How To Keep Your Kids Active

By Michael Torchia

Shockingly, 15 percent of American children are considered overweight or obese.

Of course, controlling your child's diet is important, but finding a workout that keeps your child's attention is just as crucial.

Parents need to step in and make sure their children are still living balanced lives that include physical activity, especially since Physical Education is no longer mandatory in schools.

Studies show the majority of obese children live with the danger of becoming obese adults and may suffer from health problems and diseases like cancer, stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.

There are several things parents can do to encourage their children to stay active and break the growing cycle of childhood obesity. It's important to make sure that they are in a regular exercise routine.

Parents should encourage their children to get involved in after school sports to ensure that they are getting enough exercise each week. Packing a healthy lunch for kids is crucial. More kids today eat fast food, and parents have to take a proactive role in making sure their children's meals are healthy.

Here are examples of a few fun activities for children:

Hopscotch/Tag: Years ago kids played hopscotch and tag and didn't know it qualified as exercise! This formerly popular activity can be revived to easily promote physical fitness. Hopscotch helps kids learn better balance and coordination and playing tag keeps one's heart pumping to burn more calories and improve cardiovascular health.

Jumping Rope: Jumping rope is a fantastic cardiovascular exercise for kids. The regular intervals of jump roping pumps the heart steadily and is a great form of aerobic exercise.

Biking: Biking is another really good way to get a child to exercise. From first learning on a tricycle to the celebrated arrival of the two-wheeler, biking is something that can be viewed as an achievement, as well as an easy way to increase a child's physical activity. Biking helps children develop coordination, balance, work the back muscle groups that aid good posture, and build up leg muscles. Moreover, biking gives children an easy way to travel to their friends' houses and assert independence--an added incentive that will get those legs, and lungs, pumping!

Roller Blading: Bikes aren't the only wheels that kids can use to rev up their heart rate. Rollerblading is an activity that can be done indoors, and out, and an activity the whole family can join in. Whether in an indoor skating rink, or just playing by the sidewalk, rollerblading is an activity that is fun for the children and healthy as well.

Walk the Dog: Another exercise that can be performed daily by a child is none other than the traditional walk with the dog. Jogging, or even walking at a brisk pace, with the dog, floods the body with endorphins and a slew of other health benefits related to exercise. Bring along a stick to throw to Fido, and the workout has becomes even more intense. What's more: walking the dog everyday is a sure-fire way to maintain regular exercise, which is much more advantageous, in the long run, than intermittent exercising.

Yoga for Kids: Yoga has taken America by storm in recent years. From celebrity yogis like Madonna to stay-at-home moms, yoga has proven to be a way to tone and "center" the mind and body. Yoga is beginning to creep into the school gym programs, too. Just as many high schools throughout the nation have begun offering yoga as a gym option, many "yoga for kids" programs have sprung up as well. Yoga aims to tone the muscle groups, aid coordination, and improve flexibility through stretching. In addition, it has been said that a key principle in yoga, correct breathing, seems to alleviate stress in children.

Getting exercise from everyday activities: Taking a non-traditionalist approach to exercise is just as easy. Children can help mom carry the groceries or walk with her to the drugstore. Whatever the case, mixing up a regular exercise pattern for kids helps them create a healthy lifestyle.

And Don't Forget… If you want high energy, fun exercise routines to keep kids healthy, try exercise videos. Professional trainers will challenge your child with safe exercises to increase balance, coordination and shed pounds.

What's more, fitness is a family event. So for children, who want to work out like mom or dad, try mini treadmills, bikes or weight lifting equipment. These kid-sized fitness tools are made for your child's growing needs and are priced affordably for any budget. So, keep your child fit by having fun.

Parents should exercise along with their children and can easily coordinate simple 30-minute fitness circuit training routines to do with their kids. Putting together a combination of jumping jacks, pushups, crunches, walking lunges and kicking around a soccer ball for a great circuit-training session for the whole family.

Michael Torchia
Health and Wellness Expert
800.933.8633
michael@operationfitness.com
www.operationfitness.com
www.holistichealthfoundation.com
www.healthypetnation.com

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

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