I believe that too many Americans think of themselves as athletes. These days, we are inundated with sports. We see sports on TV. We hear sports on the radio. Our kids are in recreational sports. There are fantasy sports leagues. Sports sports sports. It's easy to live vicariously through these windows of sport.
Don't get me wrong. I love sports. And Americans should be more active for realz. I, too, was a competitive athlete. In fact, in my competitive days, they didn't have a Women's water polo team, so I played on the Men's water polo team. I also played competitive basketball. There were times when I was doing both, which meant that I was working out (team practice) a total of five to six hours a day. That's like 25 to 30 hours a week. That's like a part-time job.
So, I've provided some numbers to see if we can put this in prospective. Let's think about high school. If you have a high school that has 1000 students, it would be safe to say that 500 of those students are female. Now, a Women's Varsity Basketball team only has 15 spots (at maximum) to fill. That means that only 3% of the female students can be on the team. If you take a look at the graph of information below, you'll find the number of high school athletes reported by the National Federation of High Schools Association. Of the US population, there are approximately 197,112,674 adults. Now, those 7.6 million high school athletes do become adults. Those adults, who played competitive sports in high school are still only 3.86% of the their population category. The ratios are relatively the same.
Don't get me wrong. I love sports. And Americans should be more active for realz. I, too, was a competitive athlete. In fact, in my competitive days, they didn't have a Women's water polo team, so I played on the Men's water polo team. I also played competitive basketball. There were times when I was doing both, which meant that I was working out (team practice) a total of five to six hours a day. That's like 25 to 30 hours a week. That's like a part-time job.
So, I've provided some numbers to see if we can put this in prospective. Let's think about high school. If you have a high school that has 1000 students, it would be safe to say that 500 of those students are female. Now, a Women's Varsity Basketball team only has 15 spots (at maximum) to fill. That means that only 3% of the female students can be on the team. If you take a look at the graph of information below, you'll find the number of high school athletes reported by the National Federation of High Schools Association. Of the US population, there are approximately 197,112,674 adults. Now, those 7.6 million high school athletes do become adults. Those adults, who played competitive sports in high school are still only 3.86% of the their population category. The ratios are relatively the same.
In my professional opinion, we still need more avenues for increasing physical activity in children (5 to 17 years of age). If kids don't get the chance to experience sports, in an organized and disciplined fashion (this means to learn proper conditioning, proper movement/sport skills, and proper form and execution of such skills), then they may not stay or become physically active as adults. Yes, I still workout, but not like those crazy days of high school. I teach a fusion class of stretching, pilates (or some other form of conditioning exercises), yoga and gymnastics; this is my own program, which I'v developed, KinastexTM . I workout with my classes, so it's easy to get in 4.25 hours of exercise a week. Additionally, I walk a few times a week and do my own workouts for another 3 to 4 hours of exercise a week. Total, give or take, 6 to 8 hours a week. When the weather gets good, I'll add tennis to my workout week.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do a lot of number crunching. Here's what they have found.
By the way, going by exact numbers here the 80% number should be 79.4%. It was just easier to round and say 20/80. Sorry if this offended anyone.
Here's another interesting number. If I assume my ratios and estimations are correct, then we can safely say that by deducting the 3.86% of adults, who were once athletes and still continue to workout as I do, from the 20.6% of those the CDC says gets proper exercise (both aerobic and anaerobic), then we end up with 16.74% and 83.26%. A lot less people (regular joes who didn't participate in organized competitive sports in high school) who get proper exercise. Here are a few more interesting numbers. 28.5% of our adult population (25 years and older) have a Bachelor's degree or higher. The breakdown is kinda like this: 20% with BA or BS, 7% with MA or MS, 1.5% with PhD.
Now, these numbers are not exact, but I do find it interesting that there is a smaller percentage of people who exercise for their health and a smaller percentage (very similar) of people who are well educated. And that the larger percentage of people not well educated is similar to the larger percentage of people who don't exercise for good health.
I do believe that education is the key to getting people moving and being physically active for their own health and wellness. This would be a great preventative measure. But it needs to come from some other venue and not in the primary and secondary school system, which is already over burdened as it is.
If you would like further information on the CDC guideline, click on the link below.
Now, these numbers are not exact, but I do find it interesting that there is a smaller percentage of people who exercise for their health and a smaller percentage (very similar) of people who are well educated. And that the larger percentage of people not well educated is similar to the larger percentage of people who don't exercise for good health.
I do believe that education is the key to getting people moving and being physically active for their own health and wellness. This would be a great preventative measure. But it needs to come from some other venue and not in the primary and secondary school system, which is already over burdened as it is.
If you would like further information on the CDC guideline, click on the link below.
To find out more about the guidelines for physical activity click on the CDC logo.
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