How Much Exercise Do Children Need?

There was a time when no one worried about kids getting enough exercise. Before the invention of television, computers and video games, children often spent much of their time participating in physical activities. They played tag with friends, organized impromptu basketball games and rode their bikes. But today, the abundance of inactive pursuits for children has led to a decrease in their activity level.

The dangers of an inactive lifestyle are many. When an adult has a sedentary lifestyle, it increases his risk of serious health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The same is true for children. Those who do not get enough exercise are at risk for obesity, which can lead to the same ailments and more.

Sadly, the risk of obesity in children can be greater than it is in adults. Growing bodies need lots of calories for their size. But they also need to burn some of those calories. When kids eat what is considered a normal amount for their age and size but do not get sufficient exercise, they gain weight. Add in the fact that they often consume too many unhealthy, high calorie foods, and the risk of obesity is compounded.

Since inactivity in children has not been a problem in years past, there hasn’t been much discussion about how much exercise a child needs. Many parents do not even consider the fact that their children aren’t getting enough exercise, because they got plenty of it when they were kids. Others are aware that exercise is a bigger concern today than it once was, but aren’t sure how much of it their children need.

Most medical professionals agree that children need at least an hour of moderate exercise each day. Moderate exercise includes such activities as walking, swimming or bicycling. This exercise can and should be divided up into smaller portions. A child who plays tag for 20 minutes in the morning, rides her bike for 20 minutes in the afternoon and plays basketball for 20 minutes after dinner is getting an adequate amount of exercise according to these guidelines.

Many experts say that kids need even more exercise than that. Some advocate making sure that they get at least 90 minutes each day. But it is important for children not to overexert themselves. Prolonged intense exercise can expose young bodies to a greater risk of injury. As a general rule, kids can exercise for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. As long as they get ample rest in between these exercise periods, there is no need to limit their activity.

In today’s technologically advanced world, exercise often falls by the wayside, especially for kids. But making sure they get enough exercise each day is crucial to their health. Limiting time spent watching TV and playing games and encouraging our children to enjoy more active pursuits can set the stage for a lifetime of good health.

Kristy Lee Wilson

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How to Become a Positive Role Model by Practising Heart-Healthy Habits

Becoming a role model for your children by practicing good heart-healthy habits is essential not just for us as adults, but for your children as well.

Statistics show that not only has obesity become a pandemic among adults and children, but that children are now also showing early signs of cardiovascular problems.  Among these are high blood pressure, weight gain, high cholesterol, and inactivity.

In order to minimize these factors, parents need to take the lead and begin to demonstrate and effectuate a healthier lifestyle.  Let’s face it; children mimic parents – they learn what they are taught and engage in the same habits as their parents.

Thus, it is important to begin the process of a healthy lifestyle before, during, and after a child is born.  When a child comes home from school and wants a snack, what was once considered the traditional snack of cookies and milk may not be appropriate today.  A piece of fruit or raw vegetables served with low-fat yogurt is much healthier.

Perhaps you have seen the Super Bowl commercial in which parents and kids were shopping for snacks for the game.  The items that were included were certainly not healthy or appropriate for children.  When children see parents snacking on pretzels, potato chips, donuts, and other foods that are high in trans fats and sodium, they will assume it’s okay to eat and follow these habits.

Children need to be taught early about the merits of choosing foods that are healthier.  In addition, regardless of whether the family goes out to dinner or has a prepared meal at home, portion size needs to be a consideration.  One of the ways one family addresses this problem is to serve meals on smaller plates.

Find new recipes and/or create meals that provide a balance.  Include vegetables, fish, chicken, and fruits in the daily diet.

Family activities that involve exercise can go a long way in teaching children the importance of exercise.  If mom and dad are having fun exercising, the children will follow this healthy approach.  Restricting TV and/or computer time can also serve as an effective method to reduce a sedentary lifestyle.

Becoming a positive role model for children requires that we set an example every day.  Consuming foods that are healthy and nutritious, reducing the portions of foods served and engaging in exercise are all part and parcel of an effective and stimulative process by which children will learn the value of each component.  In turn, these components will become a routine part of their daily lives.

