Teach them young

Physical activity awareness has gone viral in the society over the past few years, to a level where it started as a trend developing to a lifestyle for most of the people, and active individuals became more competitive and curious to explore more about how far they can go with their body’s physical abilities.

As a physical therapist, I absolutely encourage this “trend” to be a habit rather than a temporary phase of our life, in fact I even educate my clients to teach their kids to move more and teach them different types of sports in order to pass this “trend” to the next generations at an early age in order to make it part of their lifestyle from their childhood until it becomes a culture.

“A healthy mind in a healthy body” this is what we have been told as kids. I strongly believe that the mind and the body are not separate. What affects one, affects the other.
Back in the days when we were in school, we had two P.E (Physical education) classes per week. Although it’s not enough and we were limited to football, but we were blessed to play in the streets and live our childhood as kids. Unlike the new generations, which I feel sorry for them honestly, who are limited to 2 basic P.E classes only, and instead are fascinated by their virtual world behind the computers and ipads. I don’t blame them as technology invaded our lives to make it easier in a way, but as they say “too much light can blind”.

For an example, in China beside the proper physical education in ordinary schools, kids who show minimal interest in academic education are allowed to pursue other passions such as sports. There are around 5000 sports schools in China and kids are encouraged to take up sports full time at a very young age. Also, these kids/athletes get the opportunity to get sponsored by funds when they reach a particular level at their own sport. Why? So they don’t have to work in a day job to be able to afford their living and focus solely on their athletic career and bring pride to their nation. As a result of this phenomena, China showed a significant improvement in the Olympics over 20 years. In 1988 summer Olympics in Seoul, China was 11th overall with 28 medals, 5 of them were gold. In 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China got the 1st place over all with 100 medals, 51 were gold. Which proves the importance of how turning it into a habit until it becomes a culture, it’s a long term investment. Proving my point of focusing on turning a habit to a culture is long term investment.

According to WHO (world health organization), physical in-activity is ranked as the 4th cause of death (5.5%) after high blood pressure (12.8%), tobacco use (8.7%), and high blood glucose (5.8%). imagine how important to us to move and be active, it’s not limited to become a better looking person only, it’s for our own health’s benefit present and future.

Move more often, movement is medicine.

Ahmed K.