A failing grade

But we are failing our children miserably. In the United States, less than one In four children get at least an hour of physical activity a day. Girls exercise even less than boys, and older children are more sedentary than younger children. According to the World Health Organization, the picture worldwide is generally worse with more than 81 percent of children not getting an hour of daily physical activity. Many factors are to blame. Children today spend more time glued to screens both large and small, they walk less often to school, in some neighborhoods parks and streets are dangerous, and growing numbers of schools have let physical education slide to paltry levels. While most school districts require some physical education, only a shockingly tiny fraction provide enough. Just 11 percent of elementary school districts in the United States have regular classroom physical activity breaks during the school day; among high schools, the percentage plunges to 2 percent. And, true to my own experience, students typically spend more than half their time in classroom physical activities inactively, sitting on a bench or waiting in line to bat or dribble a ball. To make matters worse, competitive sports in many schools are exclusionary, leading to what Bradley Cardinal terms an “inverted” system in which the further students advance, the likelier they are to be sidelined or eliminated. All in all, we face a dire epidemic of physical inactivity among youth.—Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding, 275

Get those kids moving!

Young people need to move. Because our thrifty physiologies evolved to build capacity in response to demand, suflicient physical activity during the first decades of life is indispensable for developing a healthy body. At least an hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity reduces children’s risk of obesity and helps them grow healthy muscles, bones, hearts, blood vessels, digestive systems, and even brains. Children who get more physical activity learn more and are smarter, happier, and less prone to depression and other mood disorders.—Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding, 275

Over-exercising

This post talks about overexertion and the dangers of conflating our cultural workaholism w/athletic improvement as opposed to athletics just for the joy of doing it. Here's key paragraph, but do read the whole thing:

Of course, athletes and their coaches have known about this sort of thinking for a long time [the necessity of recovery time]. Maybe, if I had been less of an indoor cat, I would’ve learned it as a teen. Or maybe it would have been warped by the lens of competitive organized sports, and I would’ve burned out entirely and developed even worse disordered eating habits, and never have been able to do something exercise-related without feeling like I had to win, and an old and devastating injury would haunt every movement. I truly don’t know. I do know that I wasn’t ready for sports, mentally or physically, at that age. And that right now, this year, this week, I am arriving at this feeling of a very certain sort of athleticism — of being an athlete! — entirely on my own terms.

I recall one time, about 17 years ago now, being on a long 60+ mile bike ride, fighting the clock for a better average speed. I felt God nudging me and asking me if I was enjoying the ride. I wasn’t. I wasn’t noticing the world around me, which was beautiful. That’s the day I stopped recording mileage and average speed. And I started enjoying bike riding again.

That’s also why I got the Fitbit this year, to keep me from working too hard. As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m pretty intense : ) And Debbie was concerned (rightfully) that I was pushing myself too hard again. So now, I watch the heart rate, but for a different reason. And surprise, my resting heart rate has dropped because I’m not overexerting myself. There’s a parable there, I’m sure…