Kristy Lee Wilson

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How to Keep Our Children’s Hearts Healthy

Two major components to ensure that children maintain a healthy heart are diet and exercise.

With obesity now a pandemic in our society, the need to increase physical activity and develop healthy eating patterns is essential.

We all know the benefits of exercise.  It can help to control weight, increase the good cholesterol, and reduce blood pressure as well as the risk of diabetes and other illnesses.  It can also offer an inner balance and psychological well-being that instills confidence and self-esteem among children.

The American Heart Association offers a myriad of recommendations both for physical exercise and eating habits.

They recommend that children should engage in 30 minutes of exercise a day.  This can be attained by using the entire 30 minutes of playful activity, or dividing the time into two or three periods in which the total 30 minutes is achieved.

In this day and age of fast food restaurants and on-the-go snacks, it is also important to present a diet regimen that is healthy, targeted, and provides the nutritional value children need to grow into healthy adults.

A diet low in sodium and trans fats is recommended as well as balanced meals including fruit, vegetables, whole grains, fiber, and protein.  Low-fat and/or fat-free dairy products are also recommended.

The total recommended calories consumed depend largely on the age of the child.  For example, for very young children it is advised that 900 calories per day is sufficient.  For teens, it is estimated that 1800 calories for girls and 2200 calories for boys is quite sufficient.

But the main factor in keeping children’s heart healthy is to refrain from over-eating. This means time spent watching TV or playing video games can only contribute to a sedentary lifestyle later on.

Young children are nearly always on the go, and this is a good thing.  However, as children mature and grow into their pre-teen and teen years, their level of activity may slow down.

Thus, any activity that the entire family can engage in will not only keep the children active, but will act as a preventative measure in avoiding any future health problems for all concerned.

Kristy Lee Wilson

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Exercise for the Youngest Set

Kids have so much natural energy it’s sometimes hard to think of why they should be encouraged to exercise. But for the younger crowd, ‘exercise’ means something quite different than in the case of adults.
Adults interested in health and fitness can commit to a rigorous, heavy workout on a regular basis. Kids would often find that sort thing boring, if not outright risky. Routines appropriate for adults just don’t suit the growing bodies of younger kids.

Kids are also becoming increasingly sedentary with the growth of alternative forms of entertainment. TV has been around for decades, but 24 hour per day video, the Internet, and other distractions are relatively recent phenomena. That increases the challenge of finding the right kind of healthy activity for those developing physiques, one that will sustain kids’ interest.

Both common sense and numerous scientific studies agree on two points. Get involved with the kids and they’ll take to exercise readily. Second, make the activity fun and tailored to the child’s age and you’ll start them off right on the road to a healthy lifestyle that lasts a lifetime.

Infants and toddlers are often whisked from barely being able to crawl right into restraints. Car seats and playpens have their place. But a very young child needs, for both physical and mental health, to explore his or her environment freely. Nearly every child will eagerly explore the surroundings, touching and grabbing, manipulating and testing. That should be allowed and even encouraged for at least some part of the day.

Later, when the muscles and bones develop to the point that more vigorous activities can be engaged in safely, up the ante. Devise games and sports that have a goal, but also allow for plenty of undirected fun time.

Kids like to have a goal to strive for, but attaching adult-sized stress for prizes can hinder the basic purpose of the activity. Whether it’s soccer or swimming, gymnastics or just tossing a ball, keep it fun. Keep it focused on the child’s needs, not the adults’ wishes.

At a certain age, say past 8 or 10 years old, cycling to school can do double duty, as both transportation and exercise. Even walking is fine when the circumstances allow. They’ll thank you years later when they have the opportunity to tell their kids how they walked a mile to school. In the snow. Barefoot. Carrying weights.

As they get to those ‘tween’ years, the level of activity can increase accordingly. Whether it’s more rigorous gymnastics routines, tennis, or running the level should be something that stretches them but doesn’t cause harm. Simple ’school type’ exercises can often be boring. Jumping jacks, push ups, and the like often look too much like a forced routine to kids. But they never tire of exercise disguised as fun. Of course, the disguise doesn’t have to look like a Halloween mask. It can be something that really is fun. Be creative.

