While barely 40% of Canadians aged 5 to 17 get enough physical activity, the month of May marks the return of a well-known challenge to get young people moving: energy cubes. Despite two years of absence from schools, the enthusiasm for the event is still present. The cubes also multiply on the other side of the border and across the ocean.
Posted yesterday at 11:00 a.m.
As of this Monday, National Sports and Physical Activity Day, students from nearly 1,300 primary schools in Quebec will accumulate energy cubes for three weeks. Notebook in hand, they will write down each 15-minute segment of physical activity they do, which is the equivalent of a cube. Brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, teachers or other adults who will move with them will allow them to accelerate their fundraising. At stake ? The draw for a day of celebration that will be organized in a school in each region of Quebec by the Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie team.
“I think the schools got bored of the challenge,” believes the instigator of the event launched in 2009, Pierre Lavoie. “There hasn’t been a drop in enrollment,” he says.
Abroad
Energy cubes are also gaining popularity overseas. In France, the Great challenge live move is directly inspired by it. In the United States, the Energy Cube Challenge will be officially launched next year in Florida and Texas. Impatient, some American schools have decided to participate this year. In April, 53,000 young people accumulated energy cubes in the land of Uncle Sam.
“No matter where it is implemented, the program is well received, because it is inclusive, non-discriminatory, it works and it costs nothing,” maintains Pierre Lavoie, specifying that it is still necessary to find partners to finance it.
The repercussions of energy cubes
What is the long-term effect of energy cubes on the lifestyle of young Quebecers? “It is difficult to measure the impact. We don’t have a longitudinal study, which is very expensive,” replied Catherine Desforges, Communications Director of the Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie, by email. The Press asked for data on the impact of energy cubes on the health of young people.
However, the organization sees in the sustainability of the program, which is in its 12and edition, and in the retention rate of participating schools, two indicators of the importance of the challenge for young people. Some 80% of primary schools registered in 2018 re-registered the following year.
The pandemic and physical activity
Data from recent years on the physical activity of young people confirm the urgency of encouraging them to move more. Barely 40% of Canadians aged 5 to 17 get 60 minutes of physical activity per day, as recommended, indicates Participaction in its Report card on physical activity in children and youth 2020.
The pandemic has exacerbated sedentary behavior, underlines Steeve Ager, director of partnerships for Quebec at Participaction.
Screen time has increased drastically, which has an effect on daily life, on the energy we can have. […] We sleep less well and often for less time. It also has an effect on our behavior in terms of physical activity.
Steeve Ager, Director of Partnerships for Quebec at Participaction
“Strategies like the energy cubes, […] which reach large masses of the population and give them a taste for physical activity, these are important gestures that we must maintain,” believes Mr. Ager.
Moreover, the energy cubes are not deployed only in primary schools. Childcare services and seniors’ settings can also participate until May 23.
Tips for moving
How to encourage your child to move more? “The two most powerful elements for a person’s motivation are pleasure and friends,” says Pierre Lavoie based on Scandinavian studies. Allowing our child to invite a friend when we go out with the family for a walk or a bike ride can be a winning strategy, he believes. “Whether we are a child, a teenager, an adult or an elderly person, it will always remain strong, the pleasure with our friends. For his part, Steeve Ager of Participaction points out that studies have shown that parents have an influence on the behavior of their children. “If it’s part of the family values, if moving together becomes important, necessarily, the children will follow in there. But don’t see physical activity as a burden, he says.