Tag Archive for 'movimento'

Sedentary lifestyle and urban traffic

Speaking of being sedentary lifestyle, I do not know how aware we are that it is the structure of our cities that leads us, like the current of a river, toward this very negative lifestyle. As long as cities remain spaces that almost exclusively facilitate the use of cars, walking and bicycling will remain on the margins of our lives and lack of movement will continue to be an endemic problem.

People on bicycles have “appeared in Paris,” and the most important thing about this incredible transformation of Paris is how quickly it happened once the streets were transformed. One cannot say that “Paris has always been like this,” because it has not. It took leadership.

A woman driving a convertible stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Steam and smoke waft around her vehicle. She stares longingly at people enjoying the fresh air and park to her left. Illustration.

The following are the thoughts of @BrentToderian (City planner + urban planner at @TODUrbanWORKS. Global advisor on cities. Past Vancouver chief planner).

To ensure cars didn’t take back control of Paris streets as the pandemic was “ending,” (like they have in so many cities), Mayor @Anne_Hidalgo made sure that 60k parking spaces and many streets were permanently transformed to seating for restaurants, people places and bike-lanes.

There’s no simplistic “silver bullet” for making lively streets & great #peopleplaces — but if there was, it would probably be street seating & moveable chairs. Don’t let anyone say there isn’t room — just rethink space for cars. As #Paris effortlessly illustrates. #placemaking

Walking around European cities — from bustling urban centers like Milan and Amsterdam to smaller cities such as Ghent and Bruges in Belgium, and Ravenna and Padua in Northern Italy — it’s clear that there are numerous improvements that can be borrowed for the United States and implemented relatively quickly and inexpensively:

  • Make streets multimodal
  • Implement congestion pricing and/or limited traffic zones
  • Eliminate street parking
  • Boost transit options
  • Reclaim plazas and other public space for people

 

 

10 rules to promote the movement in school

  1. Rules: establish rules that promote enjoyable and sustained forms of physical activity in young people.
  2. Environment: provide a physical and social environment that encourages and enables physical activity.
  3. Movement education: increase instruction and curricula in physical activity that value the pleasure of participating in physical activity and that help students develop knowledge, attitudes, motor skills, behavioral skills, and the confidence to adopt and maintain physically active lifestyles.
  4. Health education: increase health education and instructional curricula that help students develop knowledge, attitudes, motor skills, behavioral skills, and the confidence to adopt and maintain physically active lifestyles.
  5. Extracurricular activities: provide extracurricular physical activity programs that meet the needs and interests of all students.
  6. Parents involvement: include parents in physical activity programs, encouraging them to support their children’s participation in enjoyable and interesting activities.
  7. Staff training: promote training for staff involved in education, training, recreation, and health care that trains them in the knowledge and skills needed to perform enjoyable activities.
  8. Health services: assess and counsel youth in relation to their activity.
  9. Community programs: provide a wide range of sports activities that are attractive to all youth.
  10. Evaluation: systematically evaluate the quality of physical activity programs and services provided by the community and school.

The need of movement

Movement is a vital necessity, it has been for thousands of years when man had to move to get food to live or to make war, it continues to be a biological and psychological urge for the newborn who grows and develops through the acquisition of freedom of movement. Sedentary, however, we become so much that after the age of 60 years the level of sports practice of Italians falls below 10%. The rise of sport in our culture is not only linked to the passions aroused by the great competitive challenges, from soccer championships to Olympic gold medals, but is also based on certain ideas that are now an integral part of people’s beliefs.

The first refers to the idea that sport is wellness and the second that sport is education for life. Therefore, if we move to feel good, each individual expresses with this activity the right to have opportunities to exercise and do sports. Precisely to meet this need, sport for all has become a way of being that involves millions of people.

So what are the needs to which sport for all provides an answer?

The need for movement - We live in a society that forces us to lead sedentary lives, walking to work or playing in the street are almost unthinkable activities and we must make up for this reduction in spontaneous movement by institutionalizing moments of the day to be devoted exclusively to physical activity / sports. For many individuals it is the discovery that they can actively and positively act on the reactions of their own body and how inextricably linked these are to their psychological condition, in a relationship of mutual influence.

The need for self-realization - In sports for all there are very different needs for self-realization and certainly not all positive. One of the forms of intelligence is kinesthetic and athletes derive a sense of personal development from the acquisition of a high level of mastery in the performance of their activity. Another mode of self-realization related, however, to sport for all is to maintain a satisfactory state of physical and mental well-being. On the other hand, those who use substances harmful to health or abuse drugs to improve their physical appearance or their sporting performance are not acceptable as forms of positive self-actualization.

The need to belong - For many sportsmen and women, the search for social contact through physical activity is one of their main motivations. Sport becomes synonymous with group activity. One activity above all: running; running is an individual sport that takes place in a group, because the need to be with friends or to make new ones and to share with them one’s personal sporting experience is a fundamental psychological dimension that accompanies all phases of human life.

