The motto of “Do as I say and not as I do” has never worked well with children. They always seem to pick up our worst habits, forcing us to face parts of our lives that we can improve upon.

Maintaining an Active Lifestyle Inspires Your Children

Exercise and physical activity are no different. If you want your child to be physically active and value that, exercise as essential to their health. Which it is. Then you need to get up and get your body moving too.

According to Dr. Brenda Singal, a pediatrician with York Pediatric Medicine, “Being a good role model – that is the number one job for parents. The kids are seeing you from sun up to sun down, and they’re watching you and picking up on your cues.”

Therefore, it is important for parents to set a good example when it comes to exercise and healthy eating.

Current couch potatoes become rooted in place and produce little spuds just like them. Active kids become active adults. It is that simple.

Teaching Your Children How to be Healthy

Exercising with your children provides you as a parent an excellent opportunity. You can develop a great sense of camaraderie and companionship and provides a chance to bond. It is a valuable way to spend your time.

In addition to being a positive role model and creating the image of health, fitness, and wellness your children can model, you stay fit. It is a win-win situation.

It is important to schedule time to exercise with your children so that nothing will interfere with those set workout times. Think of times such as before or after school and work, in the evening just before dinner, or even on weekends if that is all you can find.

You can both exercise doing the same activity or each pursue your own interests. The important thing is spending time together working on becoming healthier. As long as you enjoy what you are doing, it will be easy for both you and your children to commit to do them on a regular basis.

Follow these workouts with a healthy snack or meal and talk to your children about healthy nutrition and exercise. Explain to them that their physical health affects more than just their body but also their mental and emotional health and their social acuity.

Often, children will lose interest in physical activity if they feel that they are less than other kids their age. For example, when they are always chosen last or fail to make a school sports team. There is a huge emphasis put of being the “star” athlete both in schools and in the media.

Instead, emphasize to your child that the pure joy of exercise or playing a sport coupled with the myriad of health benefits of leading an active lifestyle. Focus on the individual bests and improvements that you and your child make. Show them how to be in competition with themselves rather than the world.

Making sure that your children know that you are proud of them for their physical activity and their dedication to being healthy rather than their awards and trophies will teach them to love challenging themselves physically. It will help to build a lifelong passion for exercise and physical health.

Suggestions for Working Out with Your Children

Combine these to suit the unique needs and tastes of your children and yourself.

Take an aerobics class or buy a tape for home.
Play tennis.
Learn and practice Tai Chi or Yoga
Go to the track and run
Shoot baskets, or practice another team sport such as soccer, basketball, or volleyball
Take a hike in the woods
Weight lifting or cardio work in a gym, either at home or elsewhere
Go swimming
Play golf or just walk the course
Do heavy bag work or practice martial arts
Take a walk or jog outside
Play catch or high fly balls at the batting cages
Go for a bike ride

Don’t forget, making an activity a family affair always adds something fun and new to the mix.

Wrapping It Up

Dr. Singal’s advice for parents is to, “Take care of you first. Then you can take better care of your family. Make sure that you are eating right, exercising, and feel good about yourself because it all goes together and your kids see that.”

Building “walking-instead-of-driving” habits with kids

You need to fall in love with walking for fitness as opposed to driving all time. Don’t get it wrong, walking or running and swimming are still fun, but there is much to be said about walking with your kids. The fact that it counts as a slightly intensive exercise if you walk briskly makes it even more likable, especially for the younger ones. The walking habit can as well be a mid-day activity, particularly during winter since you do not break to a huge sweat that may necessitate a shower after that. Additionally, you can multi-task with your kids during a walk; you can take your pooch with you, make a phone call, go with a friend or even listen to audio stories with your kids.

Healthy fact: Experts recommend that each family undertake at least 130 minutes of discreetly intense every week. Evidently, if you take your kids for a 20-minute walk daily, you will exceed the minimum.

Indeed, walking instead of driving will go from being a daily chore – Walking to the grocery across the road to something fun and pleasant.

