Key tips for being active as a teenager
Whether your thing is team sports, swimming, dance, scootering, walking the dog or even playing exercise games, being active is one of the best things you can do to feel great.
Being a teenager can be a crazy ride at times. You’re juggling school, friends, your hobbies and interests plus trying to figure out who you are and who you want to be, as you grow up. Your secret superpower in all of this? Exercise. Moving your body regularly is one of the best ways you can cruise through your teen years feeling happy, calm and confident. If you’re not sure what type of exercise is best for you or where to start, read on for some tips and inspiration.
Why being physically active matters when you’re a teen
It keeps your body in tip top shape: Staying fit does loads of cool things for your body. It makes your muscles and bones strong, keeps your heart and lungs healthy and gives you a supercharged immune system and energy levels.
It makes you happy: When you exercise, your body releases a wave of feel-good chemicals called endorphins. Being physically active also reduces your stress levels, helps you sleep better, boosts your self-esteem and wards off feelings of depression and anxiety.
It helps you look and feel your best: It’s normal to feel self-conscious about your appearance in your teenage years. Staying physically active will help you to feel confident and happy in your own skin, plus as an extra benefit it helps you maintain a healthy weight. Exercise can also improve your skin, because it boosts circulation and the delivery of nutrients to the skin, as well as flushing out toxins from your body.
It boosts your smarts: Exercise doesn’t just keep your body fit, it makes your brain fit too. In one study of high school students, being physically active was linked to getting higher grades, (1) while other studies show that exercise boosts cognitive (brain) abilities such as reaction times, visual working memory and spatial learning. (2)
How much physical activity do I need?
The national physical activity guidelines recommend that you get 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day, involving mainly aerobic activities (the type that make your heart beat faster). Basketball, soccer, netball, swimming laps, skipping and running are all examples of vigorous activity, while things like bike riding, scootering and skateboarding are examples of moderate intensity activities.
To really ace your health, break up long periods of sitting as often as possible and stick to no more than two hours of screen time (e.g. watching TV, using a tablet or computer, console games etc) per day. (3)
Handy tips to get you moving more
Don’t stress about sport: If team sports just aren’t your thing, that’s totally fine. The main trick to living an active, healthy lifestyle is finding a type of exercise you actually enjoy and want to do. It could be dance class, rollerblading, tennis, trampolining, dragon boating, ice skating or martial arts. Even groups like community youth clubs or Scouts and Girl Guides can have great activities. Just seek out something that’s fun and do it as often as possible.
Get your mates involved: You’re much more likely to get outdoors or show up to regular sports or activities if you know your buddies will be there, too. Chat to your friends and find out what they’re doing to stay fit, and see if you can join in too, or suggest a fun activity you could do together one afternoon a week.
Scale back on screen time: When you find a video game, TV show or social media site that you like, it can suck up hours of your time. So that it doesn’t take over your life, make a pact with yourself to stick to two hours of screen-based tech per day. It can also help to swap 30 minutes when you’d normally be using a screen (for example, when you get home from school) with something active, like going for a bike ride, kicking a ball or walking the dog.
Choose a qualified coach: If you’re signing up to any organised team sports or fitness activities, ask mum or dad to check if the coach or facilitator is a Registered Personal Trainer or qualified exercise professional, to make sure you’re getting coaching from a pro.
Adopt a pooch: If you need a reason to persuade mum and dad to get you a pet, promise them it will make you exercise more! To add to your case, tell them that a study has found that kids who own dogs do an extra 78 minutes per week of walking for recreation, 285 more minutes per week walking in general and get an extra 260 minutes of unstructured activity than kids without dogs. (4) Pretty convincing! You can adopt a dog at www.petrescue.com.au.
Combine tech time with exercise: It’s important not to overdo your screen time, but one handy ‘hack’ to make it a bit healthier is to swap regular TV or video games for home exercise videos or exercise video games (like dancing, tennis, boxing or bowling).
Get active today
Find a Registered Personal Trainer, gym, wellness studio or activity in your area at FitnessAustralia.com.au
References:
- Fox CK, Barr-Anderson D, Neumark-Sztainer D, Wall M, Physical activity and sports team participation: associations with academic outcomes in middle school and high school students, J Sch Health., 2010 Jan; 80(1):31-7.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20051088 - Megan M. Hertingand Xiaofang Chu, Exercise, Cognition, and the Adolescent Brain, Birth Defects Res., 2017 Dec 1; 109(20): 1672–1679.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5973814/#R36 - Australia’s Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Children and Young People
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines#npa517 https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/F01F92328EDADA5BCA257BF0001E720D/$File/brochure-24hr-guidelines-5-17yrs.pdf
- Carri Westgarth, Robert M. Christley, Christopher Jewell, Alexander J. German, Lynne M. Boddy& Hayley E. Christian, Dog owners are more likely to meet physical activity guidelines than people without a dog: An investigation of the association between dog ownership and physical activity levels in a UK community, Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 5704 (2019).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41254-6
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