As the Bounce Back Movement challenge continues, we reflect on the benefits of exercising. The Bounce Back Movement challenge takes place every May and encourages children to exercise every day for 30 mins. You can read more about this challenge here.
Physical activity is important to grow and strengthen children’s muscles and bones, prevents excessive weight gain and reduces risks of long term illnesses. Children can develop many skills through daily exercise, for example, gross motor skills, and coordination.
Aerobic exercise is great for getting your heart pumping. When you take part in physical activity, your breathing naturally becomes deeper and heavier which allows your blood to be filled with oxygen and to circulate your body easily.
Including the physical benefits, many experts say physical activity gives children an opportunity to expand their outlook on life. Exercise can lead to children building confidence, managing anxiety and depression, and increasing self-esteem and cognitive skills.
Exercise has many positive effects on our bodies and helps us to do many things as we have seen above. However, our mental health is positively effected as well. Studies show that there is a change in our brains when we exercise. Physical activity allows the brain to change where it directs its resources, for example from areas involved in stress and worry toward areas involved in focus.
Aerobic exercise causes a chemical reaction in our brains, changing brain chemistry, specifically the levels of particular neurotransmitters. This helps improves our self- regulation and our ability to control behaviour. Once we start to improve our mood and self- regulation, we can function better in whatever environment we’re in.
Exercise Challenge Time!
Since we have looked at the benefits of physical activity, it’s time to involve the whole family in this week’s challenge:
Try this challenge to see how exercise has changed your mood! Print out the above page using this link to track your progress! Challenge your family to see who does the exercises better!
