Just 1 in 4 young teens meet US fitness guidelines

[alp227]

Source: AP

CHICAGO (AP) — Young teens aren't exactly embracing the government's Let's Move mantra, the latest fitness data suggest.

Only 1 in 4 U.S. kids aged 12 to 15 meet the recommendations — an hour or more of moderate to vigorous activity every day.

The results are based on about 800 kids who self-reported their activity levels and had physical exams as part of the 2012 National Youth Fitness Survey.

Government researchers won't call the results disappointing, but lead author Tala Fakhouri of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, "There's always room for improvement."

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/just-1-4-young-teens-meet-us-fitness-guidelines

[Nanjing to Seoul]

1. In other news, water is wet and the sun rises in the east.

Why should American kids exercise? Isn't there an app for that?

[Bonobo]

2. I'm sure where you are, the kids are in much better shape.

IN Korea, like here in Japan, kids walk to school and get plenty of good quality exercise I am guessing.

Where I live, participation in middle school sports is required and the kids really get in great shape.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

4. I'm in China. Morning exercises every morning.

Soccer and basketball all the time during down times in school.

And everyone eats three squares a day.

[Bonobo]

7. Ooops, sorry.

My bad.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. Don't kids have PE anymore? n/t

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. My Nephew

took a 2 week class in summer school.

What a joke.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. That's it?

I used to hate PE because I am not very athletic. We had PE every day. We had to participate in floor exercises, swimming, basketball,soccer, baseball, gymnastics. I was only good at floor exercises but I was in really good shape. I also walked a lot since i had to walk just about everywhere I went.

Hated it but it was good for me.

[happyslug]

10. You actually DID something in Physical Education Class????

I just stood around and waited for the bell to ring. If you showed up and dressed you received a "A" for the class.

The reason for this was you had all type of students in one gym class and Coaches who were more concerned about their team their coached after school (The School Teams) as opposed to the students they had in class. Thus they pulled out the basketballs and left those kids who could play basketball play, everyone else just waited for the class to end.

Occasionally we did something else, but it was rare. Gym was a place for coaches to look for potential members of the Schools Basketball, Football and other teams, if you were NOT already Phyically fit, it was a waste of time.

[JoeyT]

11. Yeah, that's what I remember too.

I slept on the bleachers. I was in good enough shape I didn't need PE, but they wouldn't have cared either way.

Too concerned with going over plays for Friday night.

Maybe instead of putting coaches in charge of math or social studies classes we ought to put math or social studies teachers in charge of PE?

[happyslug]

13. I was hopelessy out of shape, thus PE was a waste of time.

When the school did the Presidential Phyiscal Fitness test, I failed EVERY test i.e. NOT one of the sub tests, but EVERY subtest, I was able to do NONE of them. What happen? Nothing, I was just promoted to the next year class. I finally did a push up when I was in Collage (and I picked by Collage by picking one that did NOT have a Physical Education requirement). I was so burned out by Gym, I had grown to hate it, for the useless effort it was.

That is from someone who thought nothing of skipping out of High School and walking the 3.4 miles to my home for I had two study halls at the end of the day and decided it was better to take a walk then to stay in school and wait for the bus (In the summer I thought nothing of walking the six miles to my father's work). I thus hiked all over the place, but failed every test of the Presidential Phyiscal Fitness test and no one ever offered to help me (I had a "coach" yell at me, but never anything consturctive).

[MissMillie]

8. When my son was in HS

he was exempt because he was in JROTC.

[surrealAmerican]

16. not for an hour a day, seven days a week, they don't.

40 minutes five days a week would not meet the standard, and even this assumes the teens are active the whole time they are in gym class, not watching something being demonstrated or waiting their turn.

[Android3.14]

9. the solution is obvious

We should do what we have done with other standardized tests and simply lower the standard.

[happyslug]

12. Go back to the way it was done in the late 1960s and 1970s when I was in School

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2014, 06:57 PM - Edit history (1)

You just bragged about the 1/4 that passed the test, and ignored the rest.

[Fumesucker]

14. There is a large football/soccer/softball complex right up the road from me

It's totally deserted most of the time, the only time there are kids there is during organized competitive athletic events and the kids are all driven to the field, it has a parking lot that's nearly half a mile around (I use it to ride my bike on sometimes and I've measured the distance).

There aren't even any sidewalks for local kids to get to the park, if they are going to walk it will be on narrow roads with no sidewalks, 50 mph traffic and not much even in the way of shoulders.

Of course kids aren't getting a lot of exercise, these days you're a bad parent if you let your kids get out of your sight.

[loli phabay]

15. my kids dont get to much exercise at school, but they do a lot of walking etc on our property

they spend all summer spring and autumn walking our creek fishing, and tooling around the woods. winter is spent sledding and walking up and down the mountain.