Here is how to build a walking instead of driving habits with kids,

Healthy managing mechanism: You need to walk with your children as part of your morning routine to aid in strengthening your friendship with your kids. You can as well use walking as a part of winding down after a busy day at work, and school for kids. It is healthier managing mechanism for stress than slamming a glass of wine or watching animations for kids.

Ditch the car by all means: If you stay in a stone throw away neighborhood, teach your kids to walk daily errands. You can walk to the market, school, the bank, and shops. While driving would usually be faster and easier, when you walk to your errands, you’re killing two birds with a single stone, which makes you and your children feel more productive.

Taking into consideration multi-tasking: While you may love the aspect of zoning out while walking, one of the sure ways to motivate your kids for walking instead of driving is the multi-tasking promise. Use your walking as an opportunity to listen to your kid’s school encounters as well get to know their daily challenges. Moreover, you can use the opportunity to listen to a story on a tape. Alternatively, you can as well use the opportunity to call your friends as the kids take in the story. It’s also prudent to carry a little notebook with you to note down business or project ideas may come to as you walk.

Take a walk with the kids before television: Make sure you squeeze in evening walk before turn over on the television. Take along your children and use the chance to catch up on your days. If you sit on the couch and start watching your favorite programs, it will be all over; you’re all not getting back up until sleep time.

Walking can be quicker than driving: Most people underestimate the time they devote driving. You may think a ten-minute journey may take 2 minutes, not considering the unavoidable time involved. Adding up time spent looking for the car keys, defrosting the car, filling up with gas and walking to and from the car park. And comparing that with a simple walk from point A to B. Even if it takes a little longer to walk, remember the issue is the extra minutes spent in walking and not the total walking time. Evidently, it only costs you a few minutes more in a day to walk with your children to the grocery or shop instead of driving.

It is free: The inclination of having something for free while others pay for it is much different from benefiting from money saving, it is even better. Walking with your kids is indeed free and satisfactory.

In conclusion, everyone knows the benefits of walking instead of driving, but most people have developed ways of ignoring what is best for them and their families. As a result, we should always remind ourselves reason for walking as well as how to make it fun and pleasant!

Helping kids choose activities that are active

Kids can be unrelenting as they want to leap, run, climb and spin at every occasion. Their plea to get moving make it a fantastic opportunity to inspire long-lasting fitness practices.

The same way adults need fitness is the same way children do; to boost their body health as well as ensuring that they can do what is required of them. Exercising helps children grow, build resilient bones and muscles, boosts self-esteem and built significant skills.

How Can I help my kids choose activities that are Active?

So what are guardians’ and parents’ responsibilities? What motivates kids is well known to everyone, fun. You need to know activities that are best suited for your child’s age group to keep active moments fun. Additionally, this makes a fun time top priority for them. Kids might cry if you take them on a boring walk on a workout track. However, if you walk through thickets while having a stopover to admire nature as well hurling stones into a watercourse, the walk becomes interesting.

Moreover, you need to understand skills your kid has and are working on, which makes it key to keeping it fun. For instance, you could be having a fun time hit out the ball back and forth together. Nonetheless, your kid would probably not enjoy if they are made part of a soccer team, with rules enforced.

Fun on a vacation

Identify times to have active fun away from home. You also need to access if your kids at preschool or childcare center can access a large indoor playing space or an outdoor playground. Equipment and games need not be elegant. Children adore simple games such as playing with balls and plastic bats and catch and tag, tumbling and dancing. Surprisingly, they still adore “Duck, goose” game.

Kids are also working on basic skills such as balancing on one foot, pedaling tricycles, and skipping, hopping as well throwing and catching balls. When they learn these skills, they build poise, which makes them more likely to continue being active physically as they grow up. You can start with a 60-minute structure physical activity per day, at least thrice in a week.

Create Free Time

Creating free time can as well persuade kids to be more active. Some activities need to be structured and guided by a guardian or a parent; it is prudent to allow them to take the lead at times. Help out your children to get at least 40 minutes of free play activity every day.

