Teen slugs
That image of the teen slug with one tentacle dipped into a Doritos bag and the other clutching the TV remote? It's true. When it comes to exercise, a new study reveals teens are nowhere nears as active as their pre-teen days.Researchers tracked activity levels of 1,000 U.S. kids between 2000-2006. Sadly, 90 percent of 9-year-olds exercise a couple hours a day compared to fewer than 3 percent of 15-year-olds. Even worse, fewer than a third of the teens benefited from the minimum government recommendation of one hour of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a day. The study's lead author cites increasing use of video games, computers and less recess and gym in schools as potential culprits. No way is my soon-to-be seven-year-old getting that Nintendo handheld for his birthday!
Sure, it's understandable a teen wouldn't run around as much as a toddler, but the fact that more than two-thirds of teens are extremely inactive is frightening. Maybe there's some hope once you hit your 20s -- I recall watching plenty of General Hospital and eating Doritos during high school sports off-season, then hitting the gym during college to avoid the freshman fifteen and meet hot guys. However my favorite one-hour credit recreation class in college was Stretching and Relaxation.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-16-2008 @ 9:38AM
Kelly said...
I read at http://www.projectweightloss.com the child's life can be more active if the mother is more active during pregnancy and both parents have an increased physical activity in their early lives. The connection with the mother`s physical activity is unlikely to be the cause of certain biological factors. The link may be due to the fact that mothers who are active during pregnancy tend to keep it that way after pregnancy as well
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7-16-2008 @ 10:02AM
Baron said...
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe a lot of schools these days are cutting out a good portion of PE classes and/or making a lot of it optional so they can get more study time in. I know they talked about it on the radio a lot, but I don't know how how widespread it is. Back when I was in high school, even the kids that didn't play sports had to go to PE for an hour a day and they ran, exercised, etc.
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7-16-2008 @ 10:27AM
Nicole said...
This is why it is so important to give your children a chance to be involved in sports and hope it will carry on though high school as there are so many teams an opportunities. My parents did this for me, as well as getting me a why membership starting at the age of 3.They were also very active themselves, which gave myself and my brother great examples.
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