The need for play and adventure - Sport for all means sport for everyone, in which the subjectivity and the needs of the individual prevail over the rules of the traditional competitive model. This is because sport for all is practiced for personal pleasure and the rules of the game are established by the participants. The adventure can become that of the sedentary person who decides for the first time in his life to overcome his resistance and get moving.

The need to live in a natural environment - It ‘s increasingly felt the need to do physical activity immersed in nature, whether it be that of a city park or that of the sea, the mountains or the countryside. The search for a suitable environmental context is part of a physically active lifestyle, in which nature becomes the place par excellence where to move, even if only to walk and chat with friends.

How too assess our fitness without fear

How to mentally approach the fitness assessment exercises

This part represents the beginning of the physical work and is strongly influenced by your mental attitude. The assessment tests represent the first step of the training program, and the psychological condition with which you approach them determines together with the physical condition the results you will obtain. Therefore, it is necessary to approach this activity with a mental attitude that favors not only the best motor expression of which you are currently capable, but also in an emotionally pleasant way. A negative psychological approach to testing can manifest itself with the following thoughts:

  1. Terror with regard to the tables - the individual with this approach provides a negative, self-evaluating assessment of himself or herself if he or she fails to achieve the intermediate or fair level from the first assessment test.
  2. I will never be able to improve - the individual with this approach does not believe themselves to be able to improve. He or she feels crushed under the weight of an inability that will crush him or her anyway and, therefore, is not even capable of thinking he or she can improve.
  3. I am too old or too fat - this approach differs from the previous attitude because the individual attributes the inability to improve to an objective factor, his age or weight.
  4. I am ashamed of my physique - this idea often limits the action of those who approach an activity before even starting it.

What to do when these concerns are present. One possibility is to focus on the positive aspects that increase the motivation to get involved in the activity. A positive approach is characterized as follows:

  1. Tables represent only indicative values - Tables represent a standardized system that take into account only one individual variable – age – and ignore the others. Is it possible that a bricklayer and a clerk have the same results after the first evaluation test? Of course not!
  2. I build my table - It is good to use the first test to establish what your current base level is and build on this to build better levels of fitness.
  3. I improve with training - It is necessary to be aware that whatever the starting fitness level, physical activity carried out following a program will determine an improvement that will produce well-being.
  4. Exercise is enjoyable and important to me - before training begins it is important that the person considers what they are about to do as important and positive to learn.

10 habits to be physically actives

The movement as and expression of intelligence

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is manifested through the ability to control one’s movements with mastery and to use tools expertise. These tools vary greatly depending on the activity to which we refer. It can be the classic ball in sports games or the surgeon’s scalpel, skis or the tailor’s needle, the clavettes in gymnastics or the cane used by Charlot. Competence in physical activity consists of the use of a fairly broad range of skills, such as strength, endurance, balance, dexterity, expressiveness, and coordination. It is very important to be able to carry out physical activity programs that develop all of these skills. Eastern culture, compared to ours, has traditionally been more inclined to follow these paths and, among the many forms of expressiveness it has produced, martial arts represent an example of integrated development of these different skills. In our Western culture, however, more attention has been paid to the development of skills such as strength and endurance and less to that of other skills.

Assess your kinesthetic intelligence

  • I play at least one sport or do physical activity on a regular basis
  • I find it difficult to sit for a long time
  • I like to engage in manual activities
  • I get the best ideas when I walk, run or otherwise engage in some physical activity
  • I spend most of my time in outdoor activities
  • When I talk to other people I gesture a lot
  • To appreciate an object I have to touch it
  • I feel like a person who moves in a coordinated way
  • I enjoy experiences that give me intense physical sensations
  • I cope well with physical fatigue

Add up all affirmative responses:

  • up to four – you have a long way ahead of you to increase your kinesthetic intelligence;
  • between five and six – you are trying hard but can do more, don’t give up;
  • between seven and eight – you are showing excellent kinesthetic skills, keep believing in them and above all, practice them;
  • between nine and ten – don’t get ahead of yourself; you’re good.

Yvonne Dowlen: Figure skaters at 90

90-Year-Old Figure Skater Will Warm Your Heart with Her Amazing Talent

90-Year-Old Figure Skater Will Warm Your Heart with Her Amazing Talent |  Short Film Showcase - YouTube

Holidays in movement

Summer vacation’s coming and we all want to move more… We feel the need to do something different, to overcome laziness, to get out of the fear of getting sick being in the middle of nature, breathing cleaner air and feeling the body and mind.