The result will be higher self-esteem, a fit body, and the ability to carry out tasks safely that otherwise might cause harm. Obesity, poor focus, and other problems often start from lack of proper activity at an early age. But heart health, good eating habits, and a lifetime commitment to a wellness lifestyle are more likely when the right habits are established early.

Exercise, in the right form, is one important pillar of that structure.

Kristy Lee Wilson

http://fitnessandnutritionforkids.com

Teaching the Basics of Movement – The Key to Youth Fitness

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian’s free database of articles and exercises at www.DevelopingAthletics.com.

In the initial phases of training with a young athlete (technically referred to as General Preparatory or GPP), the undeniable key and focus (outside of fun!) should be aptitude development. This aptitude should transcend to both movement-based skills in their basic elements (balance, jumping, throwing, linear and lateral motion progressions etc) as well as strength-based exercises. I have always firmly believed that basic squatting techniques, for example (along with squatting variations and unilateral efforts), should be introduced into the training sessions of young athletes.

That being said, how does one begin the process of teaching movement habits?

When working with truly young athletes (6 – 7 years old), you need to adopt a progression template within which to work. No template can ever be applied to 100% of your athletes 100% of the time – that is the beauty of coaching; understanding what to apply, when and for how long (i.e. knowing when to progress or regress on an individual basis). Trust me when I say that no system is foolproof and that any strength coach or trainer that claims to ‘have all the answers’ is completely full of crap. For that exact reason, one of my industry hero’s is Mike Boyle.

He is a) straight to the point with no fluff and b) bold in his assertion that he is still developing and evolving as a coach himself.

After 10 years of working with young athletes, I have reached one undeniable conclusion – the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know and the more I want to change my methodologies.

Having said that, these are the first three progressions I use in teaching a movement habit -

Skill: Lateral Deceleration

Firstly, break key points down into skill sets that are easy to remember so that kids can recite them both to you and to themselves (this makes teaching and cuing much simpler). I have four points I want my athletes to learn/know/commit to memory with respect to lateral deceleration:

1. Bend your knees and drop your hips
2. Be on a flat foot or slightly on the ball of the foot
3. The toe/foot of the decelerating leg should be square to the angle of the body (i.e. not out)
4. The foot placement should be outside the box (the ‘box’ is a reference to an invisible line drawn from the shoulder to the floor. Any placement outside of that line is good; within or too close to the line will result in a poor deceleration and potential injury).

Have the kids understand each of these items individually and then in conjunction with each other.

Progressions

These represent the first three of my progressive steps:

1. Repeat Statically – have the athletes assume an athletic position or stance. From here, they will ‘hit’ the decelerating position upon command. Be patient with this step and make sure all your athletes are comfortable and competent with the motion. Add fun to this by calling out different legs unpredictably.

2. Repeat Dynamically - when you feel your athletes are ready, have them perform one or two moderately paced side shuffles prior to ‘hitting’ the decelerating position. The side shuffles should be slow and easy. At this point, you will begin to ascertain if further teaching is necessary (it likely will be). With the additional movement prior to the deceleration, a common mistake you will see is athletes not planting their foot outside of the box far enough. This results in a poor alignment and a less than satisfactory deceleration (even at these slow speeds). My colleague, Lee Taft, calls this a shoulder sway (because the shoulders lean towards the decelerating leg rather than sitting back in a ‘braking’ type position). I love this term and reflects what the actual concern looks like.

3. Repeat Randomly – Now that the athletes are comfortable with the motion, create games and situations within which they react to a particular signal and move (unpredictably) different directions. On your ‘point’ for example, the athlete will take one or two moderately paced side shuffles and then ‘hit’ a deceleration. Have them hold the position so that both you and them can ascertain what is right and wrong with their posture.
Learn more about Brian’s complete system of developing young athletes – www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Coordination and Movement Skill Development: The Key to Long Term Athletic Success

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian’s free database of articles and exercises at www.DevelopingAthletics.com.

The key ingredient to working with pre-adolescent and early adolescent athletes is providing global stimulation from a movement perspective. Younger athletes must experience and eventually perfect a variety of motor skills in order to ensure both future athletic success and injury prevention. Developing basic coordination through movement stimulus is a must, with the eventual goal of developing sport-specific coordination in the teenage years. Coordination itself, however, is a global system made up of several synergistic elements and not necessarily a singularly defined ability.

