Vancouver Family Sports & Fitness

Canada's Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth recommend that:

• inactive children and youth increase the amount of time they currently spend being physically active by at least 30 minutes more per day and decrease the time they spend on TV, playing computer games and surfing the Internet -- by at least 30 minutes less per day;

• the increase in physical activity include a combination of moderate activity (such as brisk walking, skating and bike riding) and vigorous activity (such as running and playing soccer);

• children and youth accumulate this increase in daily physical activity in periods of at least 5 to 10 minutes; and

• over several months, children and youth should try to accumulate at least 90 minutes more physical activity per day and decrease by at least 90 minutes per day the amount of time spent on sedentary activities such as watching videos and sitting at a computer.