How Often Should a Student Exercise in a Day?

Getting your child up and moving can be difficult, especially if he wants to spend all his time outside the classroom playing video games or watching cartoons. Incorporating regular exercise into your child's daily routine helps control his weight and strengthens his muscles and bones while reducing his risk of heart disease and diabetes, according to the Kids Health website. Understanding kids' exercise guidelines helps you teach your student to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Recommendations

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that children and teens get at least one hour of exercise each day. This should be a combination of aerobic activity, strength training and bone strengthening exercises. Your student doesn't have to do the whole hour at one time either. Several 10-to-15-minute sessions throughout the day work just as well. For example, a 15-minute morning walk, a half an hour of basketball at lunch recess and 15 minutes of jump rope or bike riding after school adds up to enough.

Intensity

• To get the most out of her exercise routine, your child should stay at a moderate to vigorous pace during her workouts. At this pace, she'll be slightly winded, but still able to carry on a conversation. On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of intensity, moderate exercise rates a 5 or 6, while vigorous exercise rates a 7 or 8, according to the CDC. If your child's heart rate is up and she's sweating, she's probably at an intensity that reaps the many rewards of exercise. This is true of any exercise session, whether it's 10 minutes at a time or if she does an entire hour at one time.

Bone and Muscle Exercise

• It's important for your child to include exercises that work her bones and muscles in her weekly routine. This helps keep them strong and healthy, but also aids in proper growth and development. Your child should engage in these types of activities three days per week, rather than every day. Each session should be 20 to 30 minutes, with a day of rest between, which gives her muscles times to repair and recover. This counts toward the daily one-hour recommendations, notes the CDC. For example, if your child lifts weights for 30 minutes, she's covered half her daily exercise recommendations.

Age-Appropriate Choices

• Finding activities that your child enjoys is one of the best ways to ensure that he sticks with it. It's also important to find ones that are appropriate for his age and abilities. The gym classes your child participates in and even the time he spends at recess climbing the playground or playing four square count, but might not add up to one hour. Sign your child up for sports at school and chances are that between practice and games he’ll reach the suggested amount of exercise in no time. Biking, swimming and walking are easy ways to help him get the recommended amount of exercise and are activities you can enjoy as a family if he doesn't care for team sports.