PF Episode 28: We’re Healthy…But What About Our Kids?

Alex: Welcome to Practically Fit, Real Fitness Over 40. I'm Alex Johnson. And guess what — no Jen Chamberlain this week. Jen's off attending her sister's wedding, so I thought I'd kick it OG style. I had a podcast many years ago where I did a lot of solo content, so I'm doing that today. I want to talk about a topic that's important to me: kids' health and fitness. Today I'm going to talk about the potential negative impacts of screen time on kids' physical health, and share a few practical tips to help your kids get active this summer.

I want to start by saying I recognize that some of our listeners may not have children, and if you don't, that's okay. But many of us over 40 do have kids, and even if you don't, maybe you're an aunt or an uncle, or close with a friend's kids — so even without kids of your own, you might still have a stake in this. I really want to invite everyone to listen to this episode, because I think it's an important issue in our society right now: kids and their physical health.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and for many parents, I think this is something that's top of mind this time of year, specifically in the United States, as we head into summer break — that long, three-month stretch kids get off from school here. Kids naturally have this built-in activity when they're in school: many schools still have PE classes, though alarmingly, a lot of schools have been cutting those back. Many kids do sports too. But even just the act of going to school — walking to school, walking around the building — gets kids in steps. In the summer, for a lot of kids, that activity really gets curtailed.

For me, I have a 10-year-old son, and my wife has two kids, ages 12 and 14. We really do our best to be active with our kids, but between work, life, and trying to fit in our own exercise — which is obviously a different intensity level than the activities we do with the kids — we're not always successful at it. I know a lot of parents, aunts, uncles, and others are in the same boat.

Then there's the piece that's been added to our society more recently: electronic devices. For those of us who are Gen X or boomers — even though we've adapted to smartphones and tablets, and can be just as addicted to them as our kids in some cases — it's still hard to wrap your head around how much things have changed for kids. Many kids are glued to screens, and the age at which this starts, especially in households with more economic means, seems to be getting younger and younger. I think a lot of us joke around about "back in my day, we went outside and played, we explored, we went to the woods" — but we really did. I remember being a kid, going down to the creek in my neighborhood, poking around with other kids, finding trails in the woods, riding my bike way outside the neighborhood — my parents never knew how far I actually rode when I was 12. We did all of that. Sure, I had a Nintendo too, but I loved getting outside, exploring, climbing trees — the things we did in the late '80s and early '90s. That's changed a lot these days.

The Science: Sedentary Time and Kids' Hearts

Recently I came across an article that really got me thinking further about kids and their physical health. It's from a digital outlet called Fatherly, titled "Sedentary Time for Kids Can Do Damage to Kids' Hearts." The article references a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports — one of those long-term studies we've talked about before on the podcast, which are always fascinating. It enrolled participants back in 1991 and '92, at age seven, and then checked in with them at various points in their lives.

What's so striking to me about this study is that these kids were enrolled around the same age I was at the time — and they were born well before the smartphone age. So when we talk about our kids being sedentary now, keep in mind this study predates smartphones and tablets entirely. I want to quote it directly, because it focuses specifically on the impact sedentary time can have on kids' hearts. Quote: "The team found that kids who engaged in more sedentary time had larger left cardiac ventricles than those who engaged in either light activity or moderate to vigorous activity. Increased sedentary time was associated with a threefold increase in left ventricle size and a decrease in the ventricle's ability to pump blood efficiently. Interestingly, increases in size and decreases in function were also seen in those who engaged in more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, but not to the same extent as those who were more sedentary. Those who engaged in more light physical activity showed no marked changes in either structure or function of the left ventricle."

Some pretty specific findings there, tying levels of physical activity in kids to real heart structure and function. The study goes on: quote, "The results are important because left ventricular changes in adults have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death from cardiac events, and suggest that movement can reduce the risk of these harms." And again, the kids who got light physical activity showed no marked changes to that left ventricle at all — even compared to kids doing vigorous activity, who still showed some impact. So what we're really talking about here is the importance of kids getting some light physical activity on a regular basis, for their heart health specifically. It blows my mind that this is all from a study that predates the smartphone era entirely.

