When it comes to my kids and their fitness, I admit I don’t think too much about it. I mean, I like for them to get some daily exercise whether that’s jumping on the trampoline, ballet class, karate, or swimming in the summer. But, beyond that I haven’t put too much thought into their physical fitness.
Recently, however, our family joined the Banner Children’s Go Kids Fitness Challenge. This challenge focuses on encouraging kids (and their families) to stay active during the hot and sometimes miserable summer months ( I also blog for Banner Children’s, so I was happy to sign up).
Now, I don’t know about yours, but my kids love a challenge. Competition? Sign them up? Competing against one another? Check. Competing against mom and dad? Their dream come true. As I began getting ready for the challenge I did a little research (A.K.A. “Googling”) about children’s fitness. It was then that I realized how little I actually knew. Turns out, there are three main components to consider when thinking about our kid’s overall fitness:
The first component is strength and includes things like playing on the monkey bars, tug of war, climbing (and sadly, scaling the bookcase doesn’t count), situps, and pushups. All of these activities help encourage the maximum amount of force that a muscle or muscle group can exert. Which basically just means they help build stronger muscles. Little boys everywhere rejoice!
The second important piece to include in our children’s fitness is endurance which includes playing tag, chasing their sibling down the hallway…again, jumping on a trampoline, riding a bike or scooter, swimming, and running. This area of activity is what helps improve their cardiovascular health and let’s them play harder for longer. Oh joy! [insert sarcastic tone here] Parents everywhere take a deep breath!
The last component of fitness is flexibility and includes activities such as backbends, splits, yoga poses, and cartwheels. Flexibility is what allows our kids to move the body through an entire, normal range of motion. Flexibility also helps prevent injuries in sports and everyday play. Sounds good to me. Moms everywhere smile!
So, the next time you’re at the park with your kiddos or are enrolling them in their next sport, take a moment to consider these three components of fitness. The more we can do as parents to help make sure all areas of fitness are addressed, the healthier, and ultimately, happier our kids will be. Oh, and tuckered out come bedtime. Score.
See all of Nicole’s GO MOM posts. Visit http://gokids.bannerchildrens.com/go-mom-blog/.
