Exercise and physical activity are no less important when it comes to our children.

Children, too, are at risk of muscular and cardiovascular conditions, as well as obesity and other lifestyle illnesses.

Unfortunately, activity levels among our youth have decreased significantly over the years. Those of us who are adults now know that, when we were growing up, there were a lot less technological distractions for recreational enjoyment. Our fun and playtime involved a lot more outdoor activities…football, backyard cricket, riding bicycles, and so on. For the youth of today, it’s quite the opposite. This trend was started from the early years of video gaming systems such as Nintendo. Now gaming has evolved into many different forms and become much more sophisticated, taking on much more lifelike characteristics, and as such is more alluring to youngsters. Virtual reality computer games, PlayStation 3/4…you name it, they’re into it. When they’re not playing games, they spend hours on the Internet or they spend countless hours watching cable and DVDs.

This trend needs to be reversed. Parents, guardians and fitness instructors all need to get involved in helping to reverse this drift among our children. Childhood obesity is on the rise.

This can be reversed by encouraging our children to eat healthier and exercise more. This will also go a long way in preventing serious consequences when they get into adulthood such as hypertension, adult onset diabetes and osteoporosis.

Now let’s talk about some of the ways that exercise can be encouraged and structured into the lives of our youngsters. Of note, there are some important differences between children and adults that must be taken into consideration.

Firstly, we must recognise that children are not simply small adults. Their bodies become overheated much more easily than ours because they have a different thermos-regulatory response than adults, which in layman terms means that the rate at which they sweat is different from us adults.

Children sweat not as easily than we do, and sweating is perhaps the number one way in which our bodies dissipate heat, so if our children sweat less then their bodies are not releasing heat as effectively while they exercise and play.

The role of the supervising adult or instructor would be to keep them hydrated and ensure that they do not exercise for long periods, or that it is not too strenuous, or in excessively hot and humid conditions.

Secondly, whether they are at rest or active, the blood pressure of a child will be lower than ours, and their heart rate is higher.

Thirdly, children are less likely to remain focused by themselves, and may have difficulty following instructions given during structured activity sessions, so patience is required on the part of the adult in charge.

Also it is recommended that, for young children, allow for intermittent bouts of activity as children at that age will prefer that more than one long sustained period of exercise because of their short attention span.

Whereas long periods of activity are not encouraged, overly long periods of inactivity should also be discouraged. Unless your child is sleeping or at school or studying, do not encourage them to sit around for longer than two to three at a time.

Make sure the exercises/activities are age-appropriate.

As the youngster starts to mature, between 20 minutes and a half an hour of vigorous exercise at least three days a week is appropriate. However, if that child is obese, they should be accumulating half an hour to one hour of exercise six days of the week.

Lastly, remember that children in large part emulate us and adopt behavioural patterns from adults. So one of the best ways for you to get your kids to practise healthy active lifestyles is for us as adults to do likewise.

Let’s set good examples of active healthful living for our children to follow.

Marlon Ebanks is a personal fitness instructor who has been certified by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America since 2009.