Essay on Physical Activity in the US

As now day kids don’t get enough exercise the reason is from technology and their parent don’t have time. Which 90% of kid growing with technological distractions, including social networks, computer games, and cell phones. Therefore, the technology are getting in the way of physical activity. As physical education are improving life and social skills, boosting academic performance, healthy hobbies and encouraging a brighter future. In the meantime, if kids don’t do exercise or don’t get enough exercise will have mood swings, stress increase, lack of sleep, reduced school performance and increase risk of

There are many people who dislike working out or doing anything productive. I personally hate working out. I’m obviously overweight and still refuse to workout. I used to run around the park that’s close from my house; however, it was hard to no eat fast food. It’s unhealthy to eat and not do any physical activity. Keeping active can help people stay at a healthy weight or lose weight. According to a 2016 article in the Chicago Tribune, “Physical activity levels are declining not only in wealthy countries, such as the U.S., but also in low- and middle-income countries, such as China. And it’s clear that this decline in physical activity is a key contributor to the global obesity epidemic” (Wade). This clearly shows that the lack of not doing any physical activity contributes to obesity. Before there wasn’t a lot of cases of obesity, but now it seems to be unstoppable. People used to ride horses or walk to get to their destination, now most of America drive cars. Driving your car everywhere you go is not healthy because you are lacking physical activity and in doing so contributes to obesity. According to Wade, “About 40 percent of U.S. schoolchildren walked or rode their bikes to school in 1969; by 2001, only 13 percent did so.” This show the decline of physical activity. My aunt once told me that before she learned how to drive, she would walk it mostly everywhere. She didn’t have a car and the only

Today we have a much greater understanding than any time before on what if affecting our health that has led to an alarming rate of chronic conditions, including heart disease, obesity, asthma, depression, and diabetes. These are directly linked to poor diet, lack of exercise, and land-use patterns, including access to transportation, urban design, and housing characteristics that can make an impact on people’s ability to participate in physical activity. The land-use pattern that has plagued the United States and Florida since the end of World War II has been suburban sprawl that has led to auto-dependence, air pollution, and a much higher risk of respiratory disease. However, we have the ability to combat these tragedies by shaping

One thousand, four hundred forty–this is the number minutes everyone is given to spend as they so choose each day. Some may wonder how best to spend this time to not only fulfill God-given purposes but also to ensure a long healthy life that can be enjoyed with loved ones. Most people realize the importance of eating a well-balanced, nutritious diet and drinking plenty of water to be healthy. However, when it comes to exercise, opinions vary on what is best. Many doctors urge patients to simply walk more, however, an equivalent amount of time spent performing some form of resistance training versus walking may be the superior choice. Resistance (or strength) training improves a person’s overall health, enhances their quality of life, and can increase life expectancy.

Certain features of the built environment –such as the presence of sidewalks, streetlights, interconnectivity of street, population density and use mix – appear to encourage physical activity and thus reduce the risk of obesity and related health problems. Other factors – such as cul de sacs, lack of parks, high speed traffic and auto-mobile focused transportation – may function to discourage activity and ultimately increase obesity risk. (9)

The author Jeff Speck is city planner and an urban designer. He is trying to save Americans lives by trying to make the city more walkable since automobiles have now become a great danger to the Americans. This book is more concerned with cars and buildings in order to achieve the goal of a walkable city. People are the lifeblood of the city and not cars therefore, in order to pull off the feat of ushering America to the urban century, there is need to prove to people that walkability is important and also that their actions and decisions will help will to improve this aspect.

Regarding the BRFSS data and websites, I picked to view the data about Iowan’s exercise under the category of physical activity. The latest year they have data for is 2014. The way that BRFSS collects their data is a “telephone survey that provides ongoing data on major behavioral risk factors among American adults, with an emphasis on state-level surveillance. Currently data are collected monthly in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Palau, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam.”("Surveillance Systems | Physical Activity | CDC", 2016) BRFSS call people every month and record data from a certain survey they give.

Healthy People 2020 defines a built environment as the conditions “in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of life settings (e.g., school, church, workplace, and neighborhood)” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013, para. 5). The built environment plays a major role in physical activity and other obesity-related behaviors. According to Paxson, Donahue, Oreleans, and Grisso (2006), over the past forty years, the built environment has changed dramatically affecting healthy behaviors and outcomes such as poor diet, physical inactivity, obesity and the disproportionate burden of these health risks among certain subpopulations (Rossen & Pollack, 2012).

