve, they will be a little more alert, they will feel better, maybe live a little longer.
Before school, already, they are beginning to curb the physical activity. I do remember my kindergarten days in the 1970ies when we went to the Toomemäe hill to run and play, and we also had our sports hours.
I guess control has increased over the kindergartens, the parents are asking if it’s safe there for the children. It may be easier for the teachers to tell the children sit still and don’t move – it’s safer like that.
So that from early on the emphasis is on cutting the dangers not physical development of the kids?
When 25 kids start to frolic and romp, it rather hard to control. At the same time, for kindergarten kids – that’s what physical activity is all about really.
When at every opportunity we are telling the kids don’t do it, please don’t play around and frolic, and then at school we tell them they should not sit around all the time but go out and play, then they go out and .. stand and wait what to do.
Up to a certain age, all kids want to move. It’s good if we can manage not to rob them of the fun and the habit.
Paradoxically, gyms and artificial grass football fields are being built at schools, facilities for working out and aerobics, and still the physical activity is in decline. Why?
The gyms and the like are usually built so as to have the physical education classes. The classes aren’t aimed to give them physical load, but to teach them certain specific moves. The load i.e. main share of physical activity ought to come someplace else.
Where? Training sessions?
What really matters is example by parents, as kids will learn from mom and dad. If we’d tell the children «Oh, I’m old already and will be dead soon, but you be active and get some movement!», that’s not too convincing. Neither will we help to stir an interest with coercive measures that the boy must go play ball.
30 years ago it may have been that, on Sunday morning, a kid went outside and came back by dinner, and then went out again and played till evening. Now, no one will dare send a 5-6 years old out alone to frolic; therefore, doing stuff with mom or dad becomes increasingly important for toddlers.
It is important to try as many fun activities as possible with the children early on, so they’d get accustomed to it and adapt – until they start liking something. How could a kid get the idea to go jogging in the woods of he has never been there before of has been forced to go once a year – to pick a bucket full of blueberries?
The generation of the now middle-aged went to ski classes where we competed in 3 or 5 kilometre races, and in the spring we had to do the 1 km run competition. Not, this is almost discarded as they fear we might almost kill the kids... and some may feel depressed when others do better.
What would spur a kid to be more active? One way would be to compete. But, in the competition, unavoidably one will win and the others will lose. Do we want these winners to be active and these losers even less active?
One thing to develop us all, equally, is to compete with oneself: you try to do better, next time. Trying to beat one’s own record could be a sensible thing.
As in many schools there are no «sports days» as in times past, where we run and jumped, we might perhaps say sports do not really have a role in one’s school years any longer?
That depends on the school. On the other hand – there’s not objective reason to say that sports would be the most important thing for an individual. To pitch body and mind against each other – like when you are interested in arts then it’s kind of stupid to do sports – isn’t too wise.
Everybody needs some minimal bodily activity – better yet, above the minimal – to feel good, more or less. The greater the bodily activity – up to a limit, of course – the lower the risks on mental health, such as risk of depression. What is going on in our head, our mood, is rather much related to what we do, how much we move.
Like everybody needs to eat, so bodily exercise is also important to those who like to sing or draw or program.
Get kids moving
Source: Institute for Health Development