Movement as Medicine: Why Spring Is the Right Time to Reset

By Keili Mistovich, MD, MPH, Zest Pediatric Network Chief Medical Officer, Pediatrician at Zest Pediatrics of Beachwood

Winter disrupts our kids in predictable ways; especially in this waiting period between the excitement of the holidays and the beginning of spring. By March, many families start to feel a subtle (or maybe not so subtle!) shift. Winter is often in it’s 2nd or 3rd iteration, occasionally teasing us with spring-like days, but the days are longer, schedules are changing again, and expectations are rising. Kids may seem restless and sluggish at the same time. Sports restart, but bodies feel stiff or out of rhythm. Sleep is a bit challenging. Mood can feel more fragile than it did in the fall. Everyone is ready for winter to be over. 

Over the winter months, children naturally move less. Days are shorter. Outdoor time drops. Even kids who play winter sports often lose the steady, everyday movement that happens between practices—walking, playing, climbing, wandering outside. At the same time, screen time increases, sleep shifts later, and stress accumulates. These changes affect the brain and body together. By late winter, many children are dysregulated without having language for it.

Movement plays a much larger role in a child’s emotional and physical regulation than we tend to recognize. Not movement as exercise or performance, but movement as a basic biological input—one that supports the nervous system, sleep–wake rhythms, mood stability, digestion, and stress tolerance.

Movement helps recalibrate these system. Regular physical activity has been consistently shown to support mood, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve sleep quality, enhance focus, and reduce low-grade inflammation. It also supports gut motility and digestion—one reason mood, stomach complaints, and energy often improve together when movement becomes more consistent again.

What’s important, though, is that these benefits do not require intensity. In fact, pushing too hard too quickly can backfire. Spring is a common time for injuries, fatigue, and emotional burnout because families go from “barely moving” to “everything at once.” Multiple sports, long practices, packed schedules. Bodies that haven’t rebuilt baseline strength or flexibility are suddenly asked to perform.

A more supportive approach is to think in terms of regulating movement rather than conditioning.

Walking, biking, outdoor play, stretching, yoga-style movement, light strength work, and unstructured activity all help calm the nervous system and rebuild physical confidence. These forms of movement improve sleep pressure (our brain telling us it is time for bed), support emotional regulation, and reduce stress hormone activation. These activities don’t replace sports—they make sports more sustainable.

Public health guidelines suggest that school-aged children and adolescents aim for about an hour of physical activity most days. That number can sound overwhelming, but it’s not necessarily meant to happen all at once, and it doesn’t need to look formal. For many children, it naturally accumulates through shorter periods of activity spread across the day. Even ten to fifteen minutes of additional movement has been shown to improve mood and sleep when done consistently.

Consistency matters more than duration. Predictability matters more than intensity.

This is especially true for mood. There is strong evidence that regular physical activity improves depressive symptoms and anxiety in children and adolescents. Movement supports neurotransmitters involved in mood regulation, improves stress resilience, and strengthens executive function. But more is not always better. Overtraining—especially in early spring—can worsen irritability, fatigue, and sleep disruption and can also increase the risk of injuries. The goal is steadiness, not exhaustion.

When children resist movement, it’s rarely about laziness. More often, it reflects fatigue from disrupted sleep, emotional overload, fear of not being “good enough” after time off, or bodies that feel tight and uncomfortable. Lowering the bar helps. So does shifting the frame. Walking together, moving alongside your child, or thinking of movement as outdoor time rather than exercise can change the tone entirely.

Spring is an ideal time to rebuild movement gently. Instead of trying to overhaul schedules, it helps to choose one daily anchor—a short walk after school, time outside on weekends, a brief stretch routine before bed, or a predictable window for active play. When movement becomes part of the rhythm of the day rather than a performance expectation, kids do better. 

If there’s one thing worth prioritizing this month, it’s this: reintroduce daily movement slowly and consistently before adding intensity or structure. Ten to twenty minutes most days is enough to begin shifting how a child feels.

Movement isn’t a reward for good behavior, and it isn’t just a way to “burn energy.” It’s a foundational support for a developing brain and body. Spring shouldn’t ask children to push harder—but it does ask us to support them differently.

Often, that’s enough to make everything else feel more manageable.