With technology taking over the world today, I feel like that has made the United States extremely lethargic and it has started to affect our little ones. When I was growing up I did not have the luxury of staying inside the house and watching television. I had to be active and always busy rather if I am home or not. Children have been spending more time indoors with some type of electronic within their possession and not engaging in any type of physical activity. It has affect the state of Georgia as well. With many of the children I see today that are overweight I see that it can be prevented by adding more physical activities or time to the classes.

Owning a car can be a burden on an owner; they are very expensive to purchase, and require additional money for insurance, gas, and maintenance for the vehicle. Furthermore, encouraging people to bike and walk to nearby destinations rather than drive there could help resolve America’s obesity epidemic. In What Is the Total Cost of Owning a Car, the author provides information relating to various, auxiliary car expenses that can add up to appalling amounts. She says, “For an average vehicle that’s driven 15,000 miles a year, all costs of ownership added up to $8,698 a year, according to AAA’s 2015 Your Driving Costs study. That’s about $725 a month” (Lee). This means that it costs drivers a yearly average of nearly $9,000 to own and operate a car, let alone purchase one. By restricting the use of cars, people could save these expenses and put that money towards travelling, a new home, or other luxuries. On top of expenses, driving cars promotes unhealthy habits and contributes to problems for overweight Americans. In Mapping the Link Between Obesity and Car Driving, the author describes the correlation between cars and obesity, and how bikes can help resolve the crisis. She writes, “It stands to reason that the less you bike or walk, the more you drive. And the more you drive, the less exercise you get from the aforementioned activities” (Schwartz). The author also provides maps that illustrate links between areas with high percentages of obese adults and high percentages of people who drive to work. These two pieces of evidence demonstrate how slowly incorporating bikes instead of cars (for short trips) into a person’s life can have incredible health benefits. By restricting cars, people would be encouraged to utilize these alternate, healthy forms of transportation and ultimately enhance their lives. Notwithstanding, some people feel banning cars would make long distance

For my health buster activity my group mates and I were asked to travel to three different stores with one being a supermarket to see how each store encourages impulse buying. Impulse buying has made millions of customers purchase items they feel they need at the moment, when in reality they really do not need it. We all have fallen victim to this method due to great marketing execution inside the stores. There are many strategies to get the customers interested into buying more then what they have too with each store visit. The store that I chose to do my topic over is Target. A fact that I researched about target is that the average time spent inside the store is 4 minutes. That may not seem like a long time but impulse buying can only take a few seconds to react on. I am now going to share the impulse buying strategies target had to offer on my visit.

Urban sprawl is a widespread concern that impacts land use, transportation, social and economic development, and most importantly our health. Poorly planned development is threatening our health, our environment and our quality of life. Sprawl is blamed for many things such as asthma and global warming, flooding and erosion, extinction of wildlife, and most importantly the public health such as social isolation and obesity due to people driving everywhere. Building offices, homes, shops, schools and other buildings influences the building of roads, transit and other transportation modes. This relationship that can lead to safe, walkable, diverse and lively communities or out of control, poorly planned

The readily accessible spaces to the community and the policies that shape them have a significant impact on how much physical activity we get into daily life, in the same manner that the lack of physical activity is a major contributor to high obesity rates. Impacto will analyse Hunt’s Point urban and social environment conditions and systems, looking into reinventing activity-friendly spaces and structures: parks, playgrounds, streets, buildings, and communities that encourage physical activity and neighbourhoods where people feel safe. Safety along the route, whether from traffic or strangers, is a key factor in whether children walk or bicycle to places (Carver,Timperio, Crawford, 2008).

Smart growth is choosing a better way for communities and cities to grow without hurting the environment. “For example, the recently emerged concept smart growth is inviting communities and metropolitan areas to address sprawl and purposely choose to develop in more environmentally sustainable ways. The concept recognizes that growth will occur and focuses on economic, environmental,

Physical Activity is undeniably good for everyone, not only does it keep you fit and healthy but when started at a young age, it can set up good habits for life. Sometimes however, people do not take care of their physical wellbeing, resulting in obesity and other eating disorders which can be detrimental to their health.