So obviously if you’ve clicked on the link to look at this blog post, you have some fascination with exercising with your children. You are more than likely either a parent, sibling, aunt/uncle, baby sitter or possibly a teacher. Well, if you clicked on this link, you’re pretty awesome at your relationship with the youngsters that are part of your lives.
Why? For many reasons! Here’s just a few:
- You obviously care about the physical and developmental well being of the children in your life.
- You want to stay in shape while still being to interact with the youngsters around you.
- You want to have fun with the youth in your life and you are also intrigued by physical activity.
These are some very good reason to try to incorporate your fitness with the children of your life. Let’s approach this topic first off by discussing the way this will improve your lifestyle as an individual. First off, engaging in interactions with kids who are in different age groups gives you a sense of where you are in your life both physically and mentally when it comes to physical activity. For example, let’s say a 10 year old boy asks you to go race him outside on the street. Depending on your age, injury status and athletic background, this could be a very serious decision. You could go at it all hardcore and smoke the kid at a forty yard dash… or you could not. Perhaps pull a hip flexor, hammy or trip… that would not be good.
So what can we do prepare ourselves for competing in a sprint race against a 10 year old kid? My answer would be, go out and interact in their world of fitness and physical activity more frequently. This means go play catch, build sand castles at the beach, play kick back with a soccer ball, wrestle with them, do quick little fun races and “let” them win. Do the easy and fun stuff! More of it! These activities will prepare you for when your younger accomplices want to randomly go outdoors to have fun with their parents and/or older peers.
In other words, keep up with this stuff. Something that would cause a detriment to your recreational performance with kids would be to just avoid them. If you were to steer away from physical activity with the kids in your life, the likelihood of you growing further away from their level of fitness is at a threatening level of increasing. Granted you might not be able to execute a somersault or cