How much exercise is safe for a child?

Is your child getting injured?

Do they spend more time recovery from injury than participating in their chosen sport?

It may be time to check how much exercise is safe for your child.

The current guidelines for children in sport between the ages of 5 and 17 years of age is as follows;

• Your child participates in no more than the number of hours of activity each week as per their age. For example, an 11 year old child is safe to participate in up to 11 hours of their chosen sport.
• Your child should engage in sport at a maximum of 5 days per week with at least 1 day off from organised physical activity.
• Young athletes should have at least 2-3 months off per year from their particular sport. This allows time to heal injuries, refresh the mind and work on strength and conditioning.

Lack of recovery and overtraining at a young age can have a big impact on physical development. Overtraining has been proven to stunt growth for some young athletes. It can also create stress on bone structures that may be permanent if not allowed enough time to recover from training.

To work out your child’s workload, add up the amount of exercise in their chosen sport that they do each week. Don’t include recreational games and activities that are not specific to their chosen sport. As an example: Sarah is 12 years old. She participates in gymnastics on Mon (2 hours), Tue (1.5 hours), Wed 2 hours), Fri (2 hours) and Sat (4 hours). She also plays netball for school sport and swims in the family pool on weekends. Sarah’s total sporting hours for gymnastics is 11.5 hours a week. At 12 years old, Sarah should be able to manage this load.

If the added up amount of sport your child does in a week exceeds their age and they are not physically managing, book an appointment to discover how they can better manage their sport workload.