PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY

Anything which makes you warm, makes you breathe deeper or make your heart beat faster counts as physical activity. It doesn’t have to be sport or running, most activity will count.

Walking in your local park counts as activity, we have two Green Flag awarded parks in our area; Kingsway Gardens and Woodlands Crematorium. Central Park is Scunthorpe’s premier park and has lots of facilities for children, young people, walkers and cyclists.

Parks & Playgrounds

Physical activity is important for young people, it helps build strong bones and muscles which will help in later life, and establishing a good level of fitness when they are young will make it easier to maintain a healthy weight throughout life. It will also help them sleep better, and concentrate better at school. It will help with confidence and social skills as well.

Health experts recommend children get 60 mins of physical activity a day, though this can be in 10 minute sessions over the course of a day. Ideally exercise is a mixture of vigorous and moderate activity. Vigorous activity includes things like running, football and swimming, whereas moderate exercise includes things like walking or playing in a playground. They should also get the chance to do exercise which strengthens their bones and muscles, this could include climbing trees, gymnastics, football, press-ups.

Try and find activities suitable for their age and development. Take the opportunity to get active together as a family and find things you can all do. Maybe go to the park for an afternoon, dance with your kids or go swimming. Or talk to your child and see if there are activities they would like to try, the council offer a wide variety of sports which are cheap or free, especially in the holidays.

Change4Life and Disney have teamed up to take your kids on a 10 Minute Shake Up summer adventure, inspired by Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory, follow the link to find out more.

Ten Minute Shake Up
NLC Website

If you are worried about your child over exercising you should contact the school nurse or the child’s GP. Talking to your child about their exercise may help you understand their ambitions and motivations. You can use this to help guide them to activity that is appropriate for their age and development. If you have concerns about their emotional wellbeing please explore other areas of this website.

Emotional Wellbeing

Get Going work in schools and will see children and families outside of school however they will only see children who’s BMI is 91st centile and over. You may have been told about this service after your child was weighed at school. We suggest you contact your child’s school nurse or GP if you have concerns.

Please contact Alex Piercy for more information or to make a referral to the Get Going team – tel 07702 275246 or email Nlccg.get-going@nhs.net

If you have concerns about your own weight the Health Trainer service offer one-to-one sessions and can help you improve your lifestyle.

To get more information or to register with a Health Trainer, there are three ways to get in touch with the Health Trainer service:
Email: nlc.healthtrainers@nhs.net
Telephone: 01724 292170
Website: www.northlincs.gov.uk/
or visit us at the Ironstone Centre, West Street, Scunthorpe, DN15 6HX

LivingWise offer a free 12 week group based weight loss programme for adults with a BMI of over 25kg/m2 (23.5kg/m2 if you are Asian, African or African-Carribean).
Living Wise Website

Locally you could take part in Parkrun. Scunthorpe Parkrun is a free, weekly, 5km timed run around Central Park, Scunthorpe every Saturday at 9am.

Parkrun is open to everyone, in a family environment, safe and easy to take part in. We encourage people of every ability to take part; from those taking their first steps in running to Olympians; from juniors to those with more experience; we welcome you all. To register visit their website www.parkrun.org.uk/scunthorpe/

Try the BMI calculator on this page if you are unsure of yours or your child’s BMI.
For more information about physical activity the change for life website is a great resource, for information on local physical activity options go to the leisure services pages on the council website.

NLC Website
Change For Life
Eating Well Page
BMI Calculator