Unstructured physical activity means allowing children choose an activity and make a choice on what to do within a supervised and safe environs, of course. This could comprise of running around exercise track, exploring backyard and playing dress up.

Kids like to take on a gender-specific role during pretend moments since they are starting to identify themselves with members of same sex. For example, a girl may take roles of a mother by taking up garden chores, while a boy could impersonate their daddy by mowing the lawn.

As a Parent, you play a Vital Role

It is important to note that your kids are clearly keeping a keen eye on your daily habits, how you spend your time; as a result, you should set a good example through exercise often. In fact, your children will pick up some of your habits and will naturally do them.

Alternatively, you can help and encourage your kids choose active activities through:

Limiting screen time: Allow a maximum of up to two hours in a day in front of the screen: tablets, TVs, computer, video games and other electronic devices. Yet most of the computer games and programs are targeted on kids and preschooler, none of them is necessarily meant for their development. If you choose to allow the use of a computer, limit its use to school-related tasks. Moreover, choose the software carefully and sites your kid visit.
Keep it enjoyable: Take time to identify activities your kids like and offer more chances to revel in them. Keep supplies and equipment nearby, and if need be, keep them within your vicinity for your child.
Exercise close supervision: Kid’s physical abilities such as climbing to the topmost of playground tower frequently surpass their capability to decide what is risky and what is benign. Similarly, they do not know when to take a break especially when it is hot. Importantly, ensuring that kids engage in safe activities outside is part of helping them have active fun through keeping an eye on them. Finally, do not forget a snack and water!

Family fun exercise ideas

Start Moving

Toddlers and babies often spend the better part of their time either plopped in front of the television or strapped into car seats. These deny them the chance of practicing their upcoming skills as well strengthening their muscles, lungs, and heart. Moreover, these habits can as well set family members for sedentary lifestyles that may lead to obesity at an adult age. Cultivating good habits of exercising will go a long way. It is worth noting that it is neither too late to start not too early to start.

Are you wondering whether you could help your family members get at least an hour of physical exercise when you cannot even hit the gym? If the answer is yes, you need to rethink your exercise idea. Work out need not be lifting weights or running laps that may demand setting aside time. Family fun exercises lead to an active lifestyle that involves kids, and an adult can fit in more than they may think.

Cycle or Walk whenever you can

Bike or walk to the library, grocery, sports events or to your kid’s school as often as possible. You can as well go for a family walk that lasts at least 20 minutes after dinner, as opposed to heading to the TV right away. If possible, use a pedometer to track everyone’s steps and make an attempt at adding few miles every week. Use a beautiful sticker or exercise log to track your improvement. You can keep your chart in the refrigerator as a quick reminder to the family to keep up the noble determination.

Lively Family Get-togethers

During your kid’s birthday party events, serve your family with a fitness session, in addition to the cake. This activity can be achieved through organizing active games such as a relay or tag races. However, older children may prefer a dance party. Indeed, large kid gathering is a great opportunity to throw a team sport. All you need is head to a neighboring soccer playground or basketball court. Other family fun ideas may include, ice skating, indoor rock gym climbing or a pool party.

Moreover, during a family gathering, ensure that the television is off. Alternatively, you can go for a brief hike at a nearby park or take a walk in your neighborhood. You can as well get everybody outside for basketball or a catch game.

Singing and Dancing when cleaning

You must set aside time for undertaking household chores as well as doing them together as a family. As you clean, play music and choose favorite music in turns. Younger kids like to assist in sweeping floors or to pick up toys while bopping with the sweeper. Elder children on the other hand love to help out and can vacuum, dust as well as make beds.

Brand Yard Work less of a Task

Adore periodic yard work as a family. Younger kids would love to help in planting andtending a garden. Older children can help out in raking leaves together and after that jump on it. By building a snow fort, snow scooping becomes fun for all. Making a family of snow people makes this goal achieved with ease.