Balance, rhythm, spatial orientation and the ability to react to both auditory and visual stimulus have all been identified as elements of coordination. In fact, the development of good coordination is a multi-tiered sequence that progresses from skills performed with good spatial awareness but without speed to skills performed at increased speeds and in a constantly changing environment. As Joseph Drabik points out, coordination is best developed between the ages of 7 – 14, with the most crucial period being between 10 – 13 years of age.

As with anything else, an important issue with respect to coordination development is to provide stimulus that is specific (and therefore appropriate) for the individual. Prescribing drills that are either too easy or too difficult for the young athlete will have a less than optimal result.

An interesting note, as I have suggested in past articles, is that there appears to be a cap with respect to coordination development and ability. Younger athletes who learn to master the elements associated with good coordination (balance, rhythm, spatial awareness, reaction etc), are far better off then athletes who are not exposed to this kind of exercise stimulation until advanced ages. The ability to optimally develop coordination ends at around the age of 16. This validates the claim that global, early exposure is the key from an athletic development standpoint. Again, global coordination will serve as the basis to develop specific coordination in the teenage years.

Once again, it is important to mention that coordination development is a process that encompasses years of exposure and is based on DIVERSITY and VERSATILITY. Young athletes cannot be pigeonholed into sport specific stimulus at a young age and expected to vault into the ranks of elite athletics. As the motto of my company says, ‘You Can’t Become a Champion Until You Become An Athlete’.

Furthermore, it is important to understand that coordination-based exercises must be introduced during the preadolescent ages. Adolescence is not an appropriate time during which to begin elements of coordination training. As strength, speed, height and body mass change significantly during these years, it is much more prudent to reinforce already known movements rather than teach new ones. Herein lies the art and understanding of developing a young athlete. Coaches, trainers and parents must accept the fact that developing a healthy and successful athlete is a journey or process that encompasses several varying degrees of stimulus, all of which build on top of the other.

Coordination training, for example, is introduced during the pre-adolescent ages while nervous system plasticity is high and movement habits have not yet been ingrained as permanent. The scope of coordination training changes during the adolescent ages, during which physical growth alters the young athlete’s previously mastered movement habits. At this time, refinement of movement should take precedent over learning new movement-based skills. In post-adolescence, coordination training can once again be taken to new heights.

One point to consider about coordination is that genetic pre-disposition plays a significant role. Less coordinated children will likely never exhibit the tendencies of naturally coordinated children regardless of training. That is not to say that improvements cannot be made, however – quite the opposite.

Here are three basic principals of coordination training –

1. Start young – coordination improves as a result of learning and mastering new movements. Start young athletes off early with coordination-based exercises that challenge their abilities (within reason). The more coordination a young athlete has, the more ability he or she will display at any perspective sport.

2. Challenge young athletes on an individual and appropriate level – Some youngsters have good balance while others display good rhythm. The key to successful coaching is to undercover what elements of coordination each athlete requires and develop drills/exercises that most suitably target the weaknesses.

3. Change exercises frequently – young athletes learn quickly in most cases. Be sure to challenge them physically and intellectually with new exercises often.
The following list provides some basic exercises that you can use with your young athletes to help develop elements of coordination –

• Multi-directional forms of running, jumping and skipping
• Single leg balancing games
• Mirror games (mirroring each other’s movements)
• Known exercises starting or finishing in new positions (start sprints from belly or one knee; end with hands up or on all fours)
• Opposite arm circles (right hand circles forward, left backwards)
• Simultaneous arm and leg circles
• Jump in place with 180 or 360 turns while in flight
• Balance exercises on a low balance beam
• Cross step-over running or carioca
• Somersault to balance (somersault to standing one legged balance)
• Skipping A, B and C’s
• Obstacle running (place hurdles directly on floor and have athlete run over them)

Remember, coordination includes elements of balance, spatial orientation, rhythm and various other traits. This list reflects exercises to improve several of those elements.

Learn more about Brian’s complete system of developing young athletes – www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Endurance Training for Young Athletes

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian’s free database of articles and exercises at www.DevelopingAthletics.com.

