As a physical education teacher the hardest thing to do was to get kids to exercise. Kids will run around all day as long as they are having fun. The best way to get children to exercise to make it not seem like an exercise. Make fun exercises for children and they will do it for prolonged periods of time. Focus on movement exercises rather than athletic skill exercises. There is a large market for exercise studios that make fun exercises for children. Brian Zarley reports on how Doug Grosser has developed a program for youth fitness and sports. His program focuses on fun activities that are movement oriented, not strictly structured and develop general fitness skills.
Fun Exercises for Children
“We’re focusing on training for youth fitness and sports, although we’ll do adult fitness training as well,” Grosser said. “Fitness training will start at six years old through adult, sports training a little bit older — like nine years old and up from there. The training is for any fitness goal and any sports.”
Grosser noticed that the current trend in child exercise was to work on sport specific skills, rather than have the child gain the fitness base needed for a healthy lifestyle. Grosser orients his training to be fun and active for all ages.
“For the younger kids, its more organized play,” Grosser said. “Their activities are more fun, less structured. It’s less skills based; it’s more movement based. We just want to keep them moving, really. As they get older we get a little more technical, with their strength training, with their speed training, they’re agility stuff. We’ll get more specific with their sports as they get older.”
Grosser studied at West Chester University, earning a Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology. He also has a strength and conditioning specialist certification from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, a corrective exercise specialist certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine and a youth fitness specialist certification from the International Youth Conditioning Association.
Performance is well lit and warm, its wealth of open floor space and lack of selectorized machines hallmarks of a facility that puts wellness first. Free weights, agility ladders, jump ropes and resistance bands are joined by an array of medicine balls and top 40 hits on an ipod in the corner.
The focus on health is not limited to just exercise.
“We’ll cover basic nutrition with the kids, and get more in depth as they get older,” Grosser said. “That’s a big part of the overall program.”
Sessions are by appointment. Performance offers one-on-one training, as well as small group training, with groups consisting of up to four children.
To combat obesity in children more programs have to be developed that focus on fun exercises for children. I think, most children love to move and play in games that are non-competitive and enjoyable. It’s crucial to teach children at a young age about the importance of health, nutrition and exercise. This is the responsibility of parents and the educational system to get kids involved in movement exercises at a very early age.
To read the complete article see Patch.com
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