Parents hoping to keep their kids active often sign them up for sports, but a new study finds that this may not be enough.
Kids who play softball, baseball or soccer still get 15 minutes less than the recommended 60 minutes of exercise per day, according to a new study.
“Many parents will sign children up for sports as an enjoyable and regular way to get physical activity, among other benefits,” San Diego State University’s James Sallis, the study’s author, told Reuters Health in an email. “And the players do get some activity, but I don’t think it is enough.”
National recommendations are for kids to get at least an hour of moderate-to-heavy exercise, but studies show fewer than half actually do. Boys, kids 10 or younger, and those enrolled in soccer tended to get more heavy exercise.
Kids between the ages of 6 and 11 averaged twice as much exercise as kids between 12 and 15, the study found. The amount of exercise drops even more among those aged 16 to 19, reports Donna Spruijt-Metz, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and a senior author of the study.
You see an incredibly sharp decline in physical activity as kids get older,” Spruijt-Metz said. “And by the time kids get into adolescence, they are very inactive.”
Another finding in her study: girls get much less exercise than boys. “It’s astounding that they are so much less active than boys,” Spruijt-Metz said. “Even lean girls get significantly less exercise than obese boys.”
Teenagers are more likely to be couch potatoes than younger kids, another study shows. This second study, published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, found that kids are much less active after they hit puberty.
The problem is however, that “providing physical activity is not the main goal of youth sports,” Sallis explained.
Practices sometimes lasted more than three hours, but much of that time is likely spent improving skills and strategy, during which kids are often standing in line. In baseball, hitting, catching and other skills require little activity, he added. “So, time spent on skills can compete for active time.”
Kids also get exercise during physical education classes, play and recess, but parents can’t count on those activities to make up for what sports lack, Sallis cautioned. Many schools are cutting PE and recess, and kids often have to do homework and eat dinner after sports practice. If they’re not getting exercise during organized sports, “there is no time left.”
He recommended that coaches and sports organizations work to integrate more fitness and endurance into practices.
If coaches were convinced that fit players were better players, there would be more physical activity during practices.