Endurance training and young athletes is an often-misunderstood topic. On one hand, there are strength coaches who tend to disregard developmentally sound elements of endurance training in lieu of producing stronger and faster athletes via strength and power type exercises exclusively. On the other hand, there are over-zealous coaches and trainers who equate endurance to long distance/duration activities, often with little regard for the athlete’s stage of development, ability or current level of conditioning.

Endurance can be defined quite simply as one’s ability to withstand fatigue or the ability to control the functional aptitude of movement while experiencing external stress. The latter definition lends itself well to the concept of athletic development and training young athletes. As I have stated many times in both print and lecture, when working with youngsters, the key ingredient to producing a successful training program is the ability to recognize that quality of execution is profoundly more important than quantity. Having said that, I still see coaches, trainers and parents opting for more difficult training sessions that include high volume or high intensity activities rather than concerning themselves with how correctly the exercise is being performed. Poor execution results in habitual patterns that are difficult to break and could result in injury. With respect to endurance training, proper mechanics are often compromised for higher volumes or intensities and this is very much a mistake.

One thing to consider is that the term ‘endurance’ has application to varying lengths and types of effort:

• Long slow distances – efforts of limited intensity but high distance or time

• Speed – efforts typically lasting 15 – 45 seconds with high levels of intensity but obviously limited time or distance

• Muscular – the ability to sustain a muscular contraction for a prolonged period of time

There are several factors to consider with respect to the development of endurance in a young athlete:

1. Mechanical/Coordination/Movement – Efficiency of movement is a paramount factor with respect to the endurance capabilities of a young athlete. Poor mechanics (which are only reinforced with repetitive training) lead to higher degrees of fatigue. To truly increase the ability of a young athlete (in all facets), coaches and trainers must exercise patience and teach proper movement habits rather than prescribe endless numbers of sets. A critical point here is that by perfecting technique, you can effectively improve endurance without increasing training volume.

2. Body Type – The more overweight a young athlete is, the less endurance they will likely have. Excess bodyweight (particularly in the form of body fat) will serve to decrease endurance due to an increased energy cost. Additionally, being overweight often leads to poor mechanical efficiency (as per point one). According to Joseph Drabik, “each 5% of excess weight penalizes a child approximately 89 meters in a 12-minute run test”. Conversely, “in a 10-mile run, each kilogram reduction of body mass improves performance by 30 seconds”. Drabik did not indicate how bodyweight was determined to be excessive.

3. Psychological – Many young athletes do not possess significant amounts of mental toughness (but they’re kids so why would they?). To combat this, many over anxious trainers and coaches opt to make drills and exercises purposefully difficult in order to produce some sort of perceived mental strength. Given that both the physical structure as well as mental potency of a youngster is tenuous, this often leads to little more than burnout or injury. A more prudent approach to this issue is to systematically present challenges to young athletes that respect their individuality as well as their current stage of development and offers positive feedback at the conclusion. By offering challenging yet achievable forms of exercise, you will progressively improve their endurance and develop their confidence to attempt new and more challenging things.

It is important to understand that endurance training with young athletes is critical for long-term development and not immediate results. Developing good endurance allows the young athlete to tolerate an increased amount of exercise stimulus in the future and this alone is the key point. Don’t become pre-occupied with immediate effects – like any other aspect of athletic development, endurance training is part of a continual, multi-tiered effort.

Developmentally speaking, from the ages of 3 – 7, general endurance increases due to the typical activity level of kids in this age range (which has become a crucial issue of our time – kids don’t ‘play’ as much as they used to, and this fact has a potentially damaging effect on their future athletic abilities and conditioning). For young males, endurance increases are best seen between the ages of 8 – 11 and then again between 15 – 16. For young females, increases are shown best between the ages of 8 – 10. After the age of 13, endurance capabilities of young women stagnate and actually regress. These numbers illustrate that the young female sensitive period for endurance development is shorter than it is with young males. Because of this, young females should begin their endurance training at a younger age than should young males.

