SUNDAY FORUM

• Best advice for kids: Move, move, move • Winning the battle for fit kids • Time to 'run outside and play' • No room in schedule for exercise • Health concern led to quest for fitness • Fitness bits • What you can do now • Part #1 of series (Sep. 26) • Part #2 of series (Oct. 3) YOUR VOICE

Elementary-aged children should participate in physical activity from a variety of activities every day or most days of the week.

Elementary-aged children are encouraged to be physically active at least 60 minutes per day and up to several hours per day. The activity can take place in shorter sessions of activity, but should total at least one hour.

Some of the daily activity should be in periods lasting at least 10 to 15 minutes.

Activity should be intermittent, with vigorous activity alternating with brief periods of rest.

From the Centers for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System:

How active are American children and adolescents?

HEALTH BITES

"Schools have such an opportunity to help kids be active. Unfortunately, the academic pressure is so high that's it's become the entire focus. But if we could perhaps set aside the last bell of the day for physical activity, that would be a great help to kids." Dr. Sue Weinstein, executive director, Discover Health --- "Early in my career - in the late 1970s - I'd have about a fourth of my students earn the Presidential Fitness Award. By the late 1980s, I'd only have about four out of 72 sixth-graders who could pass it, mainly because of upper body strength and flexibility. We stopped doing it." Joe Clear, physical education teacher, Stewart Elementary School, Sharonville --- "Thirty to 40 percent of the reasons why adults exercise or don't exercise are rooted in their adolescence. If you didn't exercise as an adolescent, there's a good chance you won't regularly exercise as an adult." Dr. Jon Divine, medical director, Children's Hospital's Sports Medicine Biodynamics Center --- "Many adults tell their kids, 'You should be physically active, but don't look at me because I'm going to sit down, and I've been programmed to watch TV. And when I watch TV, I need a bowl of popcorn and vat of dip and a remote so I don't need to leave the couch.'" Keith King, assistant professor, health promotion and education, University of Cincinnati --- "Sports are so highly organized today that parents drive their kids to the soccer game, where he or she plays for half an hour. If kids just walked to the field to play by themselves, they'd play for several hours." Dr. Michael Farrell, chief of staff, Children's Hospital Medical Center --- "We've 'technologied' our kids out of play, and now we're trying to put it back. Sometimes I have trouble convincing parents that their kids should sweat. I tell them a sweaty head is good, a red face is good." Randy Claytor, exercise physiologist, Children's Hospital Medical Center --- "I've started asking in my check-ups, 'Do you feel safe in your neighborhood?' because kids can't play outside if they don't feel safe, or if their parents don't feel they're safe." Dr. Camille Graham, pediatrician, president of staff, Children's Hospital Medical Center --- "Many kids have lost the concept that being physically active is fun. So there is this concept that, if I have to, I'll do it. We have to figure out how to get kids back to the concept of playing games and being active and enjoying every minute of it." Dr. Stephen Daniels, cardiologist, Children's Hospital Medical Center

•Walking and bicycling by children ages 5-15 dropped by 40 percent between 1977 and 1995.

•More than one-third of all student trips to school are made from one mile away or less, but only 31 percent of those trips are made by walking.

•Participation in sports declines as children enter adolescence. Attrition from sports begins around age 10 and peaks among 14- and 15-year-olds.

•Nearly half of all high school students do not regularly participate in vigorous physical activity.

•From ninth grade to 12th grade, students' participation in vigorous physical activity drops from 73 percent to 61 percent.

•Nearly half of high school students are not enrolled in a physical education class. Physical education class enrollment drops from 79 percent in 9th grade to 37 percent in 12th grade.

From the 1996 Surgeon General's report, Physical Activity and Health:

Regular physical activity in children and adolescents produces these benefits:

•Builds and maintains healthy bones, muscles and joints.

•Helps control weight, build lean muscle and reduce fat.

•Prevents or delays the development of high blood pressure and helps reduce blood pressure in adolescents with hypertension.

•Reduces feelings of depression and anxiety.

•Reduces risk of premature heart disease, diabetes and colon cancer.

•Reduces likelihood of drug and cigarette use and violence.

From The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports:

One-fourth of American children spend at least four hours watching television daily. One-third watch for more than 3 hours daily, and nearly one-fifth watch more than five hours daily.

Only about half of young people ages 12-21 exercise regulary. A fourth report no recent vigorous or light-to-moderate activity.

Among the Centers for Disease Control's guidelines for promoting lifelong physical activity in young people:

Schools should require daily physical education and comprehensive health education in grades K-12.

Schools and communities should provide adequate funding for physical education programs, equipment and supervision.

Physical education classes should keep students active for most of class time.

Physical education programs should emphasize lifetime physical activities, such as walking and dancing, not just competitive sports.

Schools should provide time at recess for unstructured physical activity.

Schools should provide competitive and noncompetitive extracurricular physical activities.

Schools should not withhold physical activity as a punishment.

Communities should provide safe spaces and facilities for children's physical activity and developmentally appropriate sports and recreation programs.

Parents and guardians should support their children's physical activity, be role models themselves and include physical activity in family events.

Recommendations from the International Consensus Conference on Physical Activity Guidelines for Adolescents with support from the Centers for Disease Control:

Adolescents should be physically active daily as part of play, sports, work, transportation or physical education.

Adolescents should engage in three or more sessions per week of activities that last 20 minutes or longer and that require moderate to vigorous levels of exertion.