New exercise guidelines: Move more, sit less, start younger EMBARGOED: 13.00GMT
1,072 views · Published 17 November 2018 · 6:31 · Indexed 26 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(12 Nov 2018) LEADIN: New exercise guidelines in the U.S are advising that children start sooner to get them active to avoid health problems later in life. Physical activity guidelines used to start at age six, but advice released today (Monday 12 November 2018 ) recommends involving kids as young as three in active play throughout the day. STORYLINE: Move more, sit less and get kids active as young as age three, say new U.S. guidelines that stress that any amount and any type of exercise helps health. The advice is the first update since the U.S. government's physical activity guidelines came out a decade ago. Since then, the list of benefits of exercise has grown, and there's more evidence to back things that were of unknown value before, such as short, high-intense workouts and taking the stairs instead of an elevator. "I'm very excited about the guidelines in this edition because what we found out is that it's actually easier to obtain the health benefits than we thought before and the health benefits are so much greater," says Admiral Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health at Health and Human Services. "So for adults, the guidelines recommend 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. "That could be brisk walking, it could be mowing the lawn, it could be gardening, it could be dancing. Any kind of activity that gets your heart rate up and gets you exercising moderately." Only 20 percent of Americans get enough exercise now, and the childhood obesity problem has prompted the push to aim younger to prevent poor health later in life. These are some highlights of the advice released Monday (12 November 2018) at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The biggest change: Start young. Guidelines used to begin at age six, but the new ones say pre-schoolers aged three through five should be encouraged to take part in active play throughout the day. They don't call for a certain amount but say a reasonable target may be three hours of various intensity. That's consistent with guidelines in many other countries and is the average amount of activity observed in children this age. "That was not present in our previous guidelines," says Admiral Giroir. "But essentially, those recommendations are that children in the three to five-year-old age group really require about three hours of active activities per day. "That could be light activities, moderate activities or even vigorous activities. This is the kind of play that children normally engage in." Experts say starting young encourages lifelong healthy habits. "Well, age three is an ideal age to take care of the health of a person that is going to be an adult in a few years," says Dr. Valentin Fuster, a cardiologist at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital. "Age three is critical because there are (a) few centers in the brain that connect with each other, only (a) few. It means anything you tell a child between age three to six is stored." From ages six through 17, at least an hour of moderate-to-vigorous activity throughout the day is recommended. For adults, duration stays the same - at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity a week, plus at least two days that include muscle-strengthening exercise like pushups or lifting weights. One key change: It used to be thought that aerobic activity had to be done for at least ten minutes. Now even short times are known to help. Sitting a lot is especially harmful. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/bb9e20165a8315cb2f3b4315c7da03ba
