How much exercise does your teen do?

[PaxAeterna]

I’m worried that my teen isn’t getting enough exercise.

My 13 year old has slowly given up on most of her active activities although she has one sport that she does for 1 hour a week.

Other than that she walks home from school 30 minutes (she is dropped in the morning) We do dog walks at the weekend and bike rides.

It’s so little compared to my other children who are very sporty and easily get more than an hour of vigorous activity every day. She has put on weight recently so worried about that too.

What does your teen do?

My 16 yo goes to the gym 5 times a week. It’s for weight training though, not cardio.
He plays football at school (just finished year 11) and for a local team (season finished now).
I would like him to do more exercise that gets him out of breath.
He’s big - in a Popeye way.

My 13 year old has dropped her activities too although hasn’t put on weight. She also walks for about 30-45 mins a day, and pe twice a week. Occasional dog walk or walking around with her friends. Hoping that will be enough

My 13yo does a mix of:

• swimming (45 mins)
• tennis (hour)
• hockey (one practice, one match in season)
• school PE

I think she’ll give up swimming soon.

At that age probably walking to and from school each day so about an hour a day, PE at school and skateboarding 2 or 3 times a week.

Lots and lots but I suspect you’re going to get loads of people saying that as the thread title will attract them.
It’s a tricky age especially for girls. A daily walk is a great start. I think if she moves her body every day then you’re winning really.
Could she walk to school a couple of times a week?
Does she go out much with friends? We were all walking around aimlessly at that age because that’s how we socialised. If my DS goes out with friends he will be wandering about for hours.

Walking to and from school, pe and trampoline. I'm also worried mine don't get enough exercise too but they hate all sports except swimming.

I don’t know if this is useful, I purposefully took up exercise when my kids were younger to model healthy attitude to fitness. I made sure there were no treats in the house. They both did clubs/sports gave them up, put on weight, took up gym around 15, starting cooking their own food. Have now started to comment on my lack of exercise, weight gain (nicely) and food choices.

job done.

Loads of football but if and when they get to the stage of giving that up it will be none and probably difficult to get them back into something else.

If she’s gaining weight I’d be more concerned about diet than lack of exercise I think.

It can be normal for teens to put on weight around 13 and then shed it all in late teens. If her diet seems OK and she is getting some exercise it 'might' be enough.

I remember putting on weight around that age but I was walking 40 mins each way to school, football training once a week and a match once a week, plus walking the dog for hours on a weekend. I was always picked for our house on sports days as I literally would be jogging over the finishing line on most races having left the other gis behind (in fairness our track did go uphill at 100m). So I wasn't the thinnest compared to some of the girls doing dance or whatever but I was quite fit. I shed all the weight around the time I left for university.

I wouldn't worry, as pp said, quite normal for 12/13 to put on a bit of weight before they shoot up. The worst thing you could do would be to give her a complex about it (not saying you are).

Excluding any sports/exercise she does in school which would be quite a bit. She does on average 2 hours training per week and then she plays several matches pretty much every week so that could be another 2-3 hours. She’s 12.

Excluding PE, she does 2.5 hours twice a week of a competitive sport and then usually another day or so with a hike or a bike ride or something either with us or friends. A few times a year she’ll do like a weekend of hiking (like 30 miles) or cycling, but that’s not every month. She’s very sporty though.

My young teen does exactly the same - one hour of sport and nothing else except school gym and a bit of walking here and there. Occasional hiking weekends. Used to be very active in primary. I will continue to insist on one sport / physical activity outside school until they finish school.
I find this to be quite OK and within a normal range of activity, personally. I'd love it if they would do a bit more, maybe swimming, but won't push for it as I think they need to find their own balance as long as they are meeting the bare minimum and having a healthy life overall - food, sleep, activity, socialising, family, own interests etc - and there needs to be time for all of that.

Absolutely nothing other than walking 15 mins to and from the station and school each way. And whatever she does at school in PE - she’s 15 so I think just does as little as she can get away with.

She is noticeably starting to gain weight.

You mean my 13yo currently still in his dressing gown, looking like Voldemort, playing Fortnite with his mates?! 🤣

He has a two minute walk to school. He is non-sporty (although, yesterday’s newsflash is that he plays footy at school with his mates at lunch!) so his job is chief dogwalker every morning and we go on big walks on a weekend.

DD (17) loads always has she thinks it manages her moods.

DS (15) mainly walking to and from school a mile away. He has weights in his room, not sure how regularly he uses them. I have always been a bit annoyed that he never did any after school sports at secondary school. He was doing 4 x a week football in primary. I could not motivate him since COVID and school didn't try - now in Y10 they've spotted he is sporty and put him in teams and inter-school athletics etc

Easy win is to remove the lift to school. That will double her current activity level.

mine both walk / cycle to school, use our local leisure centre around three times a week. DS plays footy twice a week plus all lunchtime, DD hikes at least one weekend a month sometimes more ( gold DofE and walking the SW coast path in chunks)

activity is crucial for serotonin. Habits set from 0-25 will be with them for life, it’s possible to re write them later but much harder to do so

Dd14 walks 30-40 mins 5 times a week and does weight training at home. It's more than I was doing at her age but I took up sport in my late teens and have been active ever since.

My friends who did sport in primary and high school mostly all do nothing now and struggle with their weight.

Edited to add agree re serotonin being a good reason for exercising and dd really benefits from it. I just don't believe it needs to be competitive sport or only what the parent wants/dc not enjoying it.