• Question: How much exercise should a child (8 to 11) do in a day? Do you monitor how much exercise you do in a day?

    Asked by sadie to Cristiane, Nicki, Nikolai, Richard, Samuel on 10 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Cristiane Calixto

      Cristiane Calixto answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Exercise for a child? It sounds a bit boring to me… Let’s say a child should play games and have fun for at least one hour every day. Enjoy the playground, walk your dog, go cycling with friends, have fun at the swimming pool, etc. Therefore, you’ll be monitoring how much fun you have every day. I do the same. I monitor my fun in cycling, rock climbing and dancing 🙂

    • Photo: Samuel Ellis

      Samuel Ellis answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Yep, you really don’t need to worry about formally exercising, just do fun active things. The UK government suggests around a hour of activity a day is healthy. As long as you get out of the house and do something rather than watch TV all day!

      A good idea is to look into joining sports clubs or teams. If there is a sport or activity you’ve always thought looked fun, have a look online (try websites like http://www.beinspireduk.org/sport-and-fitness-finder/) and see if there are any nearby you could join.

    • Photo: Richard Simons

      Richard Simons answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      At that age the best thing to do is run around and play games outdoors; getting involved in a sports team is a great idea. What you don’t want to do is be sat indoors playing computer games all day.
      When you’re young your body goes through some pretty significant changes and starts to develop traits that will last for the rest of your life, so if you have an inactive childhood, it’s likely that you won’t be too fit as an adult. That’s not to say that children of any age should start any sort of formal training regime (this can be very bad for bone development), but it’s important to be active and have fun. There’s plenty of time for computer games when it’s raining outside 🙂

    • Photo: Nicki Whitehouse

      Nicki Whitehouse answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Running around and playing for at least an hour a day or more is very good. I have a little boy who must be ‘exercised’ every day, for well over an hour!! So much energy. I feel for kids having to be cooped up in class when they are programmed to be out and about, hunting and gathering and working the land. As much as possible the better.

    • Photo: Nikolai Adamski

      Nikolai Adamski answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      As everybody said, just enjoy yourself and have fun running around playing games. Try new things/sports and do what you like.
      Personally, my workout is cycling to work every day and a bit of DIY and gardening 🙂

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