Many factors must be considered to help children achieve optimal levels of physical fitness. The Medical City Healthcare fitness all-stars program addresses four healthy lifestyle basics: flexibility/warm up, strength, cardiovascular endurance, and nutrition.
FLEXIBILITY / WARM UP
There are numerous benefits to a regular warm up and stretching routine, including: reduced muscle tension, increased range of movement, enhanced muscular coordination, improved posture, increased blood circulation, and higher energy level. A proper warm up and stretching routine also helps with the transition into high intensity exercise and aids in injury prevention.
Current research on warm up and stretching suggests that muscles should be warmed with light exercise followed by a gradual, sustained stretch. A slow stretch that is held for up to 30 seconds is helpful in preventing muscle soreness after vigorous exercise.
Children must be guided to avoid ballistic, or bouncing, stretching and stretching joints at odd angles. For example, the knee should not be pulled to the side of the body in either direction for stretching exercises. The bend of the knee should always be straight back with the heel directly behind the buttock. Teach kids to slow down and hold their stretches.
It is also important to encourage children to cool down with light activity after vigorous exercise and, as always, drink plenty of water.
Sit-ups are another great body-weight exercise. Kids can start with their knees bent and a spotter holding their feet, creating a great way to work together and build abdominal strength at the same time. If children are unable to come all the way up, have them lift their chests as high as they are able, and build on that. Remember, sit-ups are not done by pulling the head and neck forward ‑any movement should come from abdominal muscles.
Increased muscle strength comes from a gradual increase activity level. Children should never be pushed to do more than they are physically able. Begin at a level they are capable of achieving and help them improve. The American Council on Exercise reports that youth strength training programs result in a significant increase in self-esteem, mental discipline, and socialization among participants.
STRENGTH
Strong muscles help children develop strong bone mass and connective tissue. Healthy muscle mass also helps decrease stored fat and aids with glucose tolerance. Strength training is an excellent tool for injury prevention and becomes very important as children become active in organized sports.
It is vital that children are supervised by a trained adult for any weight-training strength program. As such, we recommend encouraging children to use their body weight for activities that increase strength.
One way to promote strength-building is to encourage children to play games that challenge their strength. Activities such as a wheelbarrow or crab-walk race are fun and require increased muscle endurance and strength. Other enjoyable activities that build strength include climbing and jungle gym or monkey bar games. Any activity should always be supervised by an adult.
Children can be taught to do push-ups by starting with wall push-ups. Standing with feet at arm’s-length from the wall, have them place their hands on the wall, lean into the wall and push away from it until their arms are straight. Have kids do as many reps as they are able to comfortably tolerate, typically not exceeding 20. Once wall push-ups become too easy, kids can move on to modified push-ups. Modified push-ups are done by positioning the body on hands and knees with eyes facing the floor; hands and knees should be about shoulder-width apart. Just as in a regular push-up, kids should bend their elbows and lower their chest until their chin is almost reaching the ground. The modified push-up is finished by slowly returning to the starting position. Once doing 10 or more reps of the modified push-up is easy, children can move on to a full push-up.
CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE
Regular cardiovascular exercise can help decrease obesity, reduce cholesterol and lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease. The negative effects of inactivity are being seen at a younger and younger age. In order to protect children and encourage them to make healthy lifestyle decisions early in life, exercise must become a part of everyday life.
For children, exercise should mean PLAY! Experts recommend that children get a minimum of 60 minutes per day of physical activity. This includes running, playing, biking, jumping rope, or nearly any safe activity that elevates a child’s heart rate. Unfortunately, kids also have quite a few sedentary choices as well. Hand-held electronic games, computers, and television can take up a lot of precious play time. It’s up to parents and adults to help children learn to limit the electronic choices and make sure they are physically active every day. Save the inactive and sedentary choices for rainy days.
It is always important to remember that children do not tolerate heat as well as adults and they must drink plenty of water before, during and after exercise.
