YOUR HEALTHPhysical Activity & Literacy
Physical Activity
Regular exercise keeps your body and mind healthy. It reduces your risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, anxiety, depression, and some cancers. It also improves your quality of life.
Benefits of physical activity include:
- Making daily activities easier
- Strengthening your heart and lungs
- Improving fitness and energy
- Helping you to sleep better
- Strengthening bones
- Boosting brain function (focus and memory)
- Lowering stress, anxiety, and sadness
For kids, playing and exercising help to build:
- Confidence
- Creativity
- Social skills
- Connection with nature
- A sense of belonging
How Active Should I be?
In general, the more you move, the better. Doing different activities during the day keeps you active. Moderate to high-intensity exercises raise your heart rate, quicken your breathing, and make you sweat. These activities offer the greatest health benefits.
The Canadian 24h Movement Guidelines suggest how much activity is best for different ages:
Toddlers & Pre-Schoolers
Toddlers and preschoolers need to be active for at least 180 minutes, or 3 hours, each day. Different types of activities are great, even if some are more active than others.
Physical Literacy
Physical literacy means learning to move your body. It helps you feel confident and stay motivated to be active. This helps people stay active throughout their lives. It's very important for young kids to learn. It also helps older adults stay safe, healthy, and independent.
Learning to move is just as important as learning to read and write. Teachers, parents, and coaches can help kids develop their physical literacy. They can do this through play, sports, and exercise in different settings.
Time Spent Sitting and on Devices
Sedentary behaviour is the amount of time spent sitting or laying down during the day. Even if you are active, too much time being sedentary can harm your health. This includes time spent in a car, at a desk, or watching TV. Moving more and limiting screen time helps lower your risk.
To reduce your risk, the 24h Movement Guidelines recommend the following:
Infants & Toddlers (under 2 years)
No screen time is recommended.
Harm from Too Much Screen Time
Too much time spent on screens can affect your physical and mental health, including:
- Trouble sleeping
- Lower grades in school
- Less time spent with friends and family
- Less outdoor play and exercise
- Low self esteem
- Feeling left out
Tips to Manage Screen Time
- Set limits on screen time. If your child is used to a certain amount of screen time each day, slowly cut it back over a few weeks.
- Create rules for screen time such as:
- No screens 1 hour before bed for better sleep.
- No screens during meals.
- No screens until homework is finished.
- Turn off screens when they are not in use, for example if the TV is on as background noise.
- Watch TV with your child and talk about what they see.
- Use parental controls.
- When your kids have friends over, limit screen time. Encourage them to play games or go outside.