Time should be devoted to aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activities as follows:

• Aerobic: Most of the 60 or more minutes per day should be either moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. Vigorous-intensity physical activity should be included at least three days per week.
• Muscle-strengthening: Include muscle-strengthening physical activity on at least three days per week as part of the 60 or more minutes of daily physical activity.
• Bone-strengthening: Include bone-strengthening physical activity on at least three days per week as part of the 60 or more minutes of daily physical activity.

Activities should be age-appropriate, enjoyable, and offer variety. Activities through which students increase their respiration or heart rates or become fatigued after engaging in the activity for several minutes are all aerobic activities. Basically anything counts, as long as it is done at a moderate- or vigorous-intensity for at least ten minutes at a time. Age-appropriate examples include:

Children:

• Active recreation, such as hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading
• Bicycle riding
• Brisk walking or jogging
• Jumping rope
• Active games that involve running and chasing
• Sports, such as field hockey, basketball, swimming, tennis, or gymnastics

Adolescents:

• Active recreation, such as canoeing, hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading
• Bicycle riding (stationary or road bike)
• Yard work, such as raking or pushing a lawn mower
• Martial arts, such as karate
• Vigorous dancing
• Sports, such as tennis or field hockey and sports that require catching and throwing, such as baseball, softball, and volleyball

Muscle-strengthening activities should be done at least three days per week and should work all the major muscle groups of the body. To gain health benefits, muscle-strengthening activities need to be done to the point where it is hard to do another repetition without help. A repetition is one complete movement of an activity. Age-appropriate examples include:

Children:

• Games, such as tug-of-war
• Modified push-ups (with knees on the floor)
• Resistance exercises using body weight or resistance bands
• Rope or tree climbing
• Sit-ups
• Swinging on playground equipment/bars
• Gymnastics

Adolescents:

• Push-ups
• Resistance exercises with exercise bands, weight machines, or hand-held weights
• Rock climbing
• Sit-ups
• Cheerleading
• Gymnastics

Bone-strengthening exercises should be done at least three days per week. Age-appropriate examples include:

Children:

• Games, such as hop-scotch
• Hopping, skipping, or jumping
• Jumping rope
• Running

Adolescents:

• Jumping rope
• Running
• Sports, such as gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, or tennis