Strollerderby : physical activity

Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

New research has found that women of all ages are less active than men. Observing schoolchildren at play, researchers have concluded that girls would rather socialize than play sports.

While I don't doubt the study’s findings that men are more physically active than women, I have some reservations about the explanation that girls simply like to sit around chatting, while boys like to run around and get dirty.

Until I graduated high school, I considered myself the least athletic person I knew. It was a big joke among my friends that any activity requiring physical exertion was off bounds for me. But once I realized that being active did not have to mean doing Indian sprints at Varsity field hockey practice, I became very athletic. I now bike everywhere, do yoga, dance, hike, surf, and run.

I certainly didn’t shun sports because I “prefer to chat.” But a casual observer could easily have drawn this conclusion from watching me on the sidelines during gym class, laughing with a girlfriend instead of trying to get in on the athletic action. The truth is, I was too intimidated to participate in traditional team sports, since I seem to have inherited a gene which makes me physically incapable of throwing and catching a ball. Even the sports that I did enjoy—gymnastics and track—were unappealing to me because I had no interest in competing. I just wanted to move around and have fun.

Perhaps it’s not girls’ natural inclinations that make them less active than their male counterparts, but rather the way sports are taught in school.

Photo: The Telegraph

Exercise During Adolescence Decreases Breast Cancer Risk

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Researchers have long advised middle-aged women that regular exercise decreases the risk of breast cancer. But now they’ve discovered that being active beginning at age 12 substantially affects breast cancer risk as well. In a survey of 65,000 women aged 24 to 42, those who had regularly exercised as teens and young adults decreases had a 23 percent lower chance of getting pre-menopausal breast cancer than those who'd been inactive.

This is sad news if, like me, your idea of exercise in high school was to walk to 7/11 and buy a loaf of Wonder Bread and a jar of marshmallow Fluff. (And that, folks, is the result of having strict health nuts for parents. Be forewarned.)

If you have daughters between the ages of 12 and 22—the years when regular activity has the greatest affect on pre-menopausal breast cancer risk—you don’t have to go hire them a personal trainer: just encourage them to do at least three hours and 15 minutes of vigorous activity a week, or 13 hours of walking (well, I did go to 7/11 quite a lot). While older women are encouraged to exercise to reduce fat tissue, a main producer of estrogen, the theory behind the benefits of youthful exercise is that physical activity itself lowers estrogen levels. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that once I got seriously into yoga, my boyfriend became much less irritating.

Photo: www.more4kids.info

Weekly Check-Up: Wii Fit Gets Pumped

Kelly Mills — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:31:00 GMT

In case you haven't heard, Wii Fit is going to be released next month, and it's already a huge hit in Japan, according to CNN. Is it going to replace the exercise video and save our children from obesity? Well, it's being touted as the next big thing in part because it has a sensor-riddled balance board that tracks and analyzes your movements. It will assess your fitness using your Body Mass Index (BMI--a measure I despise, BTW) and then it will run you through some drills to see how you do. After that, you can choose from a bunch of games focusing on strength training, aerobics, balance games and yoga. Wii Fit will also track your progress over time.

Now maybe it's just me, but that article sounds more like a press release than reporting. I have no idea if Wii Fit is any good, and as someone who actually likes playing video games, I imagine I'll find out, and who knows, I might love it. I know early versions of the boxing minus the balance board were kinda crappy, and not much like actual boxing. That might not matter if your goal is just doing some physical activity, but I'd rather go live and get actual skills on some things. I also wonder if the board is going to be enough to assess things like proper form, crucial for avoiding injury. However, if you do a workout video or crowded class, you probably aren't getting that instruction anyway, so that's nothing unique to the Wii. As with anything and everything fitness-y, if it helps you engage in consistent and regular physical activity, then it's probably gonna be a good thing for you.

Yo, Yoga For the Kiddies

Kelly Mills — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Have you heard? Kids these days (cue grandpa voice or concerned reporter voice, depending on your preference) are too sedentary, they plug into video games all day long, they are completely stressed out by all the pressures of school and overscheduling and the constant barrage of media reports saying kids are going to hell in a handbasket ahhhhh!!! Which makes this the perfect time for kids to become part of a trend that celebrities and gyms have been lauding for a while now: Yoga.

This article is on the phenomenal success of the YogaBugs program, and while I generally enjoy nothing better than teasing new trends, I do think yoga is totally great for kids. We had an awesome teacher at my kid's preschool (where I live, yoga is almost mandatory, like organic food and free expression and ugly yet comfortable sandal-shoes.) The children love making hissing noises as they do cobra pose, and barking like (downward) dogs. And it's a great way for kids to develop things like awareness of their bodies and the ability to regulate breathing and relaxation techniques. Sounds like it's doing pretty good business too.

Photo: Reuters/Kimberly White