Canadian Sedentary Guidelines for Children and Youth-helping us to work across the “movement spectrum”

We know that most of our waking day is primarily sedentary activities. We also know that too much sedentary time has negative consequences on our health. In fact I have blogged about sedentary behaviour before… and the importance of trying to limit our sedentary time or activities.

Well, the good folks at CSEP were able to review current research connecting the health of children and youth to sedentary behaviours.
From this review they were able to provide the Canadian Sedentary Guidelines for Children and Youth. I encourage you to check them out.

So how do the Sedentary Guidelines differ from the Physical Activity Guidelines? What does this mean to us, as practitioners?

Both guidelines want children and youth to be more active. However, each guideline is addressing a different behaviour. The best explanation I have heard, is that by having both guidelines allows us to promote and encourage behaviour change along the “movement spectrum”.

The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines address increasing physical activity behaviours in order to see health benefits. They provide recommendations regarding how often, how long and how intense children and youth should be physically active. These guidelines look at adding a positive behaviour.

The Sedentary Guidelines however, are looking at the other end of the “movement spectrum” (inactivity). They provide recommendations on limiting sedentary behaviours, such as watching TV, video games, driving to school. They indicate that sedentary behaviours not only need to be limited but also replaced with more movement orientated activities, such as active play with family and friends and walking or cycling to school. These guidelines look at limiting a negative behaviour.

In a perfect world both guidelines should be met. But in the practical world, you and I know that it may not always be that easy.

So what does this mean for us as practitioners? Well, I would consider the Sedentary Guidelines as another tool in your tool box. There may be times when trying to “add” in more physical activity is not necessarily helpful in creating change. What may be more appropriate is to focus on the behaviours we want to reduce (sedentary activities).

For example:
Perhaps you are working directly with kids who are not physically active. It may be difficult for them to meet the physical activity guidelines, and it may be hard for you to get them excited about being more active. If this is the case, you could take a different approach and use the Sedentary Guidelines as your goal.

Or, perhaps you are working with a youth program and the leaders who run it, where sports and fitness are not a key component (such as computer, music, arts and crafts etc). Instead of trying to push physical activity on a program which may not want to incorporate it, you could advocate the program to limit sedentary time as much as possible. Such as, limiting how long the students spend sitting.

I can think of many more examples where the Sedentary Guidelines may be more appropriate, but I would rather hear your ideas. When do you focus on limiting sedentary behaviour?

The bottom line, the Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Guidelines allow you to alter your approach to best suit the needs of the people you are trying to reach.