In general, the more you move the greater the health benefits. While having a mix of different activities spread throughout the day is always the best way to maintain an active lifestyle, moderate to high intensity activities provide the most benefit.  These types of activities get your heart pumping, increase your breathing rate, and may make you sweat.  

The Canadian 24h Movement Guidelines recommend the following amounts of physical activity: 

Physical literacy is the development of movement skills, confidence, and motivation that enables people to be active across the lifespan. It is an important part of early child development and helps to promote healthy aging, independence, personal safety and overall quality of life in older adults. 

Learning to move well is as important as learning to read and write. Educators, recreation leaders, and parents can help children develop physical literacy by providing quality experiences in a wide variety of environments through active play in childhood, physical education, community recreation, and sport. 

Sedentary behaviour is the amount of time spent sitting or laying down during waking hours. Spending a lot of time being sedentary increases your health risks regardless of how active you are. Examples include time spent sitting for long periods in a motor vehicle, at a desk, or on the couch. Sedentary behaviour can be reduced by moving more and limiting recreational screen time spent in front of TV’s, computers, video games, or phone/tablets.   

To reduce your risk the 24h Movement Guidelines recommend the following:

Too much time spent on screens can affect your physical and mental health, including:  

• Sleep problems
• Lower grades in school
• Less time spent with friends and family
• Reduces time available for physical activity or time spent outdoors
• Poor self esteem
• Fear of missing out  

• Set limits on screen time. If your child is used to a certain amount of screen time each day, slowly cut it back over a few weeks.
• Create rules for screen time such as: 
  • No screen time at least 1 hour before bed to promote better sleep  
  • No screen time at mealtimes or before homework is finished  
  • Turn off screens when they are not being used, for example if the TV is on as background noise 
• When possible, watch with your child and talk about the content
• Learn how to use parental controls  
• When your children have friends over, limit the time spent on screens. After a set amount of time, redirect them to another activity like playing a game or playing outside.