Staying active/Exercise
Useful resource:
Click to view - The Australian Guidelines for Physical Activity
Being active is important for babies and young children to grow healthy, and sets good habits for life. Read about how much activity small children should do each day, limiting sitting time, avoiding screens, and making sure they get enough sleep.
Children and adolescents
- Children this age should be doing 60 minutes of energetic activities, including some vigorous activities like running, jumping, sports like basketball, netball, tennis, swimming
- At least three times a week, children of this age, should also do exercises that help to strengthen muscle and bone
- Children should be active, moving, several hours per day
Exercise and airway clearance
Exercise might help to improve your airway clearance techniques (e.g. Autogenic drainage, PEP, Oscillatory PEP). Doing exercise before, during or after your usual airway clearance may help you to clear more mucus from your lungs. When you do your exercise and airway clearance needs to work for you, so talk to your physiotherapist and together work out what is best for you. You may need to change your exercise and/or airway clearance regimen when you are unwell. It is recommended that you regularly discuss this with your physiotherapist.
Some people find that exercise is an excellent addition to airway clearance. High intensity exercise (e.g. sprints, running, cycling) may be the best type of exercise to help move mucus from your lungs. The exercise does this by making more air flow in and out of your lungs, and possibly reduces the thickness of the mucus in your lungs. When you do exercise as a part of airway clearance you should perform the forced expiration technique (huffing and breathing control) during your exercise (e.g. every 3-5 minutes) to make sure you get the best effect for your lungs. Using exercise as your only form of airway clearance is not recommended for everyone at present. Studies are being done to find out if exercise alone is enough to maintain lung health. You should discuss with your physiotherapist.
Beam CF Youth is a platform helping kids with cystic fibrosis to find exercise they enjoy. Beam CF Youth is a program creating in collaboration with Johns Hopkins and CF Yogi. The program has been designed for children between the ages of 4-12 years and has been developed with input from clinicians working the CF space, and individuals/families impacted by CF.
It can often be challenging for children to get excited about physical activity. Exercise doesn’t have to be a team sport, or structured training for a specific sport. Beam CF Youth aims to provide a variety of options to help children to enjoy moving, to involve the whole family and to promote fun, physical activity together.
For parents or caregivers follow these simple steps to gain access to this world of new opportunities in movement:
1. Head to the website www.beamfeelgood.com/cf-youth, click either the sign up button or the “get started” in the top right corner.
2. Sign up with YOUR details and select that you are a caregiver.
3. When given the option to select a condition, select “Cystic Fibrosis Youth”
4. Add your child’s profile to your account for each child with CF who will be using the Beam platform…..and now it is time to have some fun.
