Physical Activity

November 30th, 2011

Stats

Only 9% of boys and 4% of girls get the recommended amount of physical activity at least six days a week.

Childhood obesity in Canada has tripled over the past three decades.

17% of Canadian children and youth are overweight and 9% are obese.

Canadian kids are spending 6 hours a day in front of a television, video game, or computer.

For the first time in history, our children's life expectancy could be two to five years less than our own.

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Physical Activity

Every step counts. Try to do an hour every day of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity. Choose vigorous activities at least three days a week.

Get stronger by doing activities that build muscles and bones at least three days a week.

Combining aerobic and strengthening activities will improve your health and well-being.

Tips to Help you get Active

Walk, run or bike instead of getting a ride.

Do something you enjoy - run, jump, swim, skateboard, snowboard, ski, skate, toboggan.

Check out yoga, hip-hop, or aerobics classes.

Try indoor rock climbing, play soccer, ride a bike.

Take the dog for a walk.

Tips to Help you get Active

Join a team at your school.

Choose activities you like or be creative and try something new.

Set physical activity goals with your friends and family.

Reduce screen time.

Dance to your favourite music.

Rake the leaves, shovel snow, carry the groceries home.

Health Benefits to Physical

Activity Meet new friends

Do better at school

Increase your concentration

Improve your self-esteem

Build stronger bones and muscles

Improve your mental health

Health Benefits to Physical

Activity Improve your fitness

Improve your posture and balance

Reduce your stress

Have a strong heart

Helps with healthy growth and development

What is moderate

aerobic activity?

Moderate-intensity aerobic activity makes you breathe harder and your heart beat faster. You should be able to talk, but not sing.

Examples: walking quickly, skating, bike riding and skateboarding.

What is vigorous aerobic activity?

With vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, your heart rate will increase even more and you will not be able to say more than a few words without catching a breath.

Examples: running, basketball, soccer and cross-country skiing.

What are strengthening

activities?

Muscle-strengthening activities build up your muscles. With bone-strengthening activities, your muscles push against your bones, helping make your bones strong.

Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include doing push-ups and sit-ups, lifting weights, climbing stairs and riding a bike.

Examples of bone-strengthening activities include running, walking, yoga and jumping rope.

Physical Activity and Your Heart Rate

What is a heart rate?

The average number of heart beats per minute; a heart beat is when the heart contracts to pump blood through your system.

What is a resting heart rate?

Resting heart rate is the number of beats in one minute while you are at a complete rest state. Your resting heart rate indicates your basic overall heart health and fitness level. The more conditioned your body is, the less effort it needs to make to pump blood through your body.

What is a recovery heart rate?

This is the heart rate your body will drop to after two minutes, after stopping an exercise session. For instance you exercised for 30 minutes and your heart rate was at 155. Two minutes after you stopped exercising, your heart rate then decreased to 95. This recovery heart rate measure helps to evaluate your overall heart fitness level. Use this measurement to compare between exercise sessions.

What is a maximum heart rate?

The highest number of heart beats while you are exercising.

Measuring Your Heart Rate

Measuring Your Heart Rate

WOMEN: 226 - your age = age-adjusted Max HRMEN: 220 - your age = age-adjusted Max HR

Measuring Your Heart Rate

How to Take Your Pulse

1. Place the tips of your index, second, and third fingers on the palm side of your other wrist, below the base of the thumb. Or, place the tips of your index and second fingers on your lower neck, on either side of your windpipe.

2. Press lightly with your fingers until you feel the blood pulsing beneath your fingers. You might need to move your fingers around slightly up or down until you feel the pulsing.

3. Use a watch with a second hand, or look at a clock with a second hand.

What is your pulse?Your pulse is your heart rate, or the number of

times your heart beats in one minute.

The Importance of Warming up and Cooling Down

Warm up and cool down help to prevent injuries.

Warming up generally involves a period of low-impact exercise regimes which prepare the body for the more strenuous aspects of the activity.

The cooling down phase, again, tends to involve a short period of low-impact exercise which gradually returns the body to its 'resting state’.

Warming Up

The warming up period is important for the following reasons:

It gets the body ready for the physical exertion that follows. This optimizes the physical condition, enabling the body to cope more easily with the activity. It also enables the athlete to get the most benefit from the session.

It reduces the risk of injury (cold muscles do not stretch very easily) and it reduces the risk of premature fatigue which can occur if the cardiovascular system is unprepared for strenuous activity.

It prepares cardiac function for increased activity and reduces the risk of stress being placed on the heart.

What to do for Warm-up

A typical warm-up may involve some 'loosening exercises' followed by a few minutes of low-impact aerobic activity and then a series of stretching exercises. This may last for approximately five to fifteen minutes depending upon the intensity of the session which follows.

What activities can you do to warm up?

Cooling down

A cool-down involves a short period at the end of an exercise session during which the physical activity of the body is gradually reduced to almost its resting level. A cool-down therefore often involves a period of low-impact aerobic exercise which is gradually reduced, followed by a few gentle stretching exercises.

If an athlete stops exercising suddenly, the heart continues to beat fast, sending blood around the body, but, because the exercise has ceased, the blood is no longer assisted in its return to the heart.

What to do for a Cool-Down

The inclusion of stretching exercises within the cool-down period not only helps to gradually lower the activity level of the body at the end of the session, but it may also prevent stiffness the following day.

What can you do for a cool-down?

BMI