Appropriate Physical Activity
I recently had an opportunity to speak at a PTA meeting at Neil Armstrong Elementary School. Usually when I hear/read people talk/write about youth health and fitness it revolves around things that we need to do, the standard “60 minutes of exercise a day” instantly pops into most peoples heads. I think as a society we are constantly being told what we should do or what we shouldn't do, especially when it comes to health and fitness and because of that I think we are now immune to all the talk. We all pretty much know what we need to do, that's not the issue, implementing it in today's society is the real issue.
With that thought running through my mind I decided not to be another “Here's what you need to do” guy, so I took a different approach. Instead of espousing the benefits of diet and exercise, I spoke about How to De-Condition Your Child to the Point of Obesity. Yeah I actually told people how to make your child de-conditioned and obese. I observed the parents while I spoke and most had this blank stare, you know the one where you really can't believe what you are hearing. The reason for the looks were not so much due to the subject of the speech, although that subject matter alone would be enough to produce the stares, but it was more to how relatively easy it was to implement and how it was already a part of our society.
I believe the impact of the message was better taken than the traditional “Do This, Not That” format. I'm partly biased as I like to take things apart to see how they work, so for me it was natural to reverse engineer the problem and trace it back to its beginnings. Sometimes what we find out is not what we would have initially thought. Does that mean we were wrong, not necessarily. There are usually several answer to most problems, some are just more efficient than others.
So how does this pertain to youth fitness? With children you are usually taking a body that has no training variables applied to it and then applying those variables (strength, coordination, balance, etc.) to it. The problem lies in that whenever you take a child who has not been exposed to training and then expose them to it, there will be an adaptation – a change. So when the trainer/program you take your child to produces a result (increased jumping, increase in speed), you attribute it to the trainer/program. However as I mentioned earlier, whenever you take a child who has not “trained” and “train” them there will be an improvement, its almost impossible not to. So that being said then, any “training” program will elicit an improvement in the area being trained. Remember I said this was where the problem is. Now you may be asking yourself, “How is that a problem?” It goes back to what is efficient but also, and more importantly, what is appropriate.
So how do you know what is appropriate? Well there are a couple of ways you can find out what is appropriate physical activity for your child. One way would to go out and get one, but quite possibly more, certifications that pertain to fitness training with an emphasis on “youth training”, then also study as much as you can regarding Anatomy, Physiology, Development Kinesiology, Working with Children, Program Design, and a host of other derivative fields; OR you can find a coach who does all of that. So how do you know if your coach is knowledgeable in those areas? That's pretty easy, you ask them what makes them qualified to “train children.” More specifically you ask them “Do you train kids and if so what makes you qualified to train kids.” Then you listen to their entire sales pitch. If after they have concluded their pitch and they haven't mention this one specific word, you need to leave and find another coach/trainer.
So what is that magic word?
Find out on October 22nd from 4-5pm, when I, along with Angela Stanford of Vital Nutrition and Wellness, host A FREE Fitness and Nutrition Workshop through our FITrition™ program.