Does your teen exercise 1hr per day??

[cakedup]

Well if they are into football or passionate about sports then they probably do.

DS(14) is not sporty. According to NHS guidelines, he should be getting one hour of exercise a day. At school, he'll get 3 hours one week and 1 hour another week. I am trying to get him to jog on the other days or at least do a 15 minute HIT youtube video. But he is reluctant and it's not easy to keep on top of.

Am I asking too much or should I persevere?

Good luck if you try to persevere.

I used to be able to get mine out for a jog if they were helping me as I’m overweight and they and I are concerned about long term fitness, but in my experience unless they actually want to do it themselves you’re fighting a losing battle. However give it a few years he may well want to do it for himself. My reluctant teenage exercisers are now training regularly aged early 20s.

Could he do some more walking (or are you counting this already in the hours)? My teen walks to school each day. It takes 40 minutes of brisk walking each way and keeps her fit without her thinking about it.

I was going to say does he walk to school and how far?

I think 1 hour of exercise includes walking etc (basically it means not stuck to screens!). The general recommended amount for adults is 5 x 30 mins a week.

My does exercise because he swims 6 times a week. 1x2 hr, 5x 1 hr and 45 mins circuits. Also 2 PE sessions a week. But he doesn't walk to school or go out with mates so walk around (they can cover miles at times!) and is a screen addict when at home .

I'd look at overall diet and exercise and activity and weight and judge it from there.

No, I should have mentioned - we live opposite his school! So he doesn't get any walking in his day. He is also allowed his phone at school so spends break-times playing games on his phone with his friends.

billybagpuss yes agreed, at the moment I feel he does it because I tell him to rather than because he wants to, and I don't want it to be an unhappy experience for him. However, he does suffer from anxiety and has sleep problems, and we know exercise will help with this.

youarenotkiddingme yes adults don't need as much exercise, children need at least 1 hour per day apparently. It was different even up to a year ago, because I would take him swimming, long walks, trampoline parks etc but now he is 14 and doesn't want to go anywhere with me but can't get it together to go anywhere with his mates. They all prefer to game with each other anyway.

He is not overweight at all - he is 70 per centile both height/weight. It's more about his health, development and well being that I'm concerned about.

What about something like pokémon go? Gets me out multiple times a day.

Ds does about 9 hours a week. I do think it’s good to get them into a routine of exercise being normal but it’s dofficult because you also don’t want him to see it as something he has to do against his will and end up dreading.

Could he walk more like when meeting friends or anything? A paper Round?

Has he tried sports that aren't totally team based - like tennis or karate?

My son has autism and therefore isn't that interested in team sports or just doing exercise. But if there's a point (with swimming you train to compete) he's better.

What about a screen type sports system. Like a wi fit?

My boys would never follow a youtube aerobics video neither would I . Until last yr when I got temporary injury & we got out of habit, I used to get (now 14yo) DS to go on long country walks with me most weekends. We still do some walks in the school holidays & DS entered a night 5km run to do with me in 2 weeks. DS cycles for paper round on Sundays, and daily walk to school bus (7 minutes).

Teen DD found silver DoE expedition so tough that to avoid future embarrassment, she got into habit of a daily 1 mile run that she mostly still does (in good weather).

Choose your battles. I haven't chosen this one.

Mine are sporty and play for two teams so about 9 hours of training and playing over a week. Just as well as they only have one PE lesson per week.

DS is into martial arts which involves 4 hours training a week plus 2 hours in the gym.
DD does nothing except walk to school and hang out in the park.

I suspect most teens only do that amount of exercise if they are specifically into a sport.

I really don't think forcing your teen to exercise will do much good! DD knows she needs to exercise to stay healthy but she doesn't do much (sometimes she dances in her room, walks to school or to her friends houses). She is doing D of E this year and her physical section is parkrun which she is doing for 6 months. Hopefully she'll keep it up after that but who knows. At 14 I figure she needs to make these decisions for herself. She is slim and toned anyway and eats pretty healthily so I agree with lljkk - I'll be picking my battles!

