THE NATIONAL NEWSLETTER

Arijus Pavlidi

Your Kids Refuse To Exercise? Scientists Point

To A Major Reason Behind That
April 13, 2022

Introduction

Most people know without saying that exercise is healthy - not only for them, but
also for their children. It improves heart health, boosts development, acts as a
socializing factor, and is, in fact, beneficial to children’s academic achievement. A
study done on middle school children concluded that “students with higher levels of
physical fitness tend to have higher academic performance.”1

Knowing these benefits, it is obvious that you’d want your children to exercise as
much as possible. However, sometimes it just seems like your words cannot reach
them, no matter how hard you try to convince them. In reality, according to CDC,
less than a quarter of children ages 6-17 (USA) participate in regular sustained
exercise2 What is the issue here? Scientists might have an answer.

The power of example

Of many responsibilities of my being a parent, setting a good example for our
children is definitely going to be high up the list. After all, there’s a reason why
sayings such as “an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, or “like mother like
daughter” exist. And, simply put, that reason is that children tend to imitate the
behaviors of their parents. That is how they learn how to socialize, act and/or
behave.

With a sedentary lifestyle taking over as a new standard, it is not a surprise that
activity levels have fallen dramatically over the years. Nowadays, only 1 in 3 adults
achieve the bare minimum recommended amount of exercise in a week3, with only
5% participating in sustained regular exercise. If children learn from adults and
copy their behaviors, then it is not surprising that they too refuse to exercise. For
example, a study by Moore found that when both parents of a child were active, the
likelihood of that child being physically active increased 6 fold4. So if you want your
child to be active, you have to consider your own behavior first. You could be a
small step in preventing 1 in 10 premature deaths due to an inactive lifestyle 5.

1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5909012/
2
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm
3
https://www.rxresource.org/fitness/exercise-and-fitness-facts-and-statistics.html#:~:text=Less%20th
an%205%25%20of%20adults,65%2D74%20are%20physically%20active.
4
https://reachfamilies.umn.edu/sites/default/files/rdoc/Parental%20Influence%20on%20Children%2
7s%20Physical%20Activity%20Motivation.pdf
5
https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/about-physical-activity/why-it-matters.html

2
Conclusion

It is not that your children are stubborn for no reason when it comes to
exercise. It is likely that they just haven’t observed an example of such activity
from the one figure they get most their examples from - the parents. So if
you are a parent and want your child to do something, think about the things
you do first.