Researchers followed 561 different high school students for the four years they were at high school and a couple of years while they were in college. They found that most of them did not exercise regularly, and most of them did not meet the exercise requirements in high school. Then the researchers followed some of those same students into college and found that the habits they made in high school kept with them in college. They also found that the people who stayed on campus were more fit than the people who stayed home and drove to college. They believe that this is because they had to walk to their classes, and the people that drove didn’t; they could just drive.

The nature conservancy said that it is not always teenagers’ faults for not going outside and being active. They believe that most teenagers do not have access to nature. They asked 602 kids between the ages 13 and 18 if they liked going outside in nature; 80% of the kids said that they don’t like to be outdoors because of things like bugs, heat, ect…. Also 62% said they did not have transportation to get to nature areas, and 61% said that they don’t have any nature areas near them. They found that most kids that have been in nature before liked it and would do it again, but the kids who have not had nature experiences said they do not plan on going out in nature in the future. Almost all of the kids said they think global warming is a big problem and it needs to be solved. This shows that most kids believe we should protect nature but they prefer not to experience it. Three quarters of the kids said they do not have access to nature through school. The nature conservancy thinks that this is a big problem and that schools need to have more opportunities to go out in nature through school. They are trying to get schools to have more opportunities to go out in nature. They host programs at schools so kids can go out in nature.

The New York Times also believes that kids are not getting enough access to nature at schools and that kids do not have access to exercise at school. They tracked 928 students between the ages 12 and 16, and they found that most of the kids were most active at school, but it was not that much exercise, 4.8% of their school day was spent walking. Which surprised them a lot because 42% of the kids’ walking time is at school. So, this means that about 8 to 10% of kids’ days are spent walking. They found that most kids’ walking time was near or at school, so this shows that kids get some exercise while at school but during the rest of the day they are at home on their phones.

Teen Fitness has 5 easy steps to helping teenagers exercise more.

• Step 1: build up slowly. this means that start out with about 5 minutes a day and then add more time on every day.
• Step 2: make screen time count. this means make screen time a reward for when they do and couple of minutes of exercise.
• Step 3: make the workouts fun or enjoyable. this means just make the workouts fun so the teenagers have a fun time and want to work out more.
• Step 4: consider weight training. this means if your child is overweight you can have them workout a little more often and have them do harder things.
• Step 5: encourage participation in sports. this means encourage your child to join a sports team they want to try that they have not done yet.

In conclusion, I believe that most teenagers do not go outside enough (including me) although I am going to go outside more because I enjoy it and I want to stay fit and healthy. This research shows that if teenagers don’t go outside or exercise they will keep that habit throughout their whole lives. And for those reasons I believe that teenagers need to go outside more and exercise.