Ds(15) probably does too much time on the ps4 but he and most of his friends do something most days or they get stir crazy.

Monday: football training
Tuesday: gym
Wednesday : school pe + cross fit training class with 5 of his friends at a martial arts place
Thursday : school pe + football training
Friday: school pe x 2
Sat/sun: 1-2 45 min home workouts with weights and/or 1km swim if weather bad and/or out with friends cycling/at local astroturf if weather good. In the summer they sometimes do a weekend outdoor 1hr boot camp class. They really just mix it up with whatever they feel like.

He wouldn't be motivated to do anything at home if it wasn't for his gym trainer giving him a home workout to do. Most of his exercise he does because he had got into the habit and enjoys moving about for fitness, fun and socialising. He isn't particularly sporty and doesn't do anything competitive,

SneakyGremlins we used to get a lot of exercise in with Pokemon Go but apparently that's really lame now!

A couple of you mentioned D of E which I have thinking about for several years, waiting for him to turn 14 so he can take part. But now that he's (just turning) 14 I'm sure he's not going to be up for it.

youarenotkiddingme DS just is not competitive, nor does he like to attend organised sessions - with the exception of archery which he took part in for a couple of years at least before giving up. However, as he is an avid gamer, wi fit might be the way to go!!

No and she's massively against doing anything! I struggle. She has some skeletal issues, its important she stays healthy, but deffo isn't doing 7 hours a week. PE accounts for 2 hours, she does 30 minutes swimming.
How can you motivate the book worm?

My DD is currently doing 5 hours/pw Track and Field as she's on the team and walking the dog daily (at least 30 mins) is one of her chores. Sometimes it's hard to get her to walk the poor dog and I end up doing it.

I'd like to get her doing something else, she's had some tennis lessons in the past and isn't bad at it - that doesn't really require "being sporty" as it's more of a social game, I know groups of people who play regularly for fun. Martial arts is another good social activity, you don't need to be amazing at it, but earning belts, for example, is good motivation.

Would he be interested in a gym?

Yes, at least an hour every day except Saturday- usually 1.5-2hrs on the other days. If he’s competing, that’s usually a Saturday.
He walks 10 minutes each way to the bus-stop, the exercises on top of that.

AmICrazyorWhat2 no, I offered to sign him up to the gym but he wasn't keen.

It's not that I haven't offered or come up with different ways to keep fit. He's just not been interested in any of them so we were left with the final option of jogging - at least I don't have to pay for something he doesn't enjoy and it's something he can do every day. I wouldn't be be able to afford for him to take part in any clubs/lessons more than once a week anyway.

Yep, I've been there before - paid for some activity and then they say they don't want to do it after a couple of weeks!

Jogging/running is free at least and can be quite addictive, so I've heard from avid runners. I can't seem to get into it myself but know several people who are. Worth a try!

Probably not actually. They do both walk to school and Bach which is about 2.5 mile round trip. They do things like Guides and Explorers and Cricket but they could both do with being more active.

Mine walks four miles to school and back each day, and that's not quite enough for him, so he does an extra two miles at lunchtime!! His choice.

(ten miles a day!)

My DS (16) used to be very sporty but stopped playing sports at all age 14.
He walks to school everyday which is 2 miles away (so walks 4 miles round trip) and goes to the gym with his friends 5 days a week. He also walks the dog for us on occasion, usually around 3 times a week.

Can I ask OP, do you exercise regularly?
I only ask because when I was at school the kids that exercised regularly were the kids who's parents had exercised with them.

Mine are not sporty but walk half an hour each way to school. Also walk similar distance if they go into town at the weekend, or to church on Sunday. I'm also not sporty but don't drive so walk and cycle for transport. I've tried to interest the teens in going for a run/cycle just for exercise but they are not interested. I can sometimes persuade them into a walk up the hill just for exercise, especially if I can find a walk with a coffee stop.

While walking is always good I'm pretty sure the one hr a day recommend for children is moderate - vigorous exercise so make sure any walks are brisk to get the benefit of the heart working a bit harder. When ds walks to/from school with friends it is more of a saunter and nowhere near moderate exercise.