There are several key points to remember when designing endurance-based training programs for young athletes. The most crucial aspect is to always start with a broad aerobic base. This will serve to raise the anaerobic threshold of the young athlete (delay needing to use anaerobic sources of energy during activity) and allow the athlete to tolerate increased loads in the future. Begin this aerobic-base phase with low to moderate volumes. Children, although physiologically more fit than the average adult, still must begin their training programs gradually, working up to longer durations and higher intensities. As typical with the entire athletic development science, it is advisable that you alter the stimulus of endurance training you do with young athletes. Think in terms of seasonal activities – In the summer, enjoy swimming; in the autumn, change to hiking or cycling; in the winter, offer stimulus such as snow-shoeing or cross country skiing. Notice how the suggestions are movement-based activities and NOT going to the gym to run on a treadmill! In our fixation for ‘the perfect body’, it seems we have forgotten how important movement and coordination-based activities are for young athletes. Don’t train kids on single function pieces of fitness equipment. Understand that there is a definitive crossover with all exercise stimulus and young athletes. Yes… snowshoeing is a perfect endurance building exercise for young athletes, but it also involves coordination and skill – IDEAL for the young, developing athlete.

Another key factor is training load increases. Coaches, parents and trainers must remember that increases in volume or duration must precede increases in intensity. In short, make things longer before you make them harder. Lastly, wonderful progress can be made by altering the surface on which the young athlete is performing their endurance training. For instance, if you are incorporating long walks or jogs into your training program, switch the training surface periodically to add variety and improve progress; sand, shallow water, forest trails, pebbles. Quick point of reference – by jogging or walking on sand, forest trails or shallow water, you will also add to lower compartment strength and stability. Ankle proprioceptors, picking up varying degrees of balance-point change, will become stronger and more efficient. KEEP KIDS OFF THOSE MACHINES AND GET THEM MOVING!

Learn more about Brian’s complete system of developing young athletes – www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

A Practical Way to Prevent Overtraining

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian’s free database of articles and exercises at www.DevelopingAthletics.com.

In far too many situations throughout North America, strength coaches and personal trainers make common errors in their programming for young athletes, many of which can lead to overtraining syndromes -

Critical Analysis of Biomotor Ability

In working with young athletes, there is very little reason to ever ‘test’ their ability at certain lifts or speed variances. Your programming guidelines must be based around instilling proper execution of technique in your young athletes from a lift and movement economy standpoint. Having said that, gleaning 1, 3, 5 or 8 RM values on any particular exercise should be deemed a distant secondary consideration to teaching the proper values of form and function.

By using a ‘Teaching Model’ of exercise development rather than a ‘Training Model’ you are taking the pressure off of kids to reach for biomotor improvements at the expense of developing sound technique.

Changing Exercises to Often

Although when training adult clientele, there are neural advantages to altering your exercise selection often, with young athletes the reality is that the initial stages of training should comprise little more than dedicated time to teach and become proficient in the basics of lift and movement economy.

Far too often, trainers work to make young athlete routines challenging and neurally stimulating by incorporating complex programming and exercise selection into the mix early in the athletes’ training life. Resist the urge to make a neurological impact and instead, focus your efforts on developing sound competency in just a few basic lifts – the foundation you build during this time is paramount to eventually increasing both the volume and intricacy of your programming.

Consider the Athlete’s Entire Life

When creating a training program for a young athlete, you must take into consideration their entire life – that is, don’t just make training sessions hard for the sake of making them hard. You do a disservice to the athlete and your business by following this practice.

For instance, if the young athlete is in-season for a particular sport, there practice and game schedule must be considered into the reality of your overall programming. Soccer practices, for instance four days per week coupled with one to two games per week, will leave any young athlete bordering on the verge of overtraining syndrome as it is. Your job during times like this is to augment them with restorative training that does not serve to push them lower beneath what would be considered normal and healthy biological levels.

Additionally, you must work to understand your young athletes’ eating and sleeping habits as well. Inappropriate nutrition and poor sleeping patterns (which many teenagers face today) are precursors to overtraining syndrome in that they are two of the more important restorative elements trainees can use to combat such concerns.

As a professional trainer working with young athletes, you are responsible and must assume accountability for their overall health and wellbeing. When training young athletes and in an effort to ensure quality, efficacy-based training practices, resist the temptation to do the ‘norm’ by making exercise sessions hard and physically challenging. Instead, follow the three key points above to ensure optimal training conditions and guard against the very real concerns of overtraining.

