In this Part Three of Exercise for Boomer Grandmas in 2016, we would be remiss in not addressing the exercise needs of our grandchildren in 2016. Several fitness studies dealt with children’s fitness.
Gretchen Reynolds, the fitness writer for the New York Times, in “How Exercise Can Boost Young Brains, October 8, 2014, says young brains need exercise as well as our Boomer Grandma brains:
“Encourage young boys and girls to run, jump, squeal, hop and chase after each other or after erratically kicked balls, and you substantially improve their ability to think, according to the most ambitious study ever conducted of physical activity and cognitive performance in children. The results underscore, yet again, the importance of physical activity for children’s brain health and development, especially in terms of the particular thinking skills that most affect academic performance.”
We Grandmas can help by running, jumping rope with the grandchildren, hopping and chasing after them and getting great cardio workouts as well. We Grandmas can help by buying the equipment for their homes for such exercise. For a new home gift, this Grandma bought a portable basketball hoop for their yard. Here is the post on the results of the research to find the best one:
In a study on whether exercise increased school test scores, you can guess the result:
“The message is, get kids to be physically active” for the sake of their brains, as well as their health, Dr. Hillman said. After-school programs like the one he and his colleagues developed require little additional equipment or expense for most schools, he said, although a qualified physical education instructor should be involved, he added.”
“Extended physical education classes during school hours could also ensure that children engage in sufficient physical activity for brain health, of course. But school districts nationwide are shortening or eliminating P.E. programs for budgetary and other reasons, a practice that is likely “shortsighted,” Dr. Hillman said. If you want young students to do well in reading and math, make sure that they also move.”
So, advocacy for physical education in schools and extended recess by grandmas who have the time for such advocacy is important on a community scale, but also on a personal scale. Encourage the grandchildren to take up a sport or sports, after school and on weekends, and be available to chauffeur and assist, personally, and financially, if one is able.
We now know that sitting is bad for us adults and we need to move and keep moving. It is no surprise that Gretchen Reynolds reviewed a 2015 study about children that children who sit too much may face adult-size health consequences, in “Sitting Is Bad for Children, Too,” September 23, 2015. “The study found that after a single session of prolonged inactivity, the children developed changes in their blood flow and arteries that, in grown-ups, would signal the start of serious cardiovascular problems.”
The new study gives us some frightening statistics:
“So for the new study, published this month in Experimental Physiology, Ali McManus, an associate professor of pediatric exercise physiology at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, and her colleagues decided to ask children to sit still. In general, today’s children are doing plenty of that. One recent large-scale epidemiological study reported that children across the globe sit for about 8.5 hours every day. Another recent study found that activity levels among children dropped precipitously after about age 8 and continue to fall through adolescence, with young people trading movement for sitting. This decline in activity, the study concluded, is most pronounced among girls. For those and other reasons, the scientists focused their new study on girls between the ages of 9 and 12.”
The results of the study are frightening:
“The results should give pause to any of us who, as parents, beg our kids to keep still. After the girls had reclined for three uninterrupted hours, their arteries no longer functioned as well as they had at the start. In fact, the girls now showed “a profound reduction in vascular function,” the scientists wrote, with arterial dilation – the normal and healthy widening of blood vessels – falling by as much as 33 percent. “For perspective,” Dr. McManus said, in adults, a sustained 1 percent decline in vascular function “has been shown to increase cardiovascular disease risk by 13 percent.”
So, what did the researchers recommend?
“So encourage young people to stand up and move around at least every hour, she says. A stroll around the classroom or living room should help. The girls in the study pedaled “at a very easy level” when they broke up their sitting time with cycling, Dr. McManus said, suggesting that vigorous exercise is not required to keep children’s arteries healthy.”
“Unfortunately, chairs are as alluring to the young as they are to grown-ups. “I was surprised by how easy it was to get the girls to stay still for three uninterrupted hours,” Dr. McManus said. “We’d expected that they would want to be up and moving around.” But they were content to sit, entertained by movies and iPads.”
“It was easier, actually, than I’d hoped,” Dr. McManus said.”
We Grandmas have learned in Exercise for Boomer Grandmas in 2016 Part One and Part Two that we need to get moving, and now we know we need to get our grandchildren moving with us.
My most memorable yoga classes have been when I brought my grandchildren. My middle grandson was fortunate to have a yoga class in aftercare and can bend into a pretzel. He wowed the members of my yoga class. Doing yoga with grandchildren is great fun at home too. Lazy Lizard has children’s yoga mats and videos to exercise with the grandchildren.
Many gyms have age limitations, but walking, skipping, hopping and playing outdoor games with grandchildren build our cardio health and theirs. Yes, it is hard to get them away from their electronics, but now we know in 2016, their brains require movement, not Ipads.
Joy,
Mema
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