Know the benefits and attract your children to exercise

Exercise. Now there is a word I love. Exercise Exercise Exercise. Keep it coming. Because exercise is not going away… Or is it? Do we still exercise as much as we use to? Do our children exercise? Do our children exercise often? Do they enjoy exercise? Do you enjoy exercise?

Here at advance physio we’ve been remembering the good old days when kids ran around in the streets kicking footballs onto kerbs. Those were the days when you got out of breath because you’d been chasing your friends in a never ending game of hide and seek (no matter what the weather was doing outside!). We use to exercise as children, and as physiotherapists it use to be that you’d see children coming to physiotherapy after a twisted ankle because they’d ran too fast around a corner.

“British children among
the least active in the world”
The Telegraph, 2016

Now we look around and see kids standing in circles, heads down, phones out, thumbs at the ready, playing flashing-never-ending-games like flappy bird, and then coming home sitting for hours at a time. No exercise or outdoor activity. Kids just want to be indoors on their computers or ipads. And as physiotherapists that gets us down. Now we see children coming in complaining of a sore neck or sore thumbs rather than getting injuries from exercising outside.

“Exercise levels decrease
from as early as seven years old”
British journal of Sports medicine, 2017

As a team of physiotherapists at advance physio we are always reviewing our practice, making sure that we stay at the top of our game – honing out skills and increasing our knowledge and application of the latest research. With the recent news that activity levels in children decrease from the age of 7 years, it got us thinking about what has caused the change in activity and what we can do about it.

“Technology is the culprit”
The Gaurdian, 2013

It’s more and more obvious when you look around that technology is the culprit. Technology now surrounds our children like never before. The problem is that we as a human race haven’t kept up with the impact that technology has had on our bodies. Increased sitting. Increased use of our thumbs. Increased slumping. Increased and prolonged neck bending looking down at phones. Over the last thirty years there has been a relatively quick change on the pressures placed on our muscles and joints, and we have not adapted effectively and collectively as a society in order to cope with these changes.

One way to combat
this advance in technology
is to move more
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2009

So how can we encourage people to adapt to these new challenges technology places on our bodies? One way to combat this use of technology is to move more. But it’s more than just a few minutes of movements, it’s a lifestyle change. We have to be aware of what we’re doing. How long we’re sitting watching TV. How awkwardly we’re lying in bed looking at our phones. How we manage our sitting while at school or work.

As parents and adults we have a duty to educate the next generation about how to keep our bodies healthy for longer. We need to make sure that our future generation knows how to juggle technology while keeping their bodies healthy. They are the ones that embrace new developments and new computer or phone applications. So how can we educate our children about technology and our bodies? Well one way is to encourage children to get active and stay active.

So we thought it would be a good idea to share our top ways of helping your children enjoy and stay exercising for longer.