Getting enough exercise is one of the most important things we can do for our health. Yet many people around the world are not active enough. Around one in three adults fail to meet the recommended levels of physical activity, while four in five children aged 11–17 do not achieve the recommended average of 60 minutes a day.
A lack of physical activity increases the risk of long-term conditions such as type 2 diabetes. It can also affect cognitive function: the mental processes that help us learn, remember, concentrate and make decisions. For children, these skills are closely linked to educational achievement and future opportunities.
Parents can find it particularly difficult to stay active. The demands of family life often leave little time for exercise, and becoming a parent can make it harder to maintain moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Because physical inactivity affects both generations, families are an important focus for interventions designed to improve health and wellbeing.
Obstacles and inspirations
In our recent research, we interviewed 24 families to explore what helps or hinders physical activity and whether experiences differed according to socioeconomic background.
Many of the barriers were unsurprising. Families frequently cited the cost of organised activities and a lack of free time as obstacles to being active together. Families from less affluent backgrounds also described limited access to local sports and leisure facilities, while families from more affluent backgrounds often viewed local facilities as an important support for staying active.
Children consistently told us that seeing their parents being active encouraged them to join in. But the influence worked both ways. Parents from less affluent backgrounds often described their children as role models, explaining that their children’s enthusiasm for movement motivated them to become more active.
This suggests that physical activity within families is not simply something parents encourage in their children. Parents and children can inspire one another, creating positive habits that benefit the whole family.
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Building on these findings, we developed a family-based physical activity programme designed to help parents and children exercise together. We chose tag rugby because it is fun, adaptable and non-contact, making it suitable for people of different ages to participate together.
We then wanted to find out whether a single 45-minute session could produce measurable short-term benefits for physical health and cognitive function.
Benefits to brain and body
Sixteen families took part in the study. On one occasion, families completed a 45-minute tag-rugby session involving a warm-up, skills activities and small games. On another occasion, they completed a comparison session involving seated rest.
Before and after each session, participants completed a series of computer-based tasks designed to assess cognitive function, including working memory, attention and information processing. We also measured how their bodies responded to a standardised lunch by monitoring blood-sugar and insulin levels.
Insulin is a hormone that helps the body regulate blood sugar. After the tag-rugby session, parents had lower insulin concentrations following the meal than they did after the resting session, even though their blood-sugar responses were similar. This suggests that their bodies were able to manage the meal using less insulin.
We also found short-term improvements in cognitive function. Children performed better on a working-memory task immediately after exercise. Parents showed improvements in information processing immediately after the session, with benefits continuing for up to 45 minutes.
These findings need to be interpreted cautiously. Our study involved a relatively small number of families and examined the effects of a single exercise session. It does not show whether the benefits would persist or accumulate if families took part regularly.
But the results provide a useful starting point. Whether we are learning in school, concentrating at work or managing everyday family life, we rely on memory, attention and information-processing skills throughout the day. A form of exercise that families can enjoy together may also be easier to sustain than an activity that places additional demands on already busy parents.
Our findings suggest that family-based physical activity could offer a practical way to support physical health and cognitive performance while giving parents and children an opportunity to spend enjoyable time together. In a world where many adults and children are struggling to be active enough, creating accessible opportunities for families to move together deserves further attention.