Walk the Pet

It is indeed true that dog owners have more fun in losing weight as opposed to their counterparts. Moreover, they can keep it off longer as compared to non-puppy owners. If you do not have a pooch, it is time to look for some. Get your kids moving! Have then walk after dinner through tasking them to go out looking for dogs. You will be surprised this will work like a charm!

Schedule a regular sports night

Get everybody up and moving every Friday, for instance. Choose one of the favorite games to your family such as it-deck shuffle. Make sequences of playing cards featuring friendly exercises such as ape walking or bear crawling. Every family member picks up one of the cards and undertakes the pictured exercise until all the cards are exhausted. Alternatively, you can buy readymade exercise set cards from online stores such as Fit deck.

Jump Rope

Rope Jumping is one of the exercises that is friendly to the whole family. In fact, younger children dominate this exercise once they master it, thanks to their lower center of gravity. At least 10 minutes of this exercise is adequate to get the blood flowing. It is worth noting that with at least one person, it is fun to learn all chunks of fun hurdles.

Great active kids hobbies

Are you thinking about hobbies that families can do together particularly for active kids under the age of seven? Hobbies world appears to open up as your kids grow older. However, you are not as limited as you may think even with younger kids. After a brainstorming session with a friend of mine, we came up with an adorable list!

Gardening: This is one of the favorite hobbies for active kids. Children love dirt, and there is a lot of fun in gardening. Kids get to connect with the earth as well as watch fruits of their labor blossom, grow and ultimately become food on their plate. Gardening is indeed one of the wonderful experience for kids. Not only do they get to know where food comes from, but they create gratitude for the work it takes to present food to the family table. Furthermore, it is a great way of blowing off the stream, nothing like plowing to let go of energy.
Making music together: Nobody cares if you know how to play a musical instrument. Learn them as a family, alternatively, have every member identify a different instrument to learn. For sure, there are music lasses intended for this idea in mind.
Collect as a family: There are lots of assortments that can be bowed to more than just an active kid’s hobby. They can serve as provender for home education. Coins and stamps, for instance, have a great potential for historical, mathematical and geographic discussions. Shells and rocks are even another delightful tools advancing studies in oceanography and geology. Collection develops skills correlated to classifying and sorting in addition to opening up discussions with an academic motivation.

Taking up photography: Even the smallest kid can help out in taking pictures. Undoubtedly, babies who can grasp objects can get hold of the camera and snap pictures. It takes a short time before they can take pictures. Favorite photographs are taken through kid’s eye as they snap random pictures of our regular days. Photography conveys an awareness of our surroundings, and it can bring lots of fun for everybody. Additionally, photo comparison and observing the same snap taken through different eyes turns out to be pretty fun.
Nature exploration: Every young child is thrilled at getting out to explore nature. It does not matter your location; there is at least a place you can visit to get in Mother Nature. Be it bird watching, hiking, wild walk or simply breathing in fresh air; it is indeed a beautiful experience especially if it is a family affair. Each escapade is unique, and even babies will enjoy getting along in a baby carrier as opposed to getting stuck in the house.

You need to get moving. Cycling, swimming and horse riding are all friendly activities for active kids. When kids go along as active participants, there are always other family activities that can be done.
Volunteering: Volunteering not only instills significant values in your kids but serves as a need too. Some of the best family memories focus on helping out others

Because there’re days you cannot get outdoor as well as days you cannot resist getting outside, below are some of the hobbies that can simply be done either outdoor on indoor:

Active Kids’ Indoor or Outdoor Hobbies

It is worth noting that these activities can either be don outdoor or in, only with trivial modifications to the activity.

Simply setting up a balance beam, outside or in, and walking along it. Who cannot make it across?
Set up a ‘hot lava’ kind of a game. Set up a cluster of newspaper plates and hurdle from one to the next.
Impersonate one another. If you got a toddler, copy whatsoever they do. You can as well try this out with a pet as well.
Create roads to run along, drive alongside, either outside or in. Sidewalk chalk works well, so does tape!
Enjoy jumping in the house, or set it up outdoors. All you need is sidewalk chalk or some tape.
You can tape decorated lines or draw on the walkway and have the kids stride along them!

