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.
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