Want Your Kids To Exercise? Stop Making This Mistake

Parents or adults who try to load up their kids with "guilt" so that they would exercise more will fail because it won't work, says a new study by researchers from the University of Georgia.

The study, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, found that students who don't feel that they are in control of their exercise choices or those who feel that they are beeing pressured by their parents to be more physically active makes them less likely to exercise. Middle-schoolers who feel that they are in control of the choices they make about exercising are more likely to see themselves as people who exercise, which actually makes them more likely to exercise.

"Our results confirm that the beliefs these kids hold are related to physical activity levels," said Rod Dishman, the study's lead author and a professor of kinesiology in the University of Georgia College of Education, in a University press release.

Dishman said that kids decrease their activity levels by up to 50 percent between fifth and sixth grades.

"But can we put these children in situations where they come to value and enjoy the act of being physically active?" said Dishman.

Dishman and his colleagues at the University of South Carolina are currently looking at ways to help kids get more comfortable with exercise at a younger age, so that they will be more likely to identify themselves as someone who exercises when they reach middle school, which will help them exercise.

This could mean teaching more structured games before middle school, integrating or adding more physical activities into classroom lessons, or expanding community recreational leagues giving kids more opportunities to engage themselves in to improve their skills and appreciation of a particular sport.

"Just like there are kids who are drawn to music and art, there are kids who are drawn to physical activity," he said. "But what you want is to draw those kids who otherwise might not be drawn to an activity."

Dishman said that what they don't want parents or other adults to create is a sense of guilt for not exercising or not having physical activity. The study has found that students who felt obligated to be more physically active were actually less likely to engage themselves in physical activities overall.

"The best thing is to do it because it's fun," Dishman concluded, as per HealthDay. "It's the kids who say they are intrinsically motivated who are more active than the kids who aren't."