Activities for children and young people should match their age, skill level and maturity

Children and young adults

Guidelines for children and young people (aged 2-18)

All children and young people should be active, at a moderate to vigorous level, for at least 60 minutes everyday. Include muscle-strengthening, flexibility and bone-strengthening exercises 3 times a week.

Moderate Activity	Vigorous activity
Increased breathing and heart rate, but still able to carry on a conversation. Warm or sweating slightly, comfortable pace.	Breathing heavily, cannot keep a conversation going, faster heart rate and sweating, concentrating hard.

Moderate to vigorous activity includes everything from sport, physical education (PE) and formal exercise to active play and other physically demanding activities such as dancing, swimming or skateboarding. It also includes everyday activities such as walking and cycling.

Activities for children and young people should match their age, skill level and maturity. Choose a variety of fun activities. Most activity should be moderate to vigorous aerobic. At least three times a week, include activities that promote muscle strengthening, flexibility and bone strengthening.

For children who are not active:

Start off slowly. Build up to an extra 15-30 minutes of moderate intensity activity 1-2 days a week.
Once you reach this, aim for 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week, for example progress from 30 minutes on 2-3 days a week, to 30 minutes on 3-4 days a week.
Become more active for longer; include some days with 60 minutes or more and choose more vigorous activity.
As you progress, you will get closer to the goal of 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

Give children and young people opportunities to be active every day during their normal family, school and community activities. This can include play, games, sports, work, recreation, PE, planned exercise or active travel such as cycling. For children and young people with disabilities, you will need to plan the facilities and programmes to make sure they cater for all ability levels. Increase physical activity by replacing sedentary time - watching TV, playing computer games, talking on the phone - with active time.

A child’s natural patterns of movement differ from those of adults. Children are active in an intermittent way, they alternate short periods of activity with short periods of rest. Even a few minutes of moderate or vigorous activity counts toward the guidelines. This pattern of activity changes as children grow. They develop the skills to play organised games and sports and are able to stay active for longer. Young people may meet the guidelines through play, structured programmes, or both.

Examples of activities for children and young people

Type of Activity	Children	Young people
Aerobic moderate intensity	Active recreation, such as hiking, skateboarding, roller-blading Bicycle riding Brisk walking PE class	Active recreation, such as canoeing, hiking, skateboarding, roller-blading Brisk walking Bicycle riding Housework and garden work, such as sweeping or pushing a lawn mower Games of catch and throw, such as olympic handball, frisbee and rounders PE class
Aerobic vigorous intensity	Active games involving running and chasing, such as tag Bicycle riding Jumping rope Martial arts, such as karate Running Sports such as gaelic football, hurling, soccer, rugby, basketball, swimming, tennis	Active games involving running and chasing Bicycle riding Jumping rope Martial arts such as karate Boxing Sports such as gaelic football, hurling, soccer, rugby, basketball, swimming, tennis Vigorous dancing
Muscle strengthening	Games such as tug-of-war Modified push-ups (with knees on the floor) Resistance exercises using body weight or resistance bands Rope climbing Sit-ups (curl-ups or crunches) Swinging on playground equipment or bars	Games such as tug-of-war Push-ups and pull-ups Resistance exercises with exercise bands, weight machines, hand-held weights Climbing walls Sit-ups (curl-ups or crunches)
Bone strengthening	Games such as hopscotch Hopping, skipping, jumping Jumping rope Running Sports such as gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, tennis	Hopping, skipping, jumping Jumping rope Running Climbing walls Sports such as gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, tennis

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