How much exercise does a child actually need in a week?
The World Health Organization puts a number on it, and it is larger than most families manage. Two sessions a week will not get you there on their own - but they do something a number cannot show.
The World Health Organization recommends that children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 get an average of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day, mostly aerobic, with activities that strengthen muscle and bone at least three days a week.
Sixty minutes a day. Seven hours a week. Read it next to a Bangkok school week and a commute, and it is obvious why almost nobody gets there.
Two sessions a week is not seven hours
It is worth saying plainly: a club that trains twice a week covers about two of those seven hours. Anyone who tells you their classes solve a child’s activity on their own is selling you something.
What two fixed sessions do is different, and harder to replace. They put two unmovable hours in the diary. They give the week a shape a child can feel. And they make the other five hours more likely rather than less, because a child who has been running on Monday is a child who suggests the park on Saturday.
What counts
Walking to school counts. Swimming counts. Running around a playground counts. The sixty minutes do not have to be organised, and a child who moves all weekend and sits all week is doing better than the arithmetic suggests.
What does not count is an hour of standing in a queue waiting for a turn. When you watch a trial session, watch how much of the hour your daughter is actually moving.
Where we fit
Lions FC Girls trains twice a week. That is two of the seven hours, and we would not claim more. The rest is the walk, the weekend, and whatever she decides to do because she has started enjoying being out of breath.
