Strong Heart, Bones, and Muscles
Exercise is important for proper circulation and a strong heart. According to Medicine Plus, “exercise strengthens your heart and improves your circulation. The increased blood flow raises the oxygen levels in your body. This helps lower your risk of heart diseases such as high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, and heart attack.” According to Health.com, exercise causes the heart to beat faster which strengthens the circulation of blood to the muscles. Eventually, regular exercise lowers the resting heart rate which makes the heart “more efficient at supplying blood to your organs and muscles”.
According to Medicine Plus, exercise also decreases the risk of many cancers, helps lower blood sugar levels, and strengthens both bones and muscles in the body.
Crucial for Physical Development
Because of their growing bodies, kids especially should be active for optimal development. According to Healthline, “exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining strong muscles and bones”, but it can also influence the development of children’s posture, and fascia. According to Kids Health, “young children should not be inactive for long periods of time — no more than 1 hour unless they’re sleeping. And school-age children should not be inactive for periods longer than 2 hours.” Developing a healthy body will enable them to a more high-quality life in the future and decrease their likelihood of obesity.
The Growing Concern of Childhood Obesity
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, obesity has become a growing concern and health challenge not only in wealthy countries but across the planet. This has been a result of the growing sedentary lifestyles and “it’s clear that this decline in physical activity is a key contributor to the global obesity epidemic, and in turn, to rising rates of chronic disease everywhere.”
Obesity has shortened lives, hindered mental health, and overall quality of life. There has been a significant rise in childhood obesity. According to the CDC, childhood obesity rates have more than tripled since the 1870s and in 2016, “nearly 1 in 5 school-age children and young people aged 6 to 19 years in the United States has obesity”.
Harvard School of Public Health says that children should be getting at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.