Exercise for children

Best kids exercise & benefits of exercise

Following is important information on encouraging exercise for children, benefits of exercise & which child exercises to encourage.

Two links

1)Aerobics for kids

2)Exercise equipment for children (coming)

Exercise for children should be fun!
Years ago, a page on encouraging exercise for children may have seemed as unnecessary as a page on getting children to eat candy. Aren’t all children drawn to candy & exercise like bees to honey?

Well, children are still drawn to candy but the role of exercise in many children’s lives has become more complicated.

Years back, before cable t.v., video games & concerns about safety, kids went out & played, exercised. Research now suggests that many children do not engage in daily, healthy play. Statistics on the rise of obesity rates in children confirm this.

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Tips on specific exercises for children

The best kids exercise is freeform It is vital that sedentary children be encouraged to participate in physical play.

Think hide-n-seek, leap frog, tag, hiking, informal sports including football, baseball, soccer, and so on.

Exercise for children invites a great deal of variety & spontaneity. For other children, exercise has been confined to participation in high stakes, competitive sports where exercise becomes as routinized, free flowing physical activity is replaced by drills, the body’s wisdom regarding how much it should endure is replaced by coaches’ time tables.

Children are not little adults & should not be demanded to exercise in the same way, with the same goals as adults.

Their bodies are developing & their ability to exercise under certain conditions is different from adults. Specific preteen strength & endurance training may have little value for children.

Heavy training, exercising in the heat & fierce competition should especially be avoided.

Neither the inactivity of too many children nor the participation in structured sports represent the ideal when it comes to kids exercise.

Adults need to take a responsible role regarding child exercises, when it comes to duration, type & intensity, at least until older children learn to make responsible decisions regarding physical activity.

Helping kids exercise for health

Child exercises should be fun First, take seriously the recommendation that all children 2 years and older get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise on most, preferably all, days of the week. The 60 minutes should be the low end of duration.

It might be difficult to encourage certain kids to exercise.

Do not present activity as exercise to be undertaken for some health reason. Rather, encourage activities that tap into their innate need to jump, run, skip. Frame child exercises as play.

If possible, model exercise or play yourself, or have others do so. Get into a game of tag, even spontaneously. Involve as many family members & friends as possible, especially other children.

Make it a little less convenient & less tempting to substitute video games or cable tv. Reward play with a toy (a football, jump rope) or a treat ( a sherbet, a hug) right after play.

If a child seems to gravitate towards a particular sport & appears ready for league play, fine. But don’t let participation in a particular sport take over all of a child’s physical play time.

Children need to have access to a variety of activities to develop strength, endurance, flexibility & balance.

Benefits of exercise

There are many benefits of exercises for active children
* Promoting strong muscles & bones, just a side effect of exercise for children

* Age appropriate weight training and exercise will improve bone strength, ligaments & muscle

* Kids exercise increases size and number of blood vessels in the heart and muscles.

* Increases flexibility of blood vessels decreasing the chances of a blood vessel breaking under pressure to cause bleeding or stroke.

* If a child exercises, she improves blood circulation.

* Increased pumping efficiency of the heart

* Develop a lean body

* Fewer injuries

* Reduces the risk of diabetes and some kinds of cancer

* Decreases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

* Lowers blood pressure & cholesterol

* Raises HDL ("good") cholesterol

* Helps children with cerebral palsy by improving physical fitness, participation level, and quality of life

* Asthma improves

* Encourages a generally better outlook on life

* Social skills are enhanced

* Discourages drug, alcohol abuse & smoking

* Helps develop a sense of community

* Allows children to take on leadership roles, handle adversity, improve time management.

* Improve self-confidence & self-esteem

* Makes kids smarter. Children who exercise on a regular basis score higher on standardized tests

* Generally, a child who exercises gets the same benefits as an adults who exercises.

* Sleep sounder

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