Get Out and Play

Most people are familiar with USDA’s MyPyramid food guide and MyPyramid for Kids (www.MyPyramid.gov) which provide personal eating plans and activities. University of Missouri Columbia Extension health educators expanded on the MyPyramid concept and developed the MyActivity Pyramid designed to show children ages 6 to 11 how to include physical activities into their daily lives. The design is similar to USDA’s MyPyramid. Cartoon-like drawings and multiple activity levels in the

MyActivity Pyramid show children kinds of activity needed and how much.

Everyday activities - where children should accumulate most of the physical activity time - are at the bottom of the pyramid. These activities make-up the largest area of MyActivity Pyramid.

The next level describes more vigorous activities that children need at least three to five times a week. Active aerobic and recreational activities include sports, jogging or running, rollerblading and vigorous playground games.

Flexibility and strength activities fill the third level of MyActivity Pyramid. Two to three times a week, children should be involved in activities that promote muscle fitness and flexibility, such as stretching, push-ups, practicing martial arts or yoga.

Many activities that young children enjoy can fit into more than one level. Ideally, kids should accumulate their 60 minutes, and up to several hours a day, from all three levels.

The top of the MyActivity Pyramid represents inactivity. Watching TV or playing video and computer games should be limited to two hours or less each day.

MyActivity Pyramid has an accompanying activity log to help children chart their own activity on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Dr. Marilyn Swanson, CSREES National Program Leader for Maternal and Child Health, stationed at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center considers this an example of a state expanding upon Federal information to promote physical activity for young children. Additional information can be found at http:// extension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/ hesguide/foodnut/n00386.pdf