Atividade física para crianças até 5 anos: Guia de Atividade Física para a População Brasileira

Regular physical activity promotes physiological, psychological and social benefits in the lives of children and adolescents. Despite the high prevalence of young people who do not physically activity in our country, and that we have a good ranking in world academic production on research in the physical activity and health area, Brazilian recommendations for physical activity had not been published until then. The aim of this article was to describe how the chapter for children and young people aged 6-17 years of Physical Activity Guidelines for the Brazilian Population was developed and to present the main recommendations for this age group. The construction of the chapter for children and young people involved the following steps: a) literature review; b) writing the preliminary version of the chapter; c) listening process of the target audience for the chapter and specialists in the physical activity promoting area; d) public consultation; and e) writing the final version of the chapter. The topics presented cover examples of physical activities practised in different domains; recommendations for practice (types, intensity, frequency, duration and the ways in which it can be structured). Guidance is provided for young people, parents/guardians and teachers about how to adopt and maintain a more physically active lifestyle, as well as suggestions for reducing time in sedentary behaviour. The construction of a national guidelines about physical activity for Brazilian population is something unprecedented, and resulted from a joint effort of several departments of society.