Who are all these children that exercise for 60 minutes a day?

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I was reading an article today that there has been a decline in the number of children and teens who exercise for the recommended 60 minutes per day - no surprise there! But what was surprising is that research from Sports England shows that normally over 50 per cent of children do get 60 min of exercise per day, and even now, during the pandemic, it’s still over 50 per cent.

I was quite surprised by that research. It made me think that lots of people must be overestimating how much exercise their children get. In normal times, yes, I guess lots of primary school kids run around in the playground and walk to school, but now?

My dd is 14 and among her friends there is only one that actively exercises. All the other ones might go for a short walk if that. Even my dd who is really sporty is not getting 60 min daily at the moment. She spends all day doing school work and then homework in her room. She does go for a run most days but that’s only 30 min and she is literally sitting around for the rest of the time.

My son does, but he is only five so easy to motivate/entertain.

We’re an active household, he would usually also have one dance lesson a week and two rugby tots sessions per week and a swimming lesson. Then we have the usual park, running, dancing etc.

Not EVERY day but I'd say most days they get at least an hour's exercise, either in the park, bike ride or walk. When the weather is really crap we might do a Joe wicks and they are forever running round the house too.

We are struggling at the moment. It’s cold and wet and the toddler struggles with the cold.

My two easily do 60mins exercise a day, I don’t think we are unusual. A scooter or bike ride, a play on the playground, a walk these all count. I couldn’t stay in the house 24/7 without at least one hour of exercise....the kids would never sleep.

Well, my teen DID but now there is no football club, and even before this lockdown they weren't allowed to play footie at break in school anymore (and PE lessons seemed to consist of writing )
Previously my secondary kids would have had a 25 min walk to school each way, plus sports, plus playing out/riding bikes with friends. I still let them play out with friends a bit but the weather's not been great.
I really think they should have made children's sports clubs exempt from lockdown this time round. I think the benefits outweigh the risk. Being active is a habit, and once you lose it it doesn't always come back (thinking about 30 years from now when those 15 year olds are 45, overweight, and have diabetes just in time for the next pandemic..

My dc definitely get more than 60 minutes a day in normal times.

They both love PE at school and play football/games at playtime. Both have after school activities which involve exercise swimming lessons, football, scouts. Both play football at the weekends. Then we walk, run, ride bikes, scooters, playing in the park, going swimming as a family. They play in the garden.

I don't think it's too difficult to achieve 60 minutes exercise a day in normal times.

Sorry I've just read your update.

It's definitely much more difficult now.

I'm still trying to walk, run, cycle and do exercise videos.

Definitely not getting as much exercise though.

Mine are 9 and 5 and like a previous poster said, they're unbearable without it. We're both working but fit it in, between us, in bits sometimes, even it means a dusk/dark walk. On the odd day they get 45 mins, it'll average out with a couple/3 hours a day at weekends.

My children are younger and they have no online schooling , my 9 year old gets around 3 hours a day, he plays football for an hour and a half as we are lucky to have a football pitch in front and we all go for a cycle for an hour an half. My 6 year old and 3 year old ds also get around the same as they go on trampoline for an hour or two and we cycle or go for a long scoot everyday. They are all highly energetic though, if we stay at home all day or don't get enough exercise they start to fight or get agitated. I work freelance and as there is no school or childcare available at all where I am (in Ireland)I work early mornings and evenings and weekends so I have time to bring them out during the day .
I think with teenagers it can be really different especially now when so little is available for them so the fact that your dc goes for a run is great!

I reckon my 12 year old does even now. She certainly did before lockdown. My 14 year old probably not every day.
They are both at school still so it's a 20 minute walk each way and they both get a 40 minute PE lesson daily.
Weekends youngest will come for a walk and does online yoga. Eldest does no exercise on weekends though.

We're getting more exercise. We go to the park every day and were usually out for 60-90 minutes if not more. The kids also do indoor exercise most days we have an indoor climbing frame and they like cosmic yoga and pe with Joe.

I guess in term time they'd do a fair amount at school with all the playing out but in holidays and at weekends we didn't do that much more now

My DS16 plays football most of days, even in pouring rain, the only thing to stop him is if there's nobody to play with. Give him a choice of PlayStation and football, and he will pick football anytime. Good few hours a day.

