Coming Soon!! New Physical Activity Guidelines

For those of you who have not heard, Canada will be getting some new physical activity guidelines- hopefully in the next year. I suspect this development will have many people (like me!) who work in fields related to physical activity literally jumping for joy. The guidelines have needed to be revisited for a number of years. Previous guidelines were released in 2002 (Children and Youth), 1998 (Adult) and 1999 (Older Adult) .

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) has been leading the charge -hoping to update the guidelines based on current research. They have been reviewing the current guidelines and analyzing current research to determine what the new recommendations should be. They have done a fantastic amount of work.

In May 2010 they released their recommendations for updating Canada's Physical Activity Guidelines. You can see their news release, fact sheet and a plethora of academic articles on the CSEP website: http://www.csep.ca/english/View.asp?x=587

I suggest you take the time to read the fact sheet. It is nicely layed out and directly compares the new recommendations to the current guidelines. This allows you to see the changes made. I was very happy to see that the age ranges were expanded upon. (I still wonder how was that, before now, the Guidelines did not specifically address teenagers aged 15-19 have had no physical activity guidelines??!!).

One interesting difference can be found in their recommendations for children and youth. CSEP's new recommendations suggest at least 60 minutes of moderate-victorious physical activity for children and youth. The current Physical Activity Guidelines for children and youth recommend 90 minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity.

This decrease in the amount of time recommended has caused quite a stir and debate. The main argument (that I have heard) for the change from 90 minutes to 60 minutes is that is would make this aspect of the Guidelines consistent with other countries and with the World Health Organization. Interesting, eh?

Will this change affect how we encourage our children and youth to be active?
Hmmmmm...what do you think? What does your experience tell you?

Beside this "hot button" issue, there is still much work that has to happen before the new physical activity guidelines are released. The Public Health Agency of Canada and CSEP will hopefully be formulating appropriate messaging, dissemination and other supporting resources. (Personally, I will not be sad to see the cartoons images go).

Currently PHAC has an online consultation available. This is an opportunity for anyone who is interested in how the physical activity guidelines are developed, to have their say. Even folks who may not be well-versed in the field should have a chance to say their piece.

So, whatever your interest or experience, I definitely suggest you take the time to complete the survey. This is the time to speak up!
http://www.physicalactivityguidelines.ca/home.html

Stay tuned for more developments.

Policy change- ensuring legacy

At the end of September I attended a meeting where organizations who received funding could share their successes. It was an interesting day- and I was able to hear a lot about some of the great work that is happening in our province.

One of the keys things I heard that day came from 3 of the funded projects. Two of these projects involved working with the schools and school district and another project was with the Edmonton Boys and Girls club. The school projects were working towards a comprehensive school health, while the Boys and Girls club was running an after school program that had healthy snacks and physical activity. It was neat to hear about their success and also how they often had similar difficulties. As with all funding projects, the money comes to an end. We often hear that an excellent program disappears once the money is gone, which often leaves us questioning what impact does this kind of funding have.

These groups all discussed the importance of planning for sustainability of the project. From the very beginning of the project they were planning for when the money was coming to an end.

When asked how they worked to ensure sustainability, all three projects discussed the importance of policy being involved.

A good example was with the Boys and Girls club and their Healthy for Life-Cool Moves project. This project ran a program where they encouraged healthy eating, participating in physical activity and empowered the kids to make changes in their life, their families and in their community.

After some initial struggle to get Cool Moves working, the Boys and Girls club decided that in order for this program to be successful organizational policies needed to change. They decided that healthy food and regular physical activity should be a PART of ALL their programs events and activities (regardless of funding). This became part of the policy of the club.

They also decided that how staff was trained needed to change. Now, all staff (regardless of the program or event they ran) received training regarding healthy food choices and providing physical activity opportunities.

By having these changes occur at the policy level- providing healthy food and physical activity became the norm- no the exception.

Now, as the funding for the project has drawn to a close, the Cool Moves program is still operating. Yah! Even if this particular program does struggle to live, it has left a legacy with the whole Boys and Girls Club. In its wake it has ensured that all current and future programs will only provide healthy food options and to include physical activity. And that is something to be very proud of.