WHY RUN?
THE BENEFITS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Exercising 60 minutes a day can help:
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Maintain a healthy weight
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Build strong bones, muscles, and joints
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Put children on the path to a healthier lifestyle, making them become active adults
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Control weight
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Reduce fat
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Maintain healthy heart and lungs
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Build overall strength and endurance
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Improve sleep
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Decrease potential of becoming depressed
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Increase energy
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Increase chances of living longer
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Increase confidence and self-esteem
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Improve test scores, grades, and time management skills
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Boost concentration, memory and classroom behavior
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Strengthened social and cooperative skills, such as teamwork and problem solving
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Reduced anxiety and stress
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & OBESITY
Physical activity, along with proper nutrition, is beneficial to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. And it is important that everyone gets active: over the last 20 years, there’s been a significant increase in obesity in the United States. About one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese and approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents (aged 2-19 years) are obese.
The health implications of obesity in America are startling:
If things remain as they are today, one-third of all children born in the year 2000 or later may suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives, while many others are likely to face chronic health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and asthma.
Studies indicate that overweight youth may never achieve a healthy weight, and up to 70% of obese teens may become obese adults.
Even more worrisome, the cumulative effect could be that children born in the year 2000 or later may not outlive their parents.
Obesity has personal financial and national economic implications as well. Those who are obese have medical costs that are $1,429 more than those of normal weight on average (roughly 42% higher). And annual national direct costs of childhood obesity are $14.3 billion.
THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ON YOUR HEALTH
Regular physical activity can produce long-term health benefits. It can help prevent:
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Heart disease, cancer, and stroke (the three leading health-related causes of death)
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High blood pressure
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High cholesterol
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Stroke
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Type 2 diabetes
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Heart disease
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Cancer
