Our goal is to communicate a clear, consistent message that will encourage and inspire kids and their families to be more active. The main message we are conveying is to ask everyone to "Be Active Anyway They Can." This message communicates that people have choices and can design their own way of being active.

This message stresses the benefits of regular physical activity, highlight self-efficacy, promotes social support and suggest simple ways to fit physical activity into your daily life. In addition, we will consistently remind you that "changing your attitude will change your life."

Important points about physical activity.

1. Benefits
2. Self-efficacy
3. Social aspects
4. Fitting it into your daily life

Benefits

Regular physical activity in children and adolescents promotes health and fitness. Compared to those who are inactive, physically active youth have higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness and stronger muscles. They also typically have lower body fatness. Their bones are stronger, and they may have reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression.

1. Children and adolescent should engage in regular physical activity to improve overall health and to reduce risk of many health problems.
2. Some physical activity is better than none. The more you do, the more you gain.
3. "Change your attitude. Change your life."

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of many adverse health outcomes. For most health outcomes, additional benefits occur as the amount of physical activity increases. For children, adolescents and adults examples of these benefits include:

1. Lower risk of early death
2. Lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and several associated risk factors
3. Weight loss and prevention of weight gain
4. Lower risk of certain cancers (including colon and breast cancer)
5. Improved bone health
6. Reduced depression

Encourage adults to personalize the benefits of regular physical activity. Other reasons people may be active include:

1. Improving personal appearance
2. Having fun and enjoying the outdoors
3. Serving as a good role model for children and others
4. Enjoying time with family and friends
5. Enhancing fitness for sports
6. Retaining one's ability to live independently top

Self Efficacy

Who says physical activity has to be hard? "If people are doing it, you can too."

Self-efficacy refers to the belief or confidence in one's ability to improve behavior, in this case to increase physical activity. It is important not only to provide children and adolescents with the key guidelines but to help them take action. An important part of the guidelines is to encourage children and adolescent who are currently inactive to start incorporating physical activity into their daily lives slowly. They can then gradually increase physical activity over a period of weeks to months to meet the guidelines. Setting small goals and meeting those goals can improve self-efficacy and ultimately result in higher levels of physical activity.

For example: An inactive person could start with a walking program consisting of 5 minutes of slow walking several times each day, 5 to 6 days a week. The length of time walking and the walking speed could slowly be increased until the Guidelines are reached several weeks later. top

Social Aspects

1. "It's more fun to walk, bike, or run with a friend."
2. There are many people and organizations near you that offer opportunities and support to help you be more active.
3. Although they don't talk, they do respond to you. Take your dog out for a walk. If you don't have one, offer to take your neighbor's dog for a walk.

During our focus groups, many adults recognized the social aspects of engaging in physical activity. Promote social support and socialization as ways to help motivate adults to be more active. We encourage you to call on more physically active adults to serve as role models, mentors, and buddies to less active adults. top

Fitting it into Your Daily Life

American youth vary in their physical activity participation. Some don't participate at all, others participate in enough activity to get by, and some exceed the basic requirements.

1. One practical strategy to promote activity in youth is to replace inactivity with activity whenever possible. For example, where appropriate and safe, young people should walk or bicycle to school instead of riding in a car. Rather than just watching sporting events on television, young people should participate in age-appropriate sports or games.
2. Children and adolescents who do not meet the basic requirements should slowly increase their activity in small steps and in ways that they enjoy. A gradual increase in the number of days and the time spent being active will help reduce the risk of injury.
3. Children and adolescents who just getting by should continue being active on a daily basis and, if appropriate, become even more active. Evidence suggests that even more than 60 minutes of activity every day may provide additional health benefits.
4. Children and adolescents who exceed the basic requirements should maintain their activity level and vary the kinds of activities they do to reduce the risk of overtraining or injury.
5. Children and adolescents with disabilities are more likely to be inactive than those without disabilities. Youth with disabilities should work with their health-care provider to understand the types and amounts of physical activity appropriate for them. When possible, children and adolescents with disabilities should meet the Guidelines. When young people are not able to participate in appropriate physical activities to meet the Guidelines, they should be as active as possible and avoid being inactive. top