Personal Trainer Singapore Explains How To Help Your Kids Stay Happy, Healthy And Strong For Life

105 43
As I personal trainer and youth fitness coach I see the problems facing parents and kids. I know these problems are common in almost all developed countries.

Obesity, diabetes and other lifestyle related disease are on the rise so getting kids involved in physical activity early is VERY important.

There are "critical" periods for the development of different physical attributes such as coordination, balance, endurance, strength etc.

If you help your children develop these attributes at the right time, they will likely be great at them throughout their lives. If you miss these critical periods, your child's development of these attributes will not be optimal.

Even if they try to train these later, it will be slower and will not likely reach their potential. This is an important fact that should encourage parents to send their kids for some kind of physical activity as early as possible.

Here are some guidelines to critical periods for different skills. There are minor differences between genders as to when these critical periods start and end, but here are the general guidelines.

A critical period means that during this period, the child will be especially gifted in improving in this particular physical attribute. Thus it is best to focus on this attribute during this critical period.

Age 0-6: Totally unstructured play. That means keep the kids active. When I was this age, I played in sand, finger painting, play-doh, Lego and multiple other physical activities. This is the best way. Run around and play!

Age 6-7 &10-11: Kinesthetic Differentiation. Telling the difference between different densities, weights, textures etc

Age 6-8: Synchronization of movement. Jumping while dribbling, moving your arms while running

Age 7-9: Rhythmic motion. Dance, clapping, music

Age 8-10: Reaction to sound and visual signals

Age 9-10: Balance

Age 8-13: Movement Skills. How to start, stop jump, land, turn etc

Age 12-14: Spatial Orientation. Knowing where your body (and its parts) are in space

So if you are sending your kids to playschool make sure that the activities help your children in these areas to maximize their potential. Young kids do not need to lift huge weights. Rather, learn to move, and get strong later.

As a coach I have helped to quickly make many fast athletes strong, but it takes a lot longer to make a strong but uncoordinated athlete fast. So focus on coordination during your child's younger years and they will end up with a great chance of becoming a good athlete.

The best part about this is that their increased athletic ability help to increase their participation in physical activities and sports because kids (and all of us) tend to do more of the things that we are good at. That is wonderful news for preventing diseases and health problems due to inactivity.

This is a great life long gift you can provide for your children.
Source...
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up here to get the latest news, updates and special offers delivered directly to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe at any time

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.