Physical Fitness for Teens
Physical activity recommendations

Physical fitness for teens? Run for your life!

We are facing an increasing obesity epidemic in this country and beyond. Alas, our kids are becoming just as fat as we are. Almost 15.5% of teens aged 12 to 19 are considered "overweight".

Physical fitness for teens: Overweight Issues

Being overweight has immediate and long-term consequences on health. An alarming number of teens are developing Type 2 diabetes- an event rarely seen in the paediatric population prior to the 1980s.

Getting your kids to eat well is not always easy. Here is a recommended resource to learn more about kids nutrition:

-- Kids Nutrition Simplified

This site discusses the basics of nutrition and covers important topics regarding nutrition for the overweight kid, nutrition for the underweight kid, and for the picky eater. Written by a registered dietitian (RD), the site includes practical advice, tips and strategies parents can use to help their kids fuel their bodies and lead healthier lives.

Not to mention of course, that being overweight impairs socialization.

And because teens view being fat as something that is really uncool, the potential for going to extremes to battle their weight renders them increasingly at risk for eating disorders.

So run for your life!

Or swim, cycle, skate, ski, dance, jump rope, or participate in any other cardiovascular activity of your choice.

Indeed, for a stronger heart and healthier life, cardiovascular activities and endurance sports are excellent ways of cutting body fat, diminishing mental stress, and preventing future adult degenerative diseases.

Physical fitness for teens is becoming increasingly important. Here are some current recommendations for general physical activity.

Current Recommendations For General Physical Activity (these are separate from guidelines for building a youth training program):

-For basic, health-promoting fitness, the current recommendations are for youths to engage in at least 30 minutes and preferably 60 minutes or more, of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

-The activities can be accumulated to add up to 30 to 60 minutes daily and they should be developmentally appropriate, enjoyable, and varied, (and sustained for a minimum of 10 minutes per exercise bout).

-The majority of effort expended should be intermittent in nature, i.e., the activities should incorporate brief periods of rest and recovery as needed.

-Encourage teens to become more active in everything they do, to move more and sit less. But more importantly, extended periods of inactivity lasting 2 or more hours should be discouraged. Interrupt them.

Physical fitness for teens: Fitness Workout Program Guidelines

Teens who are interested in a more formal approach to structured exercise may want to consider working with a certified personal trainer who will design an appropriate training program individualized to meet their specific needs and circumstances.

This approach can be particularly beneficial for teens who have very specific goals such as body fat reduction or speed and power development for sport enhancement, for example.

A well designed fitness workout program should at the least, include the four fundamental training components of fitness:

-Warm up

-Cardiovascular training (also called cardiorespiratory or aerobic training)

-Weight training (also called resistance or strength training)

-Flexibility training

See the Fitness Warm Up and Flexibility Training sections for generally accepted guidelines to creating a fitness workout program.

These guidelines are acceptable for youths as well.

When it comes to physical fitness for teens, in regards to cardiovascular training, certain physiologic features are different between youths and adults.

Indeed, children are not simply small adults.

For instance, children have ‘immature’ temperature regulatory systems. They also have a larger ratio of body surface to mass than we do.

Due to a diminished capacity of the sweat glands, the sweat rate in children is less than ours, and their body’s ability to redirect blood flow from one part of the body to another is not as efficient as in adulthood.

This means children can neither sweat nor shiver as well as we do.

Consequently, they are much more prone to heat injuries than we are when training in hot climates, and they become cold much more quickly than we do in cold climates.

Additionally, both resting heart rate and exercise heart rate are higher in youths than adults.

Conversely, both blood pressure at rest and during exercise are lower in youths than adults.

Heart rate decreases as children grow but maximal heart rate, unlike ours, does not begin to decline until adolescence.

For this reason, using formulas such as 220 less age, to determine maximal heart rate in an attempt to set training intensity is inappropriate for children and younger teens.

A general guideline for improving VO2Max or aerobic power in this paediatric population involves training at an intensity of about 160 to 180 beats per minute.

Having said this, research shows that for other training variables such as frequency and duration, cardiovascular adaptations can accrue using similar guidelines as those recommended in adult programs.

Bearing these differences in mind, see the Cardiovascular Training section for generally accepted guidelines to creating a fitness workout program.

This is often easier said than done. Some overweight kids are often unable to participate in prolonged periods of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise without rest- at least initially.

However, overweight teens love to weight train.

Because they’re heavier and at times slower at many sports, they tend to excel in the weight room.

Physical fitness for teens: Weight Training For Girls Too

Weight training is of particular value to girls too.

Women typically lose bone mineral density and are at greater risk for osteoporosis. Weight training can help girls build bone mass during the critical years. Stronger bones and muscles can alleviate some of the potential for risk fractures that accompany menopause later in life.

In our next topic, we focus on weight training for youths. To discover more about participating in weight training exercise for teenagers , follow the link...

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