I want to use this blog to say hi. It’s the first on behalf of Fish Bladder Games, so thank you for reading it. I’d like to use these blogs to share more about what we do at Fish Bladder Games (improve levels of physical activity amongst children), so we can give an insight into our company philosophy and what we’re about.
In this one I’d like to explain a little more about physical activity. This area of health is a focus for what we do at Fish Bladder Games, so I wanted to talk more about it, starting with some definitions.
Physical activity1 (as defined by the World Health Organisation) is ‘any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure – including activities undertaken while working, playing, carrying out household chores, travelling, and engaging in recreational pursuits.’
You all probably recognise this as making sense. What I want to do here is to highlight that physical activity is a broad term including activities as described above. What this definition doesn’t refer to here is what we might think physical activity is all about. I’m of course talking about fitness and exercise.
Physical fitness(1) is a set of attributes, 5 actually, that are either health- or skill-related. The degree to which people have these attributes can be measured with specific tests. So, the reach test, jump height test and/or speed tests you might remember from school.
Exercise(2) is a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness, like doing a workout at the gym or attending a class online where you follow a routine. This would be classed as the method used to reach fitness goals.
What I’m aiming to do here is to explain that fitness and exercise form a part of the whole picture, but do not form the only part of what being physically active is about. I’m working in terms of their definition here and not in terms of how we’re asked to understand them through messaging and marketing. And I spent 10 years in the fitness industry, so I know how this goes.
Effectively, what I’m pointing out here is, remaining physically active doesn’t just mean hitting the gym for an hour per day or boxing (no pun intended) your activity into 60-minute workouts. Being physically active is about moving more and being less sedentary throughout the day.
For example – if your job requires lots of computer work, schedule in time where you’re not sitting still, like on phone calls. Walk and talk as opposed to sitting and talking. Or to be relevant, if you’re on a team meet online, take it standing. Is great to be thinking about how you can move more and knitting this into your day.
Clearly, and by definition, if you’re working towards a fitness goal (running a 5K, doing a crow in yoga or climbing a rope) then dedicating time to achieve these is important, but if you want to feel good and be healthy then be sure your moving time each day is equivalent to your sitting still time. And yes, doing chores, walking the dog tidying out the garage count as moving.
We’re on a mission to help more children be more physically active. We’d love for children to grow up with physical activity being a habitual part of their lives and not see activity as something they keep an hour a side for when they can be bothered. Building a computer game that allows children to play as opposed to workout is our way of establishing a friendly relationship between children and physical activity. A place where all children have fun and feel comfortable being active. And that’s what we are going to do!
If you’d like to hear more about what I’m aiming to achieve and like the sounds of using computer games to inspire children be more physically active, then please get in touch to say hi – especially if you’d like to come on board. Building a team of like minded people is how I plan to get the best results for young people.
Jon Reynolds
Source:
1 – https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity