Children and adolescents need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Include activities that make their hearts beat faster, build muscles (like climbing or doing push-ups), and strengthen bones (like running or jumping). A guide to activities that school-aged children and adolescents can do to meet the recommended activity levels is below. Encourage children to do any activity they enjoy, as long as the activities are safe and appropriate for your child’s age and skill level.

Many of these activities fall under 2 or 3 different categories. Children can do moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity on all days of the week. Children can do muscle- and bone-strengthening activity at least 3 days each week. Also, some activities, such as bicycling or basketball, can be done either at moderate- or vigorous-intensity, depending on your child’s level of effort.

The talk test is a simple way to measure relative intensity. In general, if children are doing moderate-intensity physical activity, they can talk but not sing during the activity. If children are doing vigorous-intensity physical activity, they will not be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.

Example of Physical Activities by Type and Age Group