And beyond the cardiovascular angle in this particular study, if you look at the broader research, a sedentary lifestyle in children has also been linked to things like obesity and diabetes — not to mention the mental health effects. It all highlights the dangers of a sedentary childhood.

How Much Screen Time Are Kids Actually Getting?

That gets me thinking: how sedentary are our kids today? Or, to put it more directly for those of us who are parents witnessing this firsthand — how much time is this generation of kids spending looking at screens every day? There are a lot of different measures out there, but I pulled one from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. According to them, kids ages 8 to 12 in the U.S. average four to six hours of screen time a day. And it gets worse as kids get older — teens spend up to nine hours a day on screens. That's a lot of time, though it may not surprise those of us who are parents; it didn't surprise me much, based on my own observations of kids these days.

The other piece that comes with electronic devices, of course, is mental health — and that's not what I'm focused on today, since the impact of screen time and social media on mental health has already been widely covered, including a lot of media coverage around internal documents from certain social media companies. That's a whole different subject, and one I'm sure many of you have your own stories about. Today I just want to focus on the lack of physical activity. If kids are spending this much time on devices daily, and are thus sedentary — maybe even more sedentary than the kids enrolled in that 1992 study — it's worth paying attention to. Granted, we had TV and video games back then too, but my own observation, with no data to back it up beyond just being a parent, is that kids seem more sedentary now than they were in the early '90s.

Getting Kids Active: Practical Tips

So as parents, and as those of us who support kids in other ways — relatives, friends — we've got to take action. How do we get our kids out and active? I want to share some tips from what I've learned interacting with both my son and my stepkids. Some of these are pretty obvious, and some are a bit more creative. I'm sure our listeners have their own stories and ideas too, so if you do, head on over to practically.fit and share them.

Just get moving. It seems obvious, right? It goes back to what we've talked about before with Brandon LaForce and what he advises — we talk a lot on this podcast about walking as a baseline form of exercise, and the positive impact it can have on your physical and mental health. Think about how many steps you get as an adult on a day you go into work or out on the town, versus a day you don't. That's exactly the dynamic at play during summer break — kids' step counts are likely way down, so this is the time of year in the U.S. to really focus on getting them moving. If you have family pets, walking the dog is a great way to do it — a lot of kids really enjoy walking the dog with their parents. If you have a cat, well, I don't walk my cat, we only walk the dogs — but if you're into walking a cat, no judgment, go for it. I'm honestly not sure you could walk a ferret. I was watching Kindergarten Cop with my son last night, so that's just where my head went.

Take them exploring. I think this one especially works with younger kids — teenagers will scoff at it. My son is 10, and recently I got him out on a walk down some trails near our house. I'd found this area back in the woods along a creek that was really cool — there used to be a cement bridge across it that had collapsed, and kids had tagged it with some artwork over the years. It felt like a genuinely isolated, cool spot way back in the woods. I remember exploring places like that as a kid myself, hiking around and feeling like I was completely away from everything — it really plays into that sense of adventure. If you have younger kids, get them out exploring; I think they'll really love it.

Park far away. All joking aside, this is a good trick — if you're out on a family outing, whether it's a state park or a big shopping development in the city, just park far away from where you're going. It's an easy way to sneak in extra steps.

On the exploring note — sometimes your kids just don't want to get moving, and that happened to be the case one night with my son. But here's something I've noticed: even when kids are resistant or complain about an activity at first, even something as simple as a walk, they almost always end up having fun. They end up in a great conversation, genuinely enjoying being outside. It's become a running joke in our house, because my son often complains about being made to go for a walk — and there's usually a pretty clear correlation between his complaining and whatever video game he just got pulled off of. But that night we went exploring, once he was actually out there, he turned around and said, "That was so much fun — I'm sorry, Dad, why did I make such a big deal out of this?" So, getting the kids moving, even against initial resistance, is one strategy worth trying.

