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Give Your Child the Gift of a Healthy Lifestyle through Physical Fitness

By Figure Skating Performance, Fitness for Everyday Performance

Even though children and youth enjoy playing, many are not getting the necessary amount of exercise recommended daily. Fitness training for your kid(s) may be something you’ve never considered. However, it is an important activity to include in your child/teenager’s life.

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine in the Optimum Performance Training for Youth course (which I’ve completed), obesity and diabetes II are the top risk factors for youth. So, if the only reason you start having your child do fitness training is to avoid one of the above diseases or risk factors, that’s a more-than-good-enough reason.

In this post I’m going to talk about children and youth. Youth is typically considered ages 10-20. Structured exercise can begin at age 4!

Here are 7 ways to help your child become more active:

 

1. Schedule fun fitness training or sport activity 3-5 days per week.

 

2. Get the entire family involved with activities such as family hikes, bike rides, tennis, or swimming. Support from family is very helpful in the success of developing positive fitness and eating habits.

3. Help your child be active every day. Even those days that are not for fitness training or sport, go for a walk or do something fun that’s active with your child.

4. Set up a time for your child and his or her friend(s) to have fun in the park or mess around in the yard – anything as long as you know they’re being safe, active, and having fun!

5. Parents will love this one! Set up a schedule for your children to do weekly cleaning and certain chores every day. Yard work is a great workout and task. Vacuuming or mopping floors and washing the car are some great activities. It may sound difficult, but you’d be surprised at how kids and teens can enjoy chores when they are made fun!

6. Athletic children and youth involved in sport can experience added improvement in their sport and prevent injuries with fitness training. As an example, ice skaters can really benefit from off-ice training such as sports conditioning, Pilates, jump, Zumba, balance work, and stretching.

Ice skaters tend to specialize in their sport at young ages, so it’s all the more important to develop strength and flexibility throughout the body to prevent muscular imbalances and injuries later in life. With fitness training added into figure skaters’ weekly routines, skaters can enjoy their sport even more and feel great!

7. Look for youth fitness programs. Check out programs such as Zumbatomic (Zumba for kids), fitness classes, personal trainers, and sport-specific training for youth. Schools, churches, and community centers can have information on fitness programs, too.

Be creative! Physical fitness is a lifestyle, so the earlier it’s started the more enjoyable it can be and the more likely it’ll be a positive habit for life. Sometimes youth behavior can improve with fitness training as youth begin to have goals and use their energy positively. As I said earlier, youth who are already in sport can experience added improvement in their sport and prevent injuries. Watch your child develop and become excited as his or her health and fitness improves!

My parents encouraged whatever interest my brother and I had, especially in sport or activity. We did ski racing, roller skating, ice skating, dance, karate, and many other sports. We also began doing fitness training for our skating together with a personal trainer at times and in sport-specific classes for me as early as the age of 8.

This developed a love of health and fitness for me for life and helped me know later on that I wanted to get my personal training certification and Pilates certification. I cannot thank my parents enough for encouraging activity and sport in my youth and throughout my life. A healthy lifestyle is one of the best gifts you can give your child!  🙂

Note: If you live in San Diego or are visiting the Southern California area, check out the summer fitness and artistic classes for youth and adult skaters at the Kroc Center.

Photo Credit: Photo by Giulio Bernardi at Flickr Creative Commons.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

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    • online sport nutrition says

      Bone strengthening activities, like jumping, are especially important for children and adolescents. These activities produce a force on the bones that promotes bone growth and strength.

      • EVL Nutrition Pre Workout ENGN says

        You can combine moderate and vigorous exercise over the course of the week—say, by doing 20 to 25 minutes of more vigorous intensity activity on two days, and then doing 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity on two days. It’s fine to break up your activity into smaller bursts, as long as you sustain the activity for at least 10 minutes. Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days for the week. Children should get at least 1 hour or more a day of physical activity in age-appropriate activities. Healthy older adults should follow the guidelines for adults.  

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  18. JC. Maria says

    Hi
    Thank you for the great article. I’m thinking the same thing with my kid. I love to run and I hope that my son would love to do more exercise too.
    Thanks

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    Thanks for your health and fitness relevant article which will be benefited to our child physical fitness. This article shows us how to keep fitness with family member activities.

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  28. Michael says

    Thanks for this post. Very insightful. I support point number 4 very well especially for families who have just one child. coming together with other friends and families would create enough sporting activities.

  29. Jean Boissonneault says

    Nice post! Thanks for sharing; actually our today’s time forget to spare some time for themselves and when they don’t have time to give for their fitness it effects their mental functionality too and eventually leads to poor performance and stress. It is very much important for each and every individual to spare some time for health & wellness of themselves and their family which actually will give them a way of living a great life.

  31. Stefan says

    That is so true.

    Unfortunately my ex-wife (where my three children live) is lazy as something and doesn’t ever go with them to play and exercise. I only to get to see them every second week-end and that is not enogh to form long lasting habits 😐

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    It’s fine to break up your activity into smaller bursts, as long as you sustain the activity for at least 10 minutes. Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days for the week.

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  38. Steves Web Design says

    Ive been a little worried about my daughters weight lately,it wasnt to bad as a child but just now as she starts her teens she seems to be piling the weight. ill try a couple of these tips particularly the zumba routines and see how she takes to it. great tips keep it up .