So what are the needs to which this need to be physically active provides an answer:

  • Movement - We live in a society that forces us to lead a sedentary life, walking to work or playing in the street are almost unthinkable activities and we must make up for this reduction in spontaneous movement by institutionalizing moments of the day to be dedicated exclusively to physical/sports activities.
  • Educating own body – The best example is given by children in their first years of life, observing them is enough to understand how much effort they put in learning to walk and run or in acquiring those processes of self-regulation that allow them to learn and reduce the risk of injury.
  • Self-realization - A modality linked to sport for all consists in maintaining a condition of satisfactory psychophysical well-being. Those who use substances that are harmful to health or abuse drugs to improve their physical appearance or sports performance are not acceptable as forms of positive enhancement.
  • Belonging - For many people, the search for social contact through sports practice is one of the main motivation. Sport becomes synonymous with group activity. One activity above all: running; an individual sport that takes place in a group, because the need to be together is a fundamental psychological dimension.
  • Game and adventure - Sport for all means sport for everyone, in which the subjectivity and needs of the individual prevail over the rule of the traditional competitive model. Adventure is that of the sedentary person who decides to overcome his or her mental resistance to follow a program of physical activity in the gym.
  • Living in a natural environment - Doing physical activity immersed in nature does not arise solely from the pleasure of breathing cleaner air or smelling scents that we are no longer used to in the city. It’s a deepneed coming from our soul.

The role of the family to promote their children development through the movement

Rhodes, R.E., Guerrero, M.D., Vanderloo, L.M. et al. Development of a consensus statement on the role of the family in the physical activity, sedentary, and sleep behaviours of children and youth. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 17, 74 (2020). 

The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines were recently developed to provide public health guidelines integrating recommendations for physical activity, sedentary, and sleep behaviours for the pediatric population ranging from 0 to 4 years and 5 to 17 years.

Children and youth who adhere to these guidelines are more likely to display healthy growth, body composition, cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal fitness, cardiovascular and metabolic health, motor development, cognitive development, academic achievement, emotional regulation, pro-social behaviours, and overall quality of life.

Unfortunately, among Canadian children, only 13% of 3–4-year-olds, 17% of 5–17 year-olds, and 3% of 11–15 year-olds adhere to the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines. Similar low adherence to healthy movement behaviour recommendations among children and youth have been reported in samples from Australia, Belgium, Mozambique, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and even lower adherences in China, Singapore and South Korea.

Parenting practices that influence child and youth health behaviours include components of responsiveness (providing encouragement and autonomy), structure (providing social and physical environments) and demandingness (restrictive and punitive practices).

With constantly changing environments (including practices, policies, social norms, built features, technology) at home, childcare centres, schools and in communities, coupled with the new paradigm of integrated movement behaviours, the challenges for achieving healthy movement behaviours can be overwhelming for families and those who support them (e.g., public health professionals, health care providers, teachers, policymakers).

Active Healthy Kids Canada and ParticipACTION (Canadian not-for-profit organizations) have been producing Canadian Report Cards on Physical Activity for Children and Youth since 2005.

This Consensus Statement on the Role of the Family in the Physical Activity, Sedentary, and Sleep Behaviours of Children and Youth is the latest in this list of knowledge products and is contained within the 2020 ParticipACTION Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth.

Move and think

Why Your Brain Needs Exercise

The evolutionary history of humans explains why physical activity is important for brain health

David A. Reichlen and Gene E. Alexander, Scientific American, January 1, 2020

Brief synthesis

“Why does exercise affect the brain at all?

Physical activity improves the function of many organ systems in the body, but the effects are usually linked to better athletic performance.

Instead exercise seems to be as much a cognitive activity as a physical one. In fact, this link between physical activity and brain health may trace back millions of years to the origin of hallmark traits of humankind. If we can better understand why and how exercise engages the brain, perhaps we can leverage the relevant physiological pathways to design novel exercise routines that will boost people’s cognition as they age—work that we have begun to undertake.

… we demonstrated that people who spent more time engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity had larger hippocampal volumes.

Researchers have also documented clear links between aerobic exercise and benefits to other parts of the brain, including expansion of the prefrontal cortex, which sits just behind the forehead. Such augmentation of this region has been tied to sharper executive cognitive functions, which involve aspects of planning, decision-making and multitasking—abilities that, like memory, tend to decline with healthy aging and are further degraded in the presence of Alzheimer’s. Scientists suspect that increased connections between existing neurons, rather than the birth of new neurons, are responsible for the beneficial effects of exercise on the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions outside the hippocampus.

If we can augment the effects of exercise by including a cognitively demanding activity, then perhaps we can increase the efficacy of exercise regimens aimed at boosting cognition during aging and potentially even alter the course of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

They found an additive effect: exercise alone was good for the hippocampus, but combining physical activity with cognitive demands in a stimulating environment was even better, leading to even more new neurons. Using the brain during and after exercise seemed to trigger enhanced neuron survival.”

… we recently showed that collegiate cross-country runners who train extensively on outdoor trails have increased connectivity among brain regions associated with executive cognitive functions compared with healthy but more sedentary young adults. Future work will help us understand whether these benefits are also greater than those seen in runners who train in less complex settings—on a treadmill, for instance.