How to teach kids to limit their time in front of screens and get active

Managing kids screen time is one of the huge challenges of modern parenting. It was much easier for ancient parents since there were fewer influencing programs on our screens. In fact, when you missed a program, you had to wait for the following day.

Currently, we have smartphones, tables, video games, Netflix, PVRs and much more, which makes it even more difficult to keep up with them all, create reasonable limits as well as evaluate them. Furthermore, it is even more difficult for us, adults, to disconnect from these devices since they make our lives easier many time. Indeed, much has been published on this topic to make sense out of it all. However, it remains one of the huge subjects of conversions during parent’s meetings.

How do you manage screen period in your house? Do you have limits set? And how much is enough?

Have a Conversation With Your Family

Have you kids understand the importance of sitting less and moving more, especially staying within healthy weight limits. Explain to them that they will be more energetic, which will help them out in developing or perfecting a new skill, such as cycling and could create much fun with friends. Importantly, affirm them that you will do the same.

Lead by a Good Example

It is important for you as a parent to lead by example through limiting your time on screen to no more than three hours in a day. If your children observe that you are obeying your rules, then they will be more obliged to do the same.

Track Active Time versus Screen Time

Start logging time spent on the screen by your family, including activities such as DVD watching, playing video games as well as using the computer for activities that are not school or work related. Then compare it with the level of physical activity they take part. This way, you will grasp a sense of the changes needed.

Be Creative by Making Screen Time Active Time

Engage in an active activity when you spend time on the screen. You can do yoga, stretch as well as lift weights. Alternatively, you can challenge your family to see one who can do most leg lifts, push-ups or jump jacks during television commercial breaks.

Set Screen Time Restrictions

However difficult it is, make a house rule that bounds screen time to three hours in a day. Notably, put into effect the rule!

Make your Bedrooms Screen-free

Do not have any computer or TV in your kid’s bedroom. In fact, children who have a television in their bedroom tend to have about one and half hours more on the screen every day as compared to those who do not have. Furthermore, it keeps children away from the rest of the family by keeping them in their rooms.

Mark Meal Time as Family Time

It may appear difficult, but it is possible. Keep the TV off during mealtimes. If possible, have the TV far from eating area if there is any. Meal times are a good time to converse with one another. It is indeed true that families who take food together are likely to have more wholesome food. Prioritize eating together and plan family meals at least thrice each week.

Provide Alternative Options

Watching can become habitual, thus making it easier to overlook what is out there. Offer your family ideas or substitutes, such as having outdoor games, developing a new hobby or even learning a new sport altogether.

Deceased from using TV Time as a Reward or Punishment

Such practices are likely to make children perceive TV as important!

Understand TV Placements and Advertisements

Seeing fast food, snack foods soda and candy on the TV affects everybody, particularly children. Help your kids understand that since it is on television or favorite program does not mean a drink or food is healthy. Make your children think why their favorite animation character is attempting to getting them eat particular breakfast cereal brand.

Remove Your TV Cable

If you want a swift and effective way of limiting TV watching habits, cut your TV cable feed or remove it altogether. It will indeed change your family watching habits overnight. Luckily, it’ll impact your checkbook positively as well!

Motivating Children to be Active

Maybe your child gets more excited about video games than playing sports or maybe he or she feels too out of shape to keep up with other children his or her age. Maybe your child is shy, smaller or larger than other kids are their age, or maybe they just dislike sports in general. Whatever the reason, it can be difficult to motivate children to exercise when there are other forces motivating them not to.

Luckily, there are several things that you can try to help get your child motivated to get his or her body moving.

Exercising looks different for kids than it does for you.

For most adults, exercising is a marathon event. It involves pushing oneself for extended periods of time and thus burning a set number of calories or exercising for a set number of minutes at a time. However, that is not how children’s bodies work.

