Get moving in PA this spring
When you hear the word exercise, it shouldn’t make you want to cringe and hide. The key to successfully incorporating physical activity into a healthy lifestyle is to make it fun: something you look forward to and want to continue to do.
What better way to make exercise more enjoyable, than to include family members? Children and teens can learn healthy (or unhealthy) behaviors for physical activity from their friends and most importantly their caregivers. “But there’s nothing to do,” they whine as they lay on the couch, feet propped up, watching the television with their cell phone in hand. That’s just not true, and sometimes we don’t even know what we enjoy until we try it. When searching for the best ways to get active with your family, sometimes the answer isn’t too far out of your back door. Central Pennsylvania is home to gorgeous outdoor scenic, hiking, and waterfall trails for people of all activity levels. Rocky Ridge Trails, Lake Redman Trails, and Heritage Rail Trails are just a few of the many places you can enjoy an afternoon stroll in the sunshine with your family. Additionally, the beautiful recreational parks in the area, like John C. Rudy Park, William Kain Park, Richard Nixon Park, and Gifford Pinchot Park, etc. offer a wide variety of opportunities for exercise from sand volleyball courts, to soccer fields, horseshoe pits, softball fields, canine parks, display gardens, boating, fishing, playgrounds, and more.
“What can we do on a rainy day in April or a snowy day in January,” you ask? There’s plenty to do indoors. In our area we are lucky to have access to trampoline parks, escape rooms, indoor sports complexes and emporiums, lazer tag centers, bowling alleys, etc. All of these options incorporate physical movement in some way with the involvement of fun and family. Exercise does not have to be what most traditionally think of as weight lifting and sports. However, if that is what excites you there are a multitude of health clubs in the Central Pennsylvania area as well.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association children and adolescents should get 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous intensity, enjoyable, aerobic physical activity each day of the week, and they should try to include muscle strengthening activities on at least three of those days. Adults should aim for 150 minutes of moderate (or 75 minutes of vigorous) aerobic activity every week, in addition to muscle strengthening activities on two or more days that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).
- Aerobic activities are also known as “cardio” exercises including walking, running, hiking, swimming, aerobics classes, spin classes, dancing, biking, kickboxing, swimming, etc. Aerobic activities increase both heart and breathing rates. They require the heart to pump oxygenated blood to deliver oxygen to working muscles.
- On a scale of 0 to 10, where sitting is a 0 and the highest level of activity is a 10, moderate-intensity activity is a 5 or 6. Vigorous-intensity activity is a level 7 or 8.
Lastly, remember that if something isn’t fun to you or your family it is going to be much harder to stay motivated to want to continue to do it: be creative, be adventurous, have fun, and be healthy together!
Nikole E. Tome, MPH, CHES is an assistant director/program evaluation at the Byrnes Health Education Center. She graduated in 2013 from West Chester University with a Master’s Degree in Public Health. She has also obtained her Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credentials from the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.
