Physical activity encompasses more than just exercise; it involves a lifestyle that includes our environment, supports, and resources to keep us moving. Public Health aims to encourage communities to provide active and safe spaces for play, living, work, and school. Recognizing the challenges people and communities face in becoming more active, we strive to create opportunities for everyone to improve their health. By focusing on populations facing inequities and affected by social determinants of health, such as children, young women, newcomers, and those with lower incomes, we aim to make these opportunities more equitable.
From March 2020 to January 2021, the pandemic significantly disrupted access to typical physical activity-supporting environments and programs for many children and their families, creating numerous barriers to ensuring children remained sufficiently active each day. Recognizing the pandemic's impact on children's activity levels highlights the importance of supporting their health and development in our communities.
What does physical activity look like?
Daily physical activity can include free play, games, sports, transportation (walking, cycling), recreation, and physical education.
Physical inactivity is one of the leading risk factors for noncommunicable diseases mortality. People who are insufficiently active have a 20% to 30% increased risk of death compared to people who are sufficiently active. (WHO)
Improved Brain Health: After a session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, children (ages 6 to 13) experience improved thinking and cognition, while adults may feel reduced short-term anxiety.
Improved Health: Regular physical activity encourages healthy growth and development of children's bodies, and similar benefits of physically active adults.
Better Sleep: Regular physical activity helps improve sleep quality.
Weight Management: Being physically active helps manage weight by burning calories.
Reduced Depression and Anxiety Risk: Physical activity lowers the risk of depression and anxiety.
Mental Benefits
Enhances Brain Health: Physical activity contributes to mental health and enhances brain functions and development.
Reduces Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: Regular exercise helps reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Improved Mental Health: Regular exercise improves concentration skills and ability to manage anxiety and stress.
Increased Confidence and Self Awareness: Regular exercise helps young children feel more confident, happy and relaxed, with improved self-esteem and self-concept.
Physical Benefits
Cardiovascular Health: At least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Type 2 Diabetes Prevention: Regular physical activity lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Bone Health: Weight-bearing activities help prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.
Extended Lifespan: Exercise benefits everyone and can lead to a longer life.
Cancer Prevention: Regular physical activity helps in the prevention of some cancer.
Social Benefits
Enhanced Social Skills: Regular physical activity develops skills such as cooperation and teamwork, and a great way to have fun, meet new people and develop friendships.
Promotes Prosocial Behaviour: Active children are less likely to smoke, use illicit drugs or be involved in criminal activity.
Learning and Productivity: Active children are generally more motivated and better organised than children who are inactive, and physical activity has direct links to improved learning outcomes.
Positive School Environments: Active students are generally less aggressive and experience fewer discipline problems.
Decreased Loneliness: Physical activity offers opportunities for social interactions, meet people who share the same interests and decreases feelings of loneliness.
Early Years Webinar (Physical Literacy): Reigniting Passion through Active Play
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ParticipACTION - Check it out! Build Your Best Day is a fun, interactive and educational tool to help children and youth aged 5-17 and their parents learn about the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
Daily Physical Activity in Schools (DPA) - Strategies and resources for teachers to help Grade 1-8 students achieve their minimum 20 minutes of sustained moderate to vigorous physical activity each school day.
Recess Programs - An organized approach to recess and nutrition breaks, through the introduction of games and activities is a viable solution to reducing the sedentary behaviour of young children: Recess | Canadian Public Health Association - play_recess_e.pdf
Raise the Bar Intramural Program - Ophea’s Raise the Bar Intramural Program for students or educators to help plan and run quality, inclusive, and sustainable intramurals. The Intramural Program is free-of-charge and guides you through an easy-to-follow 4-step process, and the opportunity to be recognized as an Ophea Intramural Participant School.
In order to make your school community healthier check out the following resources:
Active Transportation
Canada’s National Active Transportation Strategy (pdf)The Active Transportation Strategy's is to build new and expanded active transportation networks and to create safe environments for more equitable, healthy, active and sustainable travel options to thrive.
The Active Transportation Fund supports Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy, which was launched on July 28, 2021. Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy is the country's first coast-to-coast-to-coast strategic approach for promoting active transportation and its benefits
Canada Walks - Green Communities Canada - WALK Friendly Ontario - Green Communities Canada
NATN_Sustainable_Calgary_2020_Nov_17_20MB.pdf (squarespace.com)
The Impact of Physical Activity on Mental Health Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Ontario 2022 - A report from Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table has found that reduced opportunities for physical activity greatly impacted the mental health of Canadians during the pandemic.
Healthy Public Policy brings health and equity considerations to all areas of policy, with the end goal of improving health outcomes for all. To do so, existing public policies must be analyzed and evaluated for their impact on health equity and population health. Both applied research and academic research are used to help to inform where improvements can be made. Then, new policy approaches can be introduced that address these health impact. Public Policy Models and Their Usefulness in Public Health: The Stages Model (ncchpp.ca)
The 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
In 2016, the world’s first 24-Hour Movement Guidelines were developed, a set of evidence based guidelines integrating physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. It provides guidance on how much people need to move, sleep and sit each day and the interrelationship between the three.
View the Guidelines
Infants, toddlers and preschoolers need to move sit and sleep the right amounts
Guidelines encourage kids to Sweat, Step, Sleep and Sit the right amounts each day
Guidelines to help adults move more, reduce sedentary time, and sleep well
Guidelines to help adults, move more, reduce sedentary time and sleep well
Global Physical Inactivity on the Rise
New data published in the Lancet Global Health journal from the Global Status Report on Physical Activity 2022 by the World Health Organization, reveals that more than 80% of adolescents and 27% of adults worldwide do not meet WHO’s recommended levels of physical activity. This trend not only affects individuals over their life course but also places a financial burden on health services and society as a whole. The implications of these data for governments and stakeholders are presented as six key policy actions, each consistent with the WHO Global action plan on physical activity.
WHO’s Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 (GAPPA) provided recommendations to help countries increase levels of physical activity within their populations. Four years after GAPPA, the first Global status report on physical activity charts progress on country implementation of these recommendations to achieve the global target of a 15% relative reduction in the prevalence of physical inactivity by 2030.
This report is crucial for everyone involved in promoting and delivering policies that provide the environments and programmes that drive participation in physical activity. WHO urges countries to strengthen policies and increase funding to promote physical activity and reverse this trend.
Download the Report
Canadian Physical Activity Reports
ParticipACTION releases an annual report, assigning letter grades across 14 indicators including overall physical activity, sedentary behaviours, schools, and government strategies and investments of child, youth and adult physical activity in Canada.
Rallying for Resilience: Keeping Children and Youth Active in a Changing Climate
Moving toward a Better Normal: Examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights many of the challenges and opportunities
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