Teaching Elementary School Health Education/Personal Health and Physical Activity/Regular Physical Activity

• Physical Activity is any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure.

• Regular Physical Activity is physical activity that is performed on most days of the week.

Health Benefits

• People who are usually inactive can improve their health and well-being by becoming even moderately active on a regular basis.

• Physical activity need not be strenuous to achieve health benefits.

• Greater health benefits can be achieved by increasing the amount of physical activity.

Guidelines for Youth

• Children should accumulate at least sixty minutes and up to several hours of age-appropriate physical activity on all, or most days of the week.

• Children should participate in several bouts of physical activity lasting fifteen minutes or more each day.

• Children should participate each day in a variety of age-appropriate physical activities designed to achieve optimal health, wellness, fitness, and performance benefits.

• Extended periods of inactivity (more than two hours) are discouraged especially during the daytime.