Learn more about Brian’s complete system of developing young athletes – www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com

Kid Friendly Workout Advice

Does your young child show an interest for physical fitness? Have they expressed the desire to start exercising and lifting weights? With childhood obesity rates continually rising, you might be tempted to jump right in and not only encourage your child to workout but to push them to limits beyond his or her capability. Take caution. Keep a few tips in mind when considering training your child in weight lifting.

Remember: They Are Still a Kid

Though they have small bodies, kids are not miniature adults. Their bodies are still developing with muscles and bones still growing. Therefore you have to use different methods when training a child than you would for an adult. Emotionally, anatomically, and physiologically, kids are very different from adults. So don’t just pick up a weight lifting manual and start with the first exercise.

Bone Health

At the very earliest a child’s bones mature at the age of 14. Some kid’s bones will not reach their full maturity until age 22. So consider this when allowing a child to lift weights. They have immature skeletons. Girls especially can experience negative results that affect the rest of their lives if pushed too hard.

Childhood Diseases

Keep an eye out for irregularities as your child works out. Osgood schlatter disease, for example, results from growth related overuse injuries. Additionally, children need to warm up more than an adult would because of their immature temperature regulation systems. They have a much larger surface area to muscle mass ratio compared to an adult.

Keep the Limits Low

Because they do not sweat as much as an adult, a child is much more prone to heat exhaustion. So watch them carefully. Even heat stroke can result if a child is not properly hydrated or cooled. Additionally, low muscle mass and an immature hormone system make strength and speed development much slower than an adult’s. Children will have a smaller capacity for exercise because of their breathing limitations and heart response differences.

The Workout

So how SHOULD the workout differ for a child than for an adult? First of all, make sure your child stretches completely before working out. Additionally, if you insist on having your lift weights begin with light loads and smaller increments of weight increasing. I personally recommend children perform mostly bodyweight exercises to begin with. Especially until they know how, and are able, to perform the exercises with correct posture and technique.

Children also should not work out any more than three non-consecutive days a week. And in the midst of their exercise, they should continue to drink water as they are prone to dehydration.

Many hard core exercising adults will want to push their children. They will think that they need to encourage them to do more and to push their limits, but they need to realize that they can’t just expect a child to “suck it up,” because a child’s body has limits that an adult does not have to deal with.

Kristy Lee Wilson

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How to Design a Warm-up For Young Athletes

Brian Grasso is the CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association and is considered one of the premier authorities on youth athletic development in the world. Access Brian’s free database of articles and exercises at www.DevelopingAthletics.com.

This may be among the most controversial and misunderstood topics within the entire youth development industry.

Warming up for sport or activity is, in essence, preparing the body for the task it is about to do. This includes increasing body temperature and improving the efficiency of the nervous system (which controls movement). Warm-ups can generally be classified into two categories:

1. General – Incorporates a broad assortment of movements in order to prepare the body as a systemic unit. Arousal of an appropriate ‘mental attitude’ for the upcoming competition or practice is a valuable component of this phase.

2. Specific – Involves precise actions or exercises relating to the particular sport. This serves as a more accurate neuromuscular preparation for the movements and tasks about to take place in the game or practice.

There are two misleading notions regarding warm-up design that are generally believed to be true by many coaches, trainer and parents:

1. Aerobic activity is the best choice as a warm-up exercise.

2. Static stretching must precede all workouts, practices or games in order to reduce the potential for injury.

The ‘aerobic activity’ phenomenon is a wide spread myth to say the least. Soccer, football and baseball coaches often send their athletes on 5 – 10 minute jogs around the field prior to the start of a game. Likewise, Personal Trainers will habitually have their clients ‘warm-up’ on a stationary bike or treadmill prior to a strength-training workout. This type of pre-event warm-up equates to dogmatic practice without any analysis of what the warm-up is meant to supply. Specifically, a warm-up must elevate body/muscle temperature to a certain point, increase both respiration and blood flow as well as enhance nervous system activity thereby heightening coordination and movement aptitude – this must all be done to level at which the athlete is not fatigued but prepared.

