Getting teens back to normal sports, fitness activities are critical to their future health
The team at OrthoCincy would like to remind us that the pandemic has led to the sedentary lifestyles of many teens, and that getting kids back to normal sports and fitness activities may be critical to their future health.sports fitness Braylon is a high school freshman and an active football player. OrthoCincy plastic surgeon Dr. John Fritch wanted to involve Braylon, especially considering a new study found that when it comes to teen heart health: "Twenty minutes of vigorous exercise seems to be enough," Dr. Friitch said. However, fitness researchers also found: "After about 20 minutes, the benefits seemed to level off," Dr. Friitch said. But Dr. Fritsch said he is more in favor of the American Heart Association and other guidelines that recommend 60 minutes of exercise a day, whether vigorous or not. "It's about overall health," he said. "Get your kids out of the house, keep them away from screens, and get them involved in physical activity with friends where they can develop social skills and motor development." This may be more important now than ever, as a second recent study found that, before puberty, every additional hour a child spent on screens of any type was associated with an increase in height-related weight. The researchers followed 11,066 children ages 9 to 10 for a year. They found that overweight kids jumped from 33.7% to 35.5%. They say it's directly related to spending more time watching TV or YouTube, playing video games or texting. The conclusion is that this screen time takes up active time -- which Breron and his medical team say also increases the risk of injury and future health complications. If you have any questions about youth sports and exercise, you can contact the OrthoCincy team here.
