Physical activity from childhood, the pediatrician's proposal

Bike weekends, more public parks and fewer computers and cell phones. But above all more sports at school. “It is obvious that we must constantly increase movement and combat sedentary lifestyles and the excessive dependence of children and young people on electronic media. I continue to recommend frequenting public parks more. On Saturdays, families could go cycling rather than staying at home. They are small things that are easy to implement. However, I take the opportunity” offered by World Physical Activity Day, which is celebrated today, Saturday 6 April, “to shine the spotlight on an absolutely neglected sector and ask for greater implementation of 'physical activity in schools'. As? “Starting with the first hour of 'muscle awakening'.” It is the proposal of pediatrician Italo Farnetaniwhich reiterates the warning on the importance of guaranteeing very young Italians an active life from their early school years.

“It is true that there is an hour of motor education – highlights the expert to Adnkronos Salute – but especially in secondary schools, and in particular in high schools, it is practiced little and discontinuously. Not having the possibility of carrying out the shower after intense physical exercise”, nor in several cases the equipment, “the activity is also limited. My proposal is that, upon arrival at school, especially during the first hour of class when the body has not yet fully reached the normal learning rhythms – which happens after 10.30 – it would be good to concentrate physical education lessons. It would be an excellent muscle awakening and would allow physical activity to be practiced when the student is more rested“, ensuring mental activation as well.

The advantage, concludes the full professor of pediatrics at the Ludes University-United Campus of Malta, “is also educational because learning, especially that linked to short-term memory, begins after 10 am and in the first two hours, especially in the initial one, cognitive activity is not at its maximum. It would therefore be appropriate to concentrate motor education lessons here, instead of immediately having students do homework or explain lessons when the brain is still partially 'asleep'. It is therefore better to start – he concludes – with an awakening of the body and mind”.