Get Your Kids to Be More Active
Mia Hamm, United States Olympic gold medalist and World Cup soccer star; Jennie Finch, United States Olympic gold medalist and Chicago Bandits softball star; and Vince Carter, United States Olympic gold medalist, NBA All-Star, and New Jersey Nets basketball star, are encouraging kids across the country to run, jump, skip, bike, and dance their way to the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity each day.
As Obtain 60 national champions, these famous athletes are challenging five million children to get the daily amount of physical activity suggested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new MyPyramid for Kids. Get 60, a collaboration between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and The Gatorade Company, is aimed at identifying effective ways to encourage children to be more active and decrease childhood obesity.
“There is no more vital message that athletes can convey to children today than to get up, be active, and enjoy what they are doing.”
“As a former University of North Carolina student-athlete, I support Get 60 because I am as enthusiastic about encouraging kids to be active as I am about winning on the soccer field.”
Mia Hamm
How To Get Your Kids to Be More Active
Obtain Kids in Action suggests the following suggestions for parents to assist their family live a healthy, active lifestyle and encourage their children to get 60 minutes of physical exercise each day:
• Encourage your kid to participate in a new activity, such as dance, karate, or a team sport.
• Give your kid active toys and games.
• Make time for vigorous play with friends, particularly time spent outside.
• Plan active family weekends when everyone can hike, cycle, or swim together.
• Get your kids involved in active home tasks.
• Walk or bike to and from school with your kid.
• Set weekly physical activity and dietary objectives for the whole family.
• Limit television, video games, and other screen time to no more than two hours each day.
Success that has been shown
For six weeks, student-athletes from colleges around the nation will work directly with youngsters to help them discover things that they will be excellent at and like.
The student-athletes will lead the children in a weekly physical activity session and assist them in logging their physical activity on an Activity Tracker in order to track and acknowledge their development.
Get 60 has been shown effective in pilot trials. After six weeks of UNC student-athlete visits, 82 percent of youngsters reported getting 60 minutes of physical exercise each day, a substantial increase from 14 percent at the start.
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