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Child Fitness - An Absolute Must
A focus on child fitness for some reason has fallen to the deep depths of nowhere in many school systems across the country. Physical activity and gym class are one of the first things to go in budget cuts. To me this makes no sense whatsoever. Child fitness is vital to the growth and development of children. It increases mental performance, creates a life long foundation of being active, and it allows them to overcome challenges. The problem with child fitness today in the school systems is that children are rated against other children for their physical activity capabilities. Is this the best way to promote and instill child fitness to all children? I will unpack that very question, then get into the best child fitness options for parents to have their children do.
Child Fitness Levels Should Not Be Rated Against Their Peers
Lets look a this through a common sense lens. If you have a child who excels in athletics and a child who does not and put them to compete to run a mile, or do a 40 yard sprint what is the potential outcome? The child who is athletic will beat the child who is not as athletic. But what happens from there? Child fitness decreases emotionally and mentally by the kid who was less athletic. Child fitness may become something they want to avoid all together do reduce the possibility of feeling embarrassed or less than. Child fitness will be substituted by video games and non activity. The athletic child will more than likely be okay after the competition. Child fitness and turning into adult fitness may become a foundation for that child. But to me this scenario benefits one child and hinders the other child but yet we do this all the time. What if we decided to rate each child based on their activity? What if each child had heart rate monitors and we judged their athletic performance if they were in their cardio and fat burning zones? What if we stripped away the factors that create a fixed mindset, an inputted factors that help develop a life long growth mind set? This makes more sense for child fitness and child development to me. Currently, we are enabling our youth to toss out exercise because it is not as important as getting good grades. But child fitness classes, exercise, and the like have been proven many times to actually increase mental performance and increase grades and foster a growth mindset. But yet it is one of the first parts to be taken out in budget cuts.
We are facing unique times in terms of the health of our youth. Child obesity, diabetes, and the like are sky rocketing to all time highs. If we truly think about this and are honest with ourselves we are raising upcoming generations to be unhealthy, sedentary, and reducing their life span. We have an obligation to promote child fitness from the early stages. It comes from the parents, teachers, and leaders of today. Child fitness needs to be a focal point for all developing youth that stimulates a growth mindset. We need to hold ourselves accountable and give every child a fighting chance for a long healthy active life.
Child Fitness Options
I am going to keep this very simple. The child fitness options parents have is to do what their child likes to do for activity. If you child likes to run, let them run, if they like to climb, find a rock climbing class, if they like to swim let them swim. Child fitness is not independent of the child. Parents, siblings, etc need to be active with them. The more it creates fun, bonding, and an all round memorable experience, that is the aim.
In the end, child fitness is like adult fitness. You find something that is fun to do, challenging, and rewarding. No one wants to dread working out because of the certain exercises or routines. Child fitness is vital for development. There is a book Spark that gets very in depth about this issue and I highly recommend it to anyone interest in the benefits of exercise and the brain. Child Fitness is an absolute must!
