The younger generation has been found to be lacking exercise nowadays. Adults are already having problems with the cubicle setup in offices, but now the teens are experiencing the same level of sedentary lifestyle even before they reach adulthood, a recent sudy revealed.
According to the study published on Pediatrics, teens on average only spend 39.4 minutes of the entire day being active. Jordan A. Carlson, research assistant at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, said the teens are "one of the tougher groups to get active."
Other statistics show that only 10 percent of adolescents nowadays get 60 minutes of physical activity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends at least 60 minutes of physical exercise for teens every day.
"We knew that schools were a major source of physical activity for kids, but we were surprised that kids spent only 4.8 percent of their time at school physically active," Carlson said. He added that kids should have a natural instinct to move around and play. Unfortunately, schools are not providing ample support for student's physical activity.
The sedentary lifestyle has already provided negative impacts to students. The study also showed that because of the minimal physical activities, students' focus has declined in schools in the United States.
Public Health Researcher Penny Gordon-Larsen said physical activity is essential to teens because this provides a lot of health benefits including cognitive and psychosocial health benefits.
The study concluded that U.S. schools should give access for students' exercise since they are spending 46 percent of their waking hours in schools, according to Huffington Post.