Exercise and Fitness

Exercise keeps your body and mind healthy and strong by keeping your muscles and heart strong.   Exercise even makes you feel happier by telling your brain to make more endorphins - hormone chemical messengers that make you happy.  Exercise isn’t just sport!  Anything you do that gets you out of a chair counts as exercise!

Exercise and Your Heart

Your heart is a special muscle that endlessly pumps blood around your body thousands of times an hour.  Like any other muscle, exercise makes your heart work harder which makes it stronger and better at pumping blood.  A little exercise every day, plus eating healthily, is the best way to keep your heart healthy for life.

Getting Fit

Fitness means having endurance (being able to keep up), strength (strong muscles) and flexibility (meaning that your joints move easily and quickly).  Endurance comes from having a strong fit heart.  You know you are fit when you can run as fast and as far or do as many things as most young people your age. If you run out of breath or get very tired just doing a little, this means you are unfit and that your heart and muscles could be stronger. 

How Much Exercise?

Young people should get some exercise every week. Half an hour 2 to 3 times a week is enough to keep you quite fit and to keep you feeling confident and happy.

Just Having Fun

Exercise doesn’t just mean sport! Lots of young people aren’t keen on sport, particularly running or organised games.  There are lots of other fun ways to get the exercise you need.  In fact, you can get very fit doing other things for around half and hour 2 to 3 times a week, such as:

1. Riding your bike

2. Playing with or walking the dog

3. Skateboarding

4. Playing Frisbee

5. Martial arts

6. Even washing the family car!

Sports Safety

Sport is a fun way to get lots of exercise and stay healthy and fit. Sport is also a great way to have fun with your friends. Because we move our bodies in different and more energetic ways than usual during sport, we sometimes hurt ourselves. Always do some warm-up exercises before you play, and never play sport with an injury.

Protective Gear

Protective gear prevents your skin and bones from injuries in fast sports like skateboarding, hockey and rollerblading.  Always wear the right protective gear for your sport.

Helmets

Helmets protect your brain and are needed in sports where you might collide with something – like riding a bike. All young people should wear a helmet whether they are riding on or off the street.  Wearing helmets has saved thousands of young people’s lives over the past 10 years.

Warming Up

One important way to avoid injuries in sport is to be fit, as this helps prevents muscle injuries. Warming up before you play sport also helps, especially on cold nights.

Rules and Referees

Rules and referees are there mostly to keep you safe.  Playing by the rules of the game is one of the best ways of keeping safe in sport.

Dehydration

Getting enough water to prevent dehydration (meaning your body runs out of fluids) is important in any sport.  You might be dehydrated when you feel exhausted, have trouble standing up, and don’t pass any urine for hours. Dehydration is dangerous, especially for your kidneys and heart.  Prevent it by taking water with you when you play sport.

Building Up

Exercising any muscle makes that muscle bigger and stronger.  This is why people do exercises to build up their arm and leg muscles.  This type of exercise is called Anaerobic, because it doesn’t pull more oxygen into the blood and doesn’t make you fitter. For stronger leg muscles, cycling or running helps build up.  For stronger stomach muscles, sit ups and bike riding will help to build them up. 

Control Your Weight

The best way to control your weight is to exercise a little and eat healthily.  See the Healthy Eating Health Beat for more information.