According to Dr. Blaise Nemeth, associate professor at the American Family Children’s Hospital at the University of Wisconsin, “Children exercise in short bursts and use their bodies in lots of different directions. Think of yourself as if you were a playmate – not a personal trainer.”

In other words, do not send your child out to jog a mile but rather challenge them to a quick sprint or play a game of tag in the yard.

Become a Covert Operative.

Okay, so maybe that is a little dramatic, but there are many somewhat sneaky ways of getting kids to be physically active without them realizing that they are moving more. For instance:

Suggest that your son or daughter earn money for something they want – like a new video game – by walking dogs, raking leaves, or mowing lawns. All of will provide your child with much needed aerobic, muscle strengthening, and bone strengthening exercise.
Park as far from the entrance as reasonably possible so that everybody has to walk a further distance to get inside.

“Rather than looking at it like you’re being sneaky, think of yourself as the mastermind of your child’s wellbeing,” says Dr. Kathleen Bethin, clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Buffalo.

Start out small and build up with time.

Although experts recommend that children get an hour of exercise every day, there is no reason why that should be all in one shot. Dr. Bethin says, “If exercising for 30 minutes feels like too much for kids, they’re not going to do it.”

Try instead to get them do a smaller amount – even five minutes is better than nothing. The idea is to not only get them moving but to help them learn to want to keep moving.

By getting them to set a goal and then stick to that goal, they get a sense of accomplishment. They know that they did something that makes you proud of them. Those two combine to make a powerful incentive for children.

As Dr. Bethin says, “It gives them something to look back on and say ‘I did that.’” That will inspire them to do more and more over time.

4. Talk about the benefits of exercise.

When you speak to a child like they are intelligent enough to understand adult matters, they listen closely. That is not to say that you need to sit him or her down and get into chemistry and biology and other heady topics better left for their high school years.

However, simply helping a child to understand all the ways that moving his or her body will help them feel better and be stronger will go farther than you may think. For instance, in the case of a child who would rather have their nose buried in a book than play catch, explaining that physical activity has been tied to better academic performance may be all the motivation your little Einstein needs.

5. Model the behavior you want your child to emulate.

The motto of “Do as I say and not as I do” has never worked well with children. They always seem to pick up our worst habits, forcing us to face parts of our lives that we can improve upon.

Exercise and physical activity are no different.

If you want your child to be physically active and value that, exercise as essential to their health. Which it is. Then you need to get up and move too.

Getting Overweight Children Started with Exercise

According to the American Heart Association, nearly one in three children in the United States is overweight or obese. Obesity alone affects one in six children and adolescents.

In a study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics between 2011 and 2014, children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 years old were surveyed. Throughout that period, the prevalence of obesity remained constant at approximately 17 percent. That is about 12.7 million kids.

How are the terms “overweight” and “obese” defined in children?

According to the CDC growth charts, a child’s weight status is determined using an age and sex specific percentile for their body mass index (BMI) rather than the BMI categories used for adults.

Often referred to as BMI-for-age, it is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) growth charts list four BMI-for-age standards:

Underweight is defined as < the 5^th percentile.
Healthy Weight is defined as falling from the 5^th percentile to < the 85^th percentile.
Overweight is defined as falling from the 85^th percentile to < the 95^th percentile.
Obese is defined as falling at the 95^th percentile or above.

Consequences of Childhood Weight Problems

Obesity and even being overweight during childhood can have a harmful effect on the developing body. Children who are obese or overweight are more likely to have:

High cholesterol and blood pressure which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Impaired insulin resistance, glucose tolerance, and type 2 diabetes
Breathing problems like asthma
Joint problems
Musculoskeletal discomfort
Gallstones, diverticulitis, fatty liver disease, gastro esophageal reflux disorder (GERD), and other stomach or digestive problems
Psychological issues related to low self-esteem like anxiety and depression
Social problems like bullying and social anxiety disorders

Special Considerations before Exercising

One common misconception is that overweight or obese children need to exercise more than those who have healthy weights. The fact is that all children, regardless of size, need sixty minutes of physical activity each day. The extra body weight will help them to naturally burn more calories for the same activity as slimmer children.

