Exercise helps build fitness and stamina.
Why is exercise important for kids?
Kids need regular exercise to grow up strong and healthy. Kids who exercise have stronger muscles, stronger bones, and lower body fat than kids who aren’t active. They sleep better and even do better in school. Exercise is a great stress reliever, so kids who exercise often feel happier.
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It’s good for kids’ hearts.
Regular exercise helps kids breathe more easily.
Kids’ bones get stronger.
Their muscles get bigger and stronger.
Exercise helps blood sugar and energy stay at just the right levels.
It makes the immune system stronger so kids get fewer colds.
Regular exercise makes weight easier to control.
It helps kids sleep better.
It can also relieve stress and brighten kids’ moods.
How much exercise do kids need?
Follow the links below for tips on how to help kids get enough exercise.
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Exercise 60 minutes every day
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Include vigorous-intensity exercise three or more days per week
What is exercise intensity?
Physical activity can be light (low intensity), moderate, or vigorous (high intensity). Any moderate or vigorous physical activity that makes your heart beat faster and you breathe harder counts as exercise.
One easy way to measure exercise intensity is the talk test:
- During light physical activity, you can carry on a normal conversation.
- During moderate exercise, you can talk in short sentences.
- During vigorous exercise, you can say only a few words or short phrases.
You can also use the RPE scale (rating of perceived exertion) to rate intensity. The scale ranges from 0 to 10 with 0 being rest and 10 being all-out effort, for instance, sprinting.
- 1-4: Light physical activity
- 5-6: Moderate exercise
- 7-8: Vigorous exercise
Click the circles for examples of activities for each intensity level.
Rest
- Lying in bed
- Sitting
Light-intensity activities
- Stretching
- Casual walking
- Shopping
Moderate-intensity exercises
- Brisk walking
- Shooting hoops
- Softball
- Playing on the playground
- Weight training
- Yoga
Vigorous-intensity exercises
- Speed walking
- Running
- Interval training (such as Boston Children’s fit kit Circuit)
- High-energy dancing
- Soccer game
- Basketball game
- Hiking
- Jumping rope
Maximum-intensity exercise
- All-out sprint
What kinds of exercise are fun for kids?
Kinds of moderate exercise
- Basketball (shooting hoops)
- Bicycling (5-9 mph)
- Brisk walking
- Dancing (social)
- Frisbee
- Golf
- Gymnastics
- Playground games (climbing, swinging, sliding)
- Ping pong
- Roller skating
- Sailing
- Shoveling light snow
- Skateboarding
- Softball
- Surfing
- Swimming (recreational)
- Volleyball
- Walking a dog
- Walking to class
- Weight training (free weights)
- Yoga
Kinds of vigorous exercise
- Basketball game
- Bicycling (at least 10 mph) outside or on a stationary bike
- Boston Children's fit kit circuit
- Cross-country skiing
- Dancing (high energy)
- Field hockey
- Football
- Handball
- Hiking/backpacking
- Ice hockey
- Kickboxing
- Jumping jacks
- Jumping rope
- Jumping on a trampoline
- Lacrosse
- Martial arts (karate, judo, tae kwon do, Jiu-jitsu)
- Racquetball/squash
- Rock climbing
- Roller hockey
- Running
- Shoveling heavy snow
- Sledding
- Soccer
- Step aerobics
- Swimming laps
- Wrestling
Knowledge check: Light, moderate, or vigorous?
Glossary
What do these fitness words mean?
- Aerobic exercise: Sustained physical activity that increases your child’s heart rate and breathing to supply their muscles with oxygen. Examples of aerobic exercise include walking briskly, biking around the neighborhood, or going to gym class. Kids should get 60 minutes of aerobic exercise a day.
- Exercise intensity: How hard a person is working during physical activity. Exercise intensity can be measured using the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale or the talk test.
- Light (low-intensity) physical activity: Heart rate, breathing, and sweating are not noticeably elevated above rest. You can carry on a conversation with full sentences. RPE is 1 to 4 on a scale of 0 to 10.
- Moderate exercise: Heart rate and breathing are slightly higher, and you may break a sweat. You can talk in short sentences. RPE is 5 to 6 on a scale of 0 to 10.
- Vigorous (high-intensity) exercise: Heart rate and breathing are significantly higher and you may be sweating heavily. You can only say a few words or short phrases. RPE is 7 to 8 on a scale of 0 to 10.
- Fitness: Your child’s ability to exercise at a moderate or vigorous level. While there are several elements of overall physical fitness, the fit kit focuses mostly on aerobic fitness, or the ability of your child’s heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to their muscles.
- Interval training: A type of exercise conditioning that involves alternating short bursts of high-intensity exercise with periods of lighter activity or rest. The Boston Children’s fit kit circuit is a form of interval training that includes a variety of different exercises.
- Physical activity: Any physical movement. Physical activity often is categorized as light, aerobic, muscle-strengthening, or bone-strengthening. Many activities fall into more than one category. For example, running and jumping rope are aerobic activities that also strengthen bones. Weight- bearing sports like gymnastics and playing on the playground can fall into all three categories.
- Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale: A way to measure exercise intensity based on how hard you feel you’re working. The scale ranges from 0 to 10 with 0 being rest and 10 being all-out effort (sprinting).
- Strength training/strength exercises: A type of exercise in which you use weights, elastic bands, or your own body weight to build muscle and bone strength. Several of the aerobic exercises in the Boston Children’s fit kit circuit are designed to also build strength.
- Talk test: A way to measure exercise intensity based on your ability to talk while exercising.