With aerobic-based warm-ups, energy reserves may be diminished and the ability to exhibit speed, strength and motor control lessened. This is quite problematic considering most sports and workout programs involve either displaying speed and strength abilities or are designed to enhance speed and strength capacities. More over, if a given training session is geared towards upper body strength exercises, how does running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike prepare the body for the specific neuromuscular demands about to be placed on it?

With static stretching, it must be understood that any type of prolonged, held stretch can actually CAUSE injury. The concept of flexibility as a whole is largely misunderstood in contemporary sport performance (and fitness for that matter). The notion that static flexibility exercises are necessary as a pre-event habit in order to both prevent injury and prepare the body for movement are two primary incorrect ‘facts’.

Firstly, static flexibility exercises can disturb the stability of joints to a point that may actually serve to increase the potential for injury. Acting on nerve transmissions from the brain and spinal cord, muscles serve to move joints through various ranges of motion in order to produce a desired task. Understanding the laws of human motion, their exists a delicate balance between mobility and stability within the context of any movement. A muscle’s job then (in conjunction with both ligaments and tendons), is to produce movement (mobility) while protecting a given joint from ‘over-movement’ (stability). ‘Over-movement’ refers to uncontrolled motion that exceeds the natural limits of a joints capacity – this could result in acute trauma of varying degrees of severity. This mobility-stability interplay can be disrupted if statically held stretches are performed prior to a period of physical exertion.

The other primary factor to consider is that static exercises of any kind cannot be judiciously thought of as precursors to a movement-based activity. All sports and training exercises involve movement in varying extents. Slow and easy-paced multi-directional movements, sudden bursts of speed and maximal strength efforts are all part of either sport participation or training programs. It is only sensible to prime the athlete specifically for what they are about to do – Prepare To Move By Moving To Prepare.

In reality, understanding the concepts of warming-up for sport could be a book unto itself. How to design an efficient and functionally-sound warm-up is based on several factors including –

• Type of activity
• Duration of activity
• Age of Athlete
• Injury History
• Exercise history

*Adapted from ‘Facts & Fallacies of Fitness’ by Dr. Mel Siff

Here is what a general warm-up may look like for an adolescent athlete (of virtually any sport):

Movements are performed for 20 – 30 feet. Walk back to the starting point and begin again.

• Jog X 3
• High Knees X 3
• Butt Kicks X 3
• Carioca X 2 each way
• Back Pedal X 3
• Lunge Walk X 3
• Walking Hip Thrust X 2 each leg
• Walking Skips X 2 each
• High Skips X 3
• Skipping Bounds X 3
• Tempo Runs X 3

Movement aptitude is taught and perfected during warm-ups. It is not enough to simply ‘go through’ the motions – coaches and trainers must teach adequate movement habits and force productions skills.

For both lower and upper body strength training days, I will incorporate a specific movement complex prior to the actual lifting exercises:

Lower Body

These exercises are performed with a 45-pound Olympic bar without any other external loading. Each exercise is performed in sequence one after the other.

• Good Morning X 5 reps
• Overhead Squats X 5 reps
• Back Squats X 5 reps
• Front Squats X 5 reps
• RDL’s X 5 reps

Perform 2-3 sets

These exercises are specific preparations for the movements the athletes are about to perform and elicit a more particular neuromuscular response. Again, impeccable form is both taught and practiced during these movement complexes.

Upper Body

These exercises are performed with 3 – 5 pound dumbbells and are performed in a sequence or circuit type manner.

• Rainbow Arc X 5 (start in anatomical position, raise your arms in a rainbow-type motion until the dumbbells touch above your head)
• Shoulder Press X 5 (standard)
• Forward Arm Circles (standard)
• Crisscross X 5 (start with dumbbells held at 90 degrees of shoulder abduction, ensuring that the scapulae are retracted and depressed. Horizontally adduct until the dumbbells reach the sagittal midline of the body. Perform a quick over-under crisscross with the dumbbells and return to the starting position)
• Bent Over Fly X 5 (standard)

* Perform 2 – 3 sets

Learn more about Brian’s complete system of developing young athletes – www.CompleteAthleteDevelopment.com