Exercise is an important part of keeping teenagers healthy. Encouraging healthier behaviors in children and adolescents is important as they grow older. Lifestyles learned in childhood are more likely to remain in adulthood with the infant. Some lifestyle changes can be more difficult to make as a person ages. The best way to encourage healthier habits is for the whole family to get involved.
Key Facts:
- For health and well-being, pre-teens and adolescents require light, moderate and vigorous physical exercise every day.
- Pre-teens and adolescents need to workout to improve muscles and bones.
- Busy pre-teens and adolescents might need to plan how to get enough physical exercise.
- A healthy lifestyle balances physical fitness, homework, time and other activities.
Why is exercise important to teenagers?
Regular exercise is important to teenagers. It is because this helps to improve their physical and mental fitness. Teens should strive for at least 60 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity every day. They should aim to spend less time being sedentary and more time being active.
If adolescents can discover the physical activity they enjoy, they are more likely to exercise daily and continue to exercise in adulthood. Parents can inspire teenagers to exercise regularly by setting a positive example. Also, they have to be more involved.
Here are some reasons why is exercise important to teenagers:
1. Help Control Your Weight
Exercise burns calories, helping teens prevent weight gain and maintaining a lean, toned body. Maintaining a healthier weight decreases the risk of diseases such as type II diabetes and high blood pressure. These diseases are becoming more prevalent among adolescents.
Individuals vary depending on the amount of exercise that they need to do to lose weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some individuals will need to work out more than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity a week to maintain weight.
2. Prevent Disease and Illness
To Prevent Disease and Illness Exercise Important to Teenagers. Regular exercise for teenagers decreases the risk of type II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, and breast cancer. It also helps reduce blood pressure and increases healthy cholesterol levels. Weight-bearing activities such as cycling, riding, and jumping strengthen bones. Also, they prevent bone density loss and osteoporosis in later life. Osteoporosis is a fragile bone disease. It increases the risk of severe, even life-threatening hip fractures in older adults.
3. Reduce stress and increase relaxation
Taking a walk or doing a gym workout is a perfect way to relieve tension. Stress relief is one of the most common mental health effects of exercise in teenagers. Working out may help manage the physical and emotional stress that could have been built up for a negative school experience or a difficult exam. Exercise can also increase relaxation, helping adolescents who have insomnia.
4. Relieve anxiety and depression
Exercise activates endorphins. These are natural chemicals that create feelings of pleasure in the body. Studies have shown that the health effects of teen fitness can significantly improve depression. Even doing 30 minutes of exercise a few days a week can increase the overall mood. Exercising with anxiety disorder can help relieve symptoms in teenagers and help them to calm down. Moderate-to-high-intensity workouts can reduce sensitivity to anxiety.
5. Improve self-confidence
Focusing on personal health development is one approach for improving children’s self-esteem through exercise and sports. Physical exercise can increase self-esteem and self-image. Exercise, regardless of size or weight, can provide adolescents with a sense of self-worth. Exercise outdoors can improve self-esteem even more. Finding outdoor workouts that suit your needs is a perfect way to meet people, build other skills, and build self-esteem.
6. Sharpen your memory to prevent cognitive decline
Doing sporadic physical activity can improve memory and learning. Researchers also linked the development of children’s brain to the level of physical fitness. As we get older, our brains have a hard time processing or maintaining information. Another health advantage of teen exercise is that it decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s later in life. Working out at a young age increases brain chemicals that prevent brain regions linked to memory and learning.
7. Help to control addiction
Exercise can help in the treatment of addiction. It can effectively distract and de-prioritize drug or alcohol addicts. Exercise also helps to revitalize the body after having negative effects from drinking or drug abuse.
8. Get more done and tap into creativity
Researchers have shown that exercise regularly produces higher levels of energy and productivity for more sedentary peers. Exercise can also improve creativity. Exercising outdoors or interacting with nature during exercise can lead to inspiration.
9. It strengthens the heart
The heart is a muscle. And like all muscles, its performance increases when it’s regularly challenged by exercise. The heart responds to exercise by being stronger and more effective. Improving heart muscle can help reduce heart disease. In the United States, it is the primary cause of death in childhood and adolescence.
10. It helps keep arteries and veins clear
Exercise decreases the amount of unhealthy cholesterol and fat in the blood of a person. It raises the flexibility of the walls of the blood vessels and helps to reduce blood pressure. This can minimize a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke.
11. It strengthens bones
Just as muscles become stronger when physically stressed, bones often adapt by being stronger. According to the National Institutes of Health, adults begin to lose bone mass in their 20s. But those who exercise frequently achieve a higher peak bone density. Increased bone density reduces osteoporosis, a disease in which bones lose density, weaken, and become porous and fragile.
12. It helps prevent cancer
People who exercise daily have a lower risk of cancer. The most affected cancers include cancers of the liver, lung, uterine, and breast.
13. It controls the blood pressure
Exercise has been shown to reduce stress. When stress levels in a person’s body decrease, their blood pressure and heart disease risk also decrease. This is one of the reasons why is exercise important to teenagers.
14. It Improves energy levels
Regular exercise also makes people feel more energetic, allows them to be more productive, and reduces the likelihood of getting tired during the day.
Add Aerobic Exercise for Teenagers
Aerobic exercise for adolescents raises the heart rhythm and breathing rate. This strengthens the heart muscle and enhances oxygen supply to all parts of the body.
Good aerobic fitness boosts energy levels and encourages teenagers to be physically active for more extended periods without fatigue. It also helps them respond to unexpected physical demands. These include running on a bus or climbing stairs.
Examples of healthy aerobic workout activities include hockey, baseball, rowing, basketball, golf, hiking, in-line skating, dancing, aerobics, fast walking, swimming, racing and biking.
Include some strength training
Strength training workouts, such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, raised legs and crunches, increase muscle mass and help develop strong muscles of the body, legs and stomach. Strong muscles help to protect the joints and prevent injury. Muscle uses more calories than fat while the body is at rest which helps maintain healthy body weight.
The Bottom Line
In this article, we saw why is exercise important to teenagers. If you have a health condition or other issue (such as being overweight or out of shape), speak to the doctor before starting an exercise plan.
Considering the benefits to the heart, lungs, joints, and mind, it’s easy to see that exercise is wise. And the best thing about exercise is that it’s never too late to get started. Even small activities can count as exercise when you start. E.g., taking a short bike ride, walking a pet, or raking leaves.
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