Physical activity and healthcare: Capturing the potential or creating the problem

Physical education, sport and everyday living, no matter in which cultural context, has at its centrality physical activity. The concept of movement, whether one understands it as a social construct or originating from an innate ability, is central to 21st Century living. Indeed contemporary understandings of physical activity acknowledge that one of its important functions is in the maintenance of health and the development of healthy lifestyles. However this acknowledgement has become far too simplistic, evidenced by the popular and proliferated media and corporate messages and programmes constructed and designed to facilitate individual and collective health – most of which is focused on claiming to address and solve the ‘obesity and physical inactivity crisis’ with young people. Resulting from this particular health focus, which has as its central message ‘ energy in and energy out balance’, is the degradation of the educative and social value of physical activity and physical education, particularly in schools. Instead of promoting a holistic view and capturing the educative and social value of physical activity and physical education justifications for such programmes are more and more reliant on rationalising physical activity and physical education as having a primary purpose of obesity reduction. This paper argues that given this focus, young people are at risk of being denied learning opportunities which may result in impoverished physical activity and physical education understandings and experiences. More specifically this presentation will: • Highlight how some simplistic health messages, particularly around addressing obesity concerns, maybe counter-productive to the overall health and physical education learning of our young people. • Stress the need to capture the health benefits of physical activity and physical education in a more holistic and critical manner. • Suggest a series of recommendations that may strengthen the health physical activity nexus