The Benefits of Exercise for Young People
Exercise and physical activity play a huge role in the development of young people. Whether it is encouraging healthy physical and mental development or reducing health risks, exercise should form a key part of a young person’s daily schedule. The NHS recommends children aged 5-18 should aim for averaging an hour of moderate or vigorous activity per day across the week.
Physical Health and Fitness
The primary benefit of exercise is often a much better overall fitness. Physical fitness will improve cardiovascular health, stamina and stimulate muscular development. Importantly, research indicates that starting from a young age will help cement healthy habits that follow us in to later life as our body composition changes.
People who enjoy exercising themselves can undertake activities like running, cycling, swimming or home-based fitness routines. However, additional benefits to social skills and mental wellbeing can be gained through the encouragement of team sports. Doing something we enjoy, whether that is football, rugby, netball or something more exotic like lacrosse or korfball, keeps us engaged and consistent with our exercise. Consistency helps forms habits which then keeps us engaged with our exercise.
Muscle Development and Strength
Resistance training can be performed from a young age, helping to build muscle mass and increase bone density as they grow. However, resistance training should be approached with caution for young children. Safety is important and exercises should only be undertaken if it is suitable for their age and experience. Children can start with bodyweight exercise like squats, lunges, press ups or core exercises. Use light weights or low resistance bands to learn proper technique and reduce the risk of injury. For those young people wanting to start going to the gym, staff there will be qualified on training them to use weights and equipment correctly.
Outside of the gym and resistance based activities, young people can develop their strength through sports such as gymnastics, martial arts and team sports like football or rugby.
During the adolescent years, when bone growth is at a high, impact exercise like running, jumping and sports can help develop strong bones and health joints. This is an often overlooked part of fitness but it helps reduce the formation of conditions later in life relating to our bones.
Weight Management
Regular exercise burns lots of calories and has a positive effect on the metabolism. Again, this is important from a young age as it can help control weight management and reduce the chances of becoming obese. It also stops young people being inactive, which is becoming a growing concern with our young people as well as adults. Societal change has left us more sedentary and this can increase our chances of getting life-threatening conditions in later life, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Sleep and Cognitive Function
Quality sleep is important for children as the body recovers from exercise and everyday activities as they sleep. Young people are developing physically and mentally so sleep and rest is a vital part of encouraging healthy development. Furthermore, exercise can help regulate the sleep cycle, which can reduce sleep disorders and lower stress in the body This gives an additional benefit of improving the function of the brain enhancing concentration, memory, learning capabilities and coping power. This helps them perform better at school but also in their personal life too.
Mental Health Benefits
Not only is exercise great for physical health, it also lowers stress and anxiety which contributes to good mental health. Research shows that activity involving more concentration can provide young people with a focus and mental escape from everyday life which can enhance their mood and produce endorphins, which are our feel-good hormones.
Body image is so important for young people. Regular exercise along with a balanced diet can help control weight management that will improve body confidence. We all know that growing up is a stressful experience but a fitter, stronger and more confident child will be able to cope with these challenges better.
My Story
From a young age, I struggled with my body confidence as many young males do. I wasn’t naturally talented at sports; I was ok at football but struggled to keep up with most, especially regarding strength and athleticism.
When I was 15, I went to a gym with an older friend who showed me how to lift weights from a bodybuilding aspect. This was the day I fell in love with the gym!
For my 16th birthday, my parents bought me a weight bench, dumbbells, and barbells. I trained weekly at home, sometimes with friends, but found I always got much more done on my own – it was an escape from reality and gave me a clear focus to invest in myself.
I started road running at 19 and continued with weight training and found this gave me a way to control my weight management whilst improving my body composition.
At 21, I discovered boxing training and fell in love with the sport. I competed at amateur level, and I have coached white collar boxing as well as teaching it to many of my 1-1 clients of all ages during the past 20 years as a Personal Trainer. Boxing training or any martial arts are great for young males as it teaches them discipline, resilience and how to control aggression.
Learning never stops with sports or martial arts. This is why it’s so good for brain development, especially in younger males.
Overall, exercise has helped me throughout my life as a young male going into adulthood and I still do it most days to date. It helps me manage my stress levels, my mental health and I believe everyone will benefit from becoming fitter and healthier, no matter how much or how little exercise they do. After all exercising, especially team sports, or just working out with friends is important for young people as it has huge social benefits which is an important part of growing up.
SAS Resources
Download and read our handy interactive guide, SAS Gym Resource – Strength training for teenagers
NHS Guidelines: To ensure your child is exercising safely, follow NHS activity guidelines.
SAS GYM and Ask The PT: Access fitness and nutrition support to incorporate positive lifestyle habits for your whole family.
Pupil Yoga: SAS customers can access free guided video sessions, in partnership with Yoga in Schools. These sessions are a great way to introduce exercise and fitness to a young adult, to support their health and wellbeing.
Gareth Tattum
Personal Trainer, SAS GYM