However, that does not mean that these heavier children should jump right into the same activities and at the same level as other children of healthier weights. Since obesity in children is often caused by a sedentary lifestyle, it is essential to ease into a new exercise regime. In addition, if you want your child to succeed you need to make it fun.

Creating a program of exercise that builds muscles, burns calories, and that your children will enjoy can help you to reduce the serious consequences of obesity for your child. First, consult their doctor and then follow these precautions.

Heart Smart Exercise

Asking children that have not led active lives – worse, have actively led sedentary lives – to get their heart rates up with aerobic exercise for more than a half an hour can be dangerous for them. It is better to start slow and build up. Help children learn to warm up for such exercise and make sure that they take breaks as needed. Also, make sure that they maintain a good level of hydration.

Do not Overwork their body

Performing high impact, repetitive exercise where both feet leave and hit the ground at the same time can cause obese children to develop joint or back pain. For example, exercises such as running, jumping jacks, jogging, jumping rope, or aerobic dancing have both feet leaving the ground and returning together. Instead, seek out exercises that do not put repetitive impact on a child’s legs, hips, and/or feet.

Beginner to Intermediate

Start out slowly with moderately intense workouts that have little to no impact on your child’s joints. Taking walks, push-ups with knees down and crunches are good starting exercises. Increase intensity and duration as your child becomes stronger

After the child improves his or her muscular endurance and cardiovascular stamina, you can raise the intensity level of their workouts. Eventually, your child will be doing all the exercises of other children their age.

Make It Fun

Above all else, make sure that your child learns that exercising can be fun. If they learn to love being healthy then they will take that with them throughout their life.

Teaching Kids to Track their Fitness Progress

Being physically active is good for children’s bodies. At least sixty minutes of activity each day encourages children to build endurance and stamina, grow strong muscles and bones, and maintain a healthy weight.

According to Cris Dobrosielski, a personal trainer and spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise, “In general, many kids in the United States aren’t getting enough physical activity. There is very little physical education in schools, recess is often short, and kids are coming home and not having opportunities to be active.”

Thus, it is essential to encourage your child to participate in activities that are age-appropriate, offer variety, and are fun for them. That way you will have an easier time getting them to participate willingly and to their fullest potential.

An important part of teaching children about exercise is showing them how to set fitness goals and track their progress. With healthy realistic goals and the tools to reach those goals, maintaining a healthy relationship with physical activity is possible for a child’s entire life.

Components of Fitness

First, it is essential to understand the components of fitness so that you can develop a method to measure whether or not you are progressing towards your goals. There are five essential components. These include:

Muscular endurance: This is the capability of a single muscle or group of muscles to exert force repeatedly against resistance. Running is an example of an exercise that counts as muscular endurance as a runner is performing multiple repetitions of the same movement or exercise.
Flexibility: the range of motion in a joint or group of joints or the ability to move joints effectively through a complete range of motion.
Cardiorespiratory endurance: This physical fitness component relates to the respiratory and circulatory systems ability to provide the necessary energy during sustained physical activity as well as their ability eradicate the products of fatigue products.
Muscular strength: Defined as the facility of a group of muscles to develop the maximum contractile force possible within a single contraction.
Body composition: The term “body composition” is employed in the world of physical fitness to refer to the amount of water, muscle, bone, and fat by percentage in human bodies. Fat tissue takes up more space in one’s body than muscle tissue does. Thus, it makes more sense to use this as a gauge for leanness than weight alone.

Why is it important?

Teaching children how to assess their own fitness, set goals based on that assessment, and create plans to achieve fitness goals might just be the most important lessons that a child can learn about fitness. Without the ability to do these three simple steps and thus see progress, a child can become discouraged and lose interest in exercise altogether.

Goals are essential to exercising for children so that they can feel a sense of accomplishment rather than simply doing so because they are told they have to. When a child sets a goal for where they want to be, they have the incentive of personal pride to compel them forward.