Use technology to your advantage. Get the kids a smartwatch — maybe a step-counter app will motivate them. Kids are tech-savvy these days; it honestly blows me away how much so. I used to think I was tech-savvy growing up because I knew how to operate a computer, but these kids are giving us a run for our money. A smartwatch and its app can be the kind of thing that motivates them just by giving them something to track. Another thing I've done is turn a workout into a video — it helps that I run a Practically Fit TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and so on. Granted, based on how I understand teens use Snapchat, they may not exactly want to post a workout video with their parents on there. But my son has done runs and push-up contests with me specifically because I said, "hey, let's turn this into a video" — he's even got his own little YouTube channel now. If you have a creative kid who's into social media, this is another way to use technology to your advantage.

Start slow. I think this one is really important, and it ties back to what I mentioned in the intro. Some of the difficulty in getting your kid out and active comes from trying to fit in your own workout at the same time — your intensity level as a grown adult is going to be very different from a younger kid's, or even a teen's, especially one who's been sedentary. They're not going to be able to go out and immediately run three miles or bike 20 miles with you. This week, I took my son and stepson out for a run — we only ran half a mile. My son hadn't been running much lately, and neither had my stepson; my son had been playing soccer in the spring, and once that season ended he lost a bit of fitness. So it was fine — we went out, ran half a mile, and stopped four times along the way to catch our breath. But it was a starting place, and now he wants to run again with me. During soccer season he'd built up to running a full mile without stopping, so we know he can get back there — we're just starting slowly again and taking plenty of rest breaks. You really want to start slow with kids, because — obvious as it sounds — they can't match your intensity, whether it's running pace or strength. Work with them at their own starting point, and be genuinely positive about it: let them know it's okay that they're not as strong or as fast as you yet.

Try a new sport or activity. There are all kinds of fun activities beyond your typical workout. Tennis is a great one. Pickleball — the whole country's going crazy for pickleball right now, it's the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. I haven't played it myself, but it looks fun, active, and like something kids would enjoy. On a recent family vacation, we went canoeing — ended up paddling about three miles through mangroves, saw all kinds of wildlife, gorgeous trees, something completely different from our usual routine, and it was a genuinely fun time for everyone. It was exercise, but it didn't feel like "exercise." Even sticking with more typical workouts, strength training can feel new and exciting to younger kids, especially teens — we've been doing that in our household, and both boys have gotten really into it, building up gradually. Something new that they haven't tried before can be a great way to pull them into being more active.

Use their competitive streak. We talked about using technology and apps, but if your kid is competitive, lean into that too. I think younger kids especially want to prove they can do something — it plays into that classic kid mindset where they think they already know better than you about everything. Any of us who are parents know that one well. If your kid is competitive, you can use that as a motivator: turn a run into a "race," challenge them to see how many push-ups they can do, that sort of thing. A smartwatch or app can feed into this too, letting them get competitive with their own metrics over time. That said, the worst thing you can do is force a competitive mindset onto a kid who isn't wired that way — so use this one only if your kid is actually into it.

Wrap-Up

So those are some of my ideas for getting kids active. I'd love to hear yours — head on over to practically.fit and share your comments, or email me directly at alex@practically.fit. This is a big issue. Kids are genuinely quite sedentary these days given the amount of screen time involved, and I think it's something we need to start addressing as a society. It's an important issue, so let's get out there and get our kids active.

That's it for this week's edition of the podcast — hope you enjoyed the solo episode, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. One more plug: subscribe over at practically.fit for great weekly content in your inbox. This week I wrote about energy drinks — you can read my hot takes on those, some of the recent media coverage around them, and honestly how bad they are for you, and for your kids — which makes this the second kid-related topic I've covered this week. That's it for this time. Jen and I will be back together next episode, and we're excited about lining up some new interviewees on the podcast that we'll be sharing with you soon. But until next time — I'll do Jen's part for her — remember, fitness is for everybody.