Physical Activity and Health

What is physical activity, and how much do we need?

Physical activity is any movement of your body that uses energy. It is not only sport. Walking to school, climbing stairs, dancing, sweeping and playing tag all count.

• Children and teens (5 to 17 years): about 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity, on average. On at least 3 days a week, include activities that make muscles and bones strong (jumping, climbing, push-ups).
• Adults: about 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle work on 2 days.
• The minutes can be split. Three blocks of 20 minutes are as good as one block of 60.

Lifelong activity means choosing activities you enjoy, so you keep moving as an adult: walking, swimming, yoga, cycling, dance.

Intensity: light, moderate and vigorous

Intensity means how hard your body is working. As intensity rises, your heart beats faster and you breathe harder.

• Light: slow walk, stretching. You can sing.
• Moderate: brisk walk, easy cycling, badminton. You can talk, but not sing. You get warm.
• Vigorous: running, football, skipping fast. You can say only a few words before you need a breath.

This simple check is called the talk test. You can also count your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 to get beats per minute.

Planning with FITT and technology

The FITT plan has four parts:

• F = Frequency: how many days a week.
• I = Intensity: how hard.
• T = Time: how many minutes each time.
• T = Type: which activity (running, swimming, strength, yoga).

Change one part at a time to improve slowly and safely.

Technology can help: a step counter or phone counts steps (many people aim for about 8,000 to 10,000 a day), a timer tracks minutes, a heart-rate watch shows intensity, and a map app helps plan an outdoor walk, hike or cycling route. Outdoors, plan ahead: check the weather, carry water, tell an adult your route, and stay on safe paths. Modern activities like dance videos, active video games and parkour also count, if you really move.

Benefits: body, mind and social health

• Body: stronger heart and lungs, stronger bones and muscles, healthy body weight, lower risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease later in life.
• Mind: better mood, less stress and worry, deeper sleep, better focus in class.
• Social: team games and clubs build friendships, teamwork, fair play and confidence.

Health is not just the body. The World Health Organization describes health as physical, mental and social well-being together.

Too little and too much: sedentary life, overtraining and rest

A sedentary life means sitting most of the day, for example long screen time. Even active children should break up long sitting time and keep leisure screen time low (many experts suggest 2 hours a day or less).

Overtraining is the opposite problem: too much hard exercise without enough rest. Signs: you always feel tired, your performance drops, you get injured or ill often, you sleep badly and lose interest.

The fix is balance: warm up and cool down, increase training slowly (about 10% more per week), take rest days, drink water, eat well and sleep 9 to 11 hours (children) or 8 to 10 hours (teens).

Active tourism, like trekking, cycling holidays or a nature walk on a trip, is a fun way to add activity. Respect nature and local people, and plan for safety.

Try it at home

For 3 days, write down every activity and its minutes. Mark each one L (light), M (moderate) or V (vigorous) using the talk test. Add the M and V minutes for each day. Did you reach 60? Now use the free-play step of the 3D to plan a better week.

Key formulas and definitions

• Physical activity: any body movement that uses energy.
• Daily goal (5 to 17 years): about 60 min of moderate to vigorous activity.
• Weekly goal (adults): 150 to 300 min moderate, or 75 to 150 min vigorous.
• FITT: Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type.
• Talk test: sing = light; talk = moderate; few words = vigorous.
• Heart rate (beats/min) = beats in 15 s × 4.
• Sedentary: sitting or lying with very little movement.
• Overtraining: too much training without enough rest.

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Thinking only sport counts. Walking, chores, dance and play all count as activity.
• Thinking one big session on Sunday is enough. The body needs activity spread across the week, ideally every day.
• Thinking more is always better. Without rest you can overtrain and get injured.
• Thinking an active child can sit for hours with screens without harm. Long sitting time is a separate risk.