After all, you have to know where you are in order to figure out where you want to be.

How to do it

One method that physical education teachers often use in helping students to set goals and track their own progress is the S.M.A.R.T. system. Although there are other words used to stand for the letters in this acronym, the most commonly used are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timeline.

Specific: What do you specifically want to accomplish? For example, rather than saying that you want to be able to do push-ups, make the goal specific – you want to do 15 unmodified push-ups.
Measureable: How can you measure your progress over time? If you cannot, then you need to rethink your goal.
Attainable: Is this something that is realistic for you to achieve? For example, if your specific goal is to slam dunk a basketball on a regulation court but you are only ten years old and under five feet tall, then that is not a very attainable goal at this point in your life. Maybe make it a goal to make five consecutive baskets first and work up to the slam-dunking.
Relevant: How is this relevant to your fitness training?

Much as the last example was of setting your goal too high, this often entails setting it too low. If you are training to increase your speed when running, then setting the specific goal of maintaining a consistent speed in the mile is not relevant to that training.

Timeline: When do you want to achieve your goal?

Remember to keep this attainable and relevant as well.

Weekly Exercise for Kids

Levels of Intensity

When considering whether an activity is of moderate or vigorous intensity, there are a few ways to gauge the difference.

The most basic is to consider the heart and breathing rates of the child performing the activity. Moderately intense activity causes a child to breathe harder and their heart to beat faster than normal. Likewise, vigorously intense activity causes the heartbeat and breathing of the child to increase much more than normal, beyond that of moderate intensity activities.

Another way to judge intensity is to compare your child’s activity level with that of the average child. If your child rides the bus to school, spends the majority of their free time watching television or playing sedentary games, and forgoes outdoor, athletic activities then they are experiencing zero physical intensity.

If they walk to and from school with friends on a daily basis, that can be considered moderately intense activity. Actively running during free play or organized sports is vigorously intense.

Three Types of Essential Exercise

The first type of exercise that is essential to good physical health is aerobic activity. This type should make up the majority of your child’s sixty minutes of physical activity each day. It can include either moderate intensity exercise such as fast-paced walking or another high intensity exercise such as running.

The second type is exercise that strengthens your child’s muscles. This type of activity should be participated in at least three days per week and includes activities such as gymnastics and pushups.

The third and final kind of exercise essential for physical health is bone-strengthening exercises. As with the previous type of exercise, these should be done at least three days per week. Exercises such as jumping rope and running fall under the category of bone strengthening.

What is the difference between the three essential types?

Many of the activities your children participate in fall under the headings of more than one of the three essential types of exercise. This means that it should be easy for you to make sure that your child is getting all the recommended amounts.

Moderate Intensity Aerobic Exercise

This includes active recreation such as hiking, skateboarding, bicycling, rollerblading, canoeing, and cross-country skiing among others. It also includes house and yard work such as sweeping or raking leaves. Games that require throwing and catching such as basketball, baseball, and volleyball are also in this category.

Vigorous Intensity Aerobic Exercise

Active games that involve running and/or chasing such as tag, flag football, or soccer are in this category of physical activity. So are sports such as ice or field hockey, swimming, tennis, and basketball. In addition, jumping rope, martial arts like karate, cheerleading, gymnastics, and vigorous dancing fall into this category.

Muscle Strengthening Exercises

These exercises include resistance exercises that use body weight or resistance bands for younger children and weight machines and hand held weights for adolescents. The game tug of war is also excellent for any age group.

Push-ups are also excellent for building muscle strength. It is recommended that younger children do modified push-ups with their knees on the floor. Climbing ropes, walls, and trees as well as swinging on playground equipment also help in this regard. Cheerleading, gymnastics, and dancing are further methods for building a child’s muscle strength.

Bone Strengthening Exercises

Any game or sport that involves hopping, skipping, or jumping is excellent for developing this essential element of physical health. This includes sports such as gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, and tennis as well as free style activities such as jumping rope and running.

Inspiring Your Children By Maintaining an Active Lifestyle