Regardless of what age your child is some form of physical activity is more important than you can possibly imagine. With all the video games, television, computers, etc., it’s no surprise children are becoming overweight and inactive. It is important to educate younger children about the importance of a healthy and active lifestyle. What is the best workout for children?
To prevent injury, it is important for your child to warm up before exercising. This should include about five to ten minutes of light activity, such as walking, calisthenics (jumping jacks, bending, knee lifts), and stretching.
You may modify them if necessary to suit your particular circumstances. Increase or decrease the number of repetitions according to the children’s particular needs and physical ability. When you first start these exercises, correct form is more important than speed. After you become familiar with them, you may increase the speed at which you perform them.
Most of them are considered cardiovascular (aerobic) exercises as well as strength building (anaerobic) exercises. They will also help you develop balance, coordination and agility. These exercises can be performed just about anywhere with little effort. Correct supervision is a NECESSITY, and SAFETY is the primary concern.
All of the most productive exercises incorporate both cardiovascular (aerobic) and strength (anaerobic) work which involves most of the time “whole body” exercises that encourage the children to train their sense of balance and coordination which are integral in the progressive development of a child’s physiological systems. Health benefits can be derived simply from becoming more physically active, but the greatest benefits come from engaging in planned and structured exercise. Cardiovascular risk factors can be reduced and physical fitness enhanced with low to moderate levels of physical activity (40-60% of a person’s maximal aerobic capacity) (Blair & Connelly, 1996).
And, low- to moderate-intensity activity is less likely than vigorous exercise to cause musculoskeletal injury and sudden heart attack death during exercise (a very rare occurrence even for vigorous exercisers), while it is more likely to promote continued adherence to activity (Blair & Connelly, 1996; NIH, 1995).
Current recommendations state that children and adolescents should strive for at least 30 minutes daily of moderate intensity physical activity (Pate, Pratt et al., 1995).
An alternate approach that may be equally beneficial would be to engage in 5- (Blair & Connelly, 1996) to 10-minute (NIH, 1995) bouts of moderate intensity activity throughout the day, for a total accumulation of at least 30 minutes for adolescents and adults and 60 minutes for children (Pangrazi, Corbin, & Welk, 1996).
Walking briskly or biking for pleasure or transportation, swimming, engaging in sports and games, participating in physical education, and doing tasks in the home and garden may all contribute to accumulated physical activity.
All things aside, at the end of the day, all a child wants to do is to have FUN! They want to be constantly stimulated from one day to the next. Their minds are always shifting from one thing to the next, so when provided with all the variables, the best workout needs to be designed specifically and especially for their needs.
This what we specialize at here at Sampa Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. We can make sure that the exercises your child participates in is not only safe, but effective and fun. Once your child begins to train here at Sampa, they will be excited to come into class every time. Luckily for you, we here at Sampa BJJ have the perfect solution: Come try out our Free 30 Day Trial! We’re dedicated to teaching you the wonderful art of Jiu-Jitsu and there’s no downside. If you don’t see any progress or you’re not satisfied with the training in anyway, you have absolutely no obligation to us. There’s no deposits, no squabbling on our part, and we’re very friendly people. You have nothing to lose. Begin your 30-Day Free Trial today!