How do people have time? Kids work 9-3. I work 8-6 or 7 or 8. Then tea. 30 minute lunch. I force them out, but I can't make them do anything cos I'm working. They tend to sidle in when I'm talking, so I can't kick them out again.

I'm not convinced exercise as a kid leads to healthy habits and vice versa. Healthy eating, perhaps. I was a complete indoor kid, but never overweight. Started exercising in my 20s, after avoiding pe throughout high school. I know plenty of people who were active as kids and do fuck all as adults.

Pre Covid DD(13) was walking to/from school (20 minutes each way), swim training 9 hours/week, playing hockey 5 hours/week at school plus fixtures/swimming galas.

She kept exercise up over the first lockdown and over the summer but is doing virtually nothing since Christmas; we have to nag to get her out to even go for a walk.

I need to get my act together to get her active again.

I cannot contemplate how fucking annoying my children would be without an hour and a half walk every day. Normally as well as a walk to and from school there's swimming, cycling, netball, walking to clubs, gymnastics, ballet. Getting the walk with me is all they're getting and I feel monstrously guilty knowing the are losing skills in their chosen sports. Our neighbours children must be spending 2 hours a day on the trampoline right now. Again they're very aware they are missing out.

We go for a walk when they down tools (about 3 - 3.30) taking waterproofs and torches.

Teens no, not with classes/training closed but for younger DC this is very easy to achieve. I'm surprised you're surprised!

Every parent I'm close to makes an effort to get their DC out for an hour or two every day.

The amount of exercise children can get at the moment is a travesty; it's worse for me than the education side. Screen classes all day long, finish and there's about half an hour left of day light. It's not evough. They need to be out playing and running about. I've had evough on their behalf now.

2 out of 3 of my children easily exceeded that amount of exercise as teens. My eldest spent around 20 hours a week in the dance studio thriughout her teens and my youngest competes seriously in 2 sports and is doing GCSE PE. My middle child however, views picking up a different controller for the X box as exercise. 🙄We do drag him out for walks occasionally but he never volunteers to come.

In normal times DS trains for football 3 hours during the week, goes for a jog 1 day after school, school gym one day, has a football match on a Saturday and on a Sunday generally potters about with his mates. He usually comes out for a walk with younger DS also on a weekend either park/beach or we go to trampoline Park.

At the moment reduced to
One football 1.1 session (as his one other person to meet outside)
Three jogs per week (out approx 30 min)
Walk out at weekend (approx 1 hour)
One Joe Wicks session per week

His school are doing a 'Walk to London' activity so each child in their team does several 3 mile walks a week and sends in their evidence - whichever team are closest before school return wins and house points awarded

My aim is to mainly encourage exercise but not let it become a chore. So there are no hard and fast rules. My D.C. has improved their running speed to an impressive level but often only run for half an hour. If they go walking they often walk an hour or longer. We also have had to be sensitive as they are a teen who wants to be very careful to be within the rules. They keep up with the news and have seen a lot of the rhetoric concerning 'saving lives by staying in'. They won't happily go out more than once a day and fitting a continuous hour in daylight can be difficult to manage within a study schedule.

Dd is 14, she is riding her horse 3 days a week and meeting a friend for a walk on another 2 days. So yes probrably an hour a day. DS does some weights in his room, he will also come out for a walk or run with me most days, he is 16.

I take my kid out with the dog every day. At least 45 min each day, normally closer to 90min. Today she came on both walks and spent 30 min in the park so over 2hrs exercise, maybe 2.5hrs. She’s 10.

We walk for between hour & a half and 3 hours 6 days out of 7 so mine would fall into the 50% easily but it’s the lack of variety I find worrying as they aren’t getting the upper body strengthening they do in normal times (the trees are too icy to climb just now!).

Mine won’t do exercise videos but we do dance about to music & play active VR games sometimes too.

My younger two do about an hour. Some Joe wicks (a shorter one) and a walk, but they don’t have many online lessons.
Eldest goes for a walk after school or after dinner. We’re happy to walk in the dark. She prefers it as then she won’t be seen by friends

That’s probably only 45 minutes though.

Pre Covid it was so easy for us though. They both did kickboxing (90 minutes) once a week unless grade training then it was twice a week, both did swimming (45 minutes). 12 year old did football once a week and 14 year old did dance once a week along with walking to school.
They do miss their classes and variety though. After 40 minutes walking a day 5 days a week I can't really blame my eldest for not wanting to do it again at the weekend.