What is the recommended amount of physical activity for a teenager?

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From: Teenage recommendations to improve physical activity for their age group: a qualitative study

Teenage recommendations
Lower/remove of the cost of activities without sacrificing the quality
“And probably if like the leisure centres dropped their prices, you know, maybe people will think, oh that’s cheaper, okay I’ll go back.” (Girl, Focus Group 6)
“What they could do is like get like something in a park… if they say it’s like a free thing they would all just like come in and do it, instead of… if they say it’s like £3 to come in they’d be like oh okay, bye.” (Boy, Focus Group 13)
“...if it was like free and all that you’d see loads of other older kids going to try it out because they know it’s free and it’s something to do with their friends, and they don’t have to spend their own money.” (Boy, Focus Group 13)
“…they’ve got like one indoor pitch which costs a lot to play in, or they’ve just got outdoor pitches which are, like, really cheap to play but it’s, like, really cold. They don’t put, like, any lights on.” (Boy, Focus Group 9)
“…I feel bad when I have to go up to my parents and ask them for money, because their face is just like, right, and then you can see them as they pass the money over and they don’t like it.” (Girl, Focus Group 4)
Improving the locality of physical activity opportunities
“Well I would say bring more facilities, bring more stuff so then like more football pitches, basketball pitches, like more stuff so they’re going to want to go outside.” (Boy, Focus Group 5)
“Just like a little gym, in the park or something, ‘cos I would go then ‘cos it’s like really close.” (Girl, Focus Group 6)
“So there’s the travel, but if it was, like, in your community, then it wouldn’t be so bad.” (Girl, Focus Group 10)
“They could spend more money and invest in putting buildings in that area where they could put, for example, badminton, tennis, football, rugby” (Girl, Focus Group 8)
Improving the standards of existing facilities
“Like we said, like, fix the parks and stuff like that.” (Girl, Focus Group 10)
“I think they could like, well not even like every year, like every other year they could go round to each park and renew all the apparatus.” (Boy, Focus Group 5)
“And in the gym there’s umm a few of the machines are broke, you could pay to get them fixed or like help get new ones and stuff like that.” (Boy, Focus Group 7)
“They need to make the environment better.” (Girl, Focus Group 10)
“But why don’t they invest in building more things down there for our age because I, you walk through there and you mostly see glass bottles on the floor, on benches and…” (Boy, Focus Group 9)
“Yeah, council investing in, like, one-way systems and everything and they’re wasting money on build, on making these one-way systems and everything when they could be looking at our age and start investing in buildings that we can go to and enjoy ourselves after school.” (Boy, Focus Group 9)
Make activties more specific to teenagers
“And they always do adult things, like they never really aim at anything for teenagers, like people our age.” (Girl, Focus Group 6)
“Yeah, the government is complaining saying that we’re getting like, there’s like less people being fit but there’s not really more facilities and stuff for like teenagers.” (Girl, Focus Group 6)
“No, and like I just think they should put more activities out for younger people, like…” (Girl, Focus Group 6)
“For our age group and under 16’s, not so much adults…” (Boy, Focus Group 7)
Give teenagers a choice and variety of activities
“There’s like clubs on, it’s the exact same every single time you go.” (Girl, Focus Group 2)
“…they should give you a sheet at the beginning of the year and then choose which ones you want to do and then they go with the majority…” (Girl, Focus Group 12)
“Rather than doing the same thing, like football, hockey, you know…” (Girl, Focus Group 4)
“Yeah, but they could take us out of our PSE when we have it and then maybe at dinner times?”(Boy, Focus Group 1)
“Yeah I think it’s as much quantity as it is quality.” (Boy, Focus Group 13)
Provide activities that teenage girls can enjoy
“If I don’t like it, I won’t do it.”(Girl, Focus Group 10)
“You could hold like a football game but then for the people who like football and then for the people who like cheerleading they could let them cheerlead, or people who like dancing and things you could just hold a massive event of sports and have people performing.” (Girl, Focus Group 12)
“Make sure, like get their friends to do it as well, so then their friends can encourage them, like oh I’m going to go there, oh come with me, be like oh okay. Ask them.” (Girl, Focus Group 12)
“Yeah, just ask them if they want to go swimming, like say it’s a normal thing, ‘cos nobody would think of swimming as like an active thing isn’t it, just for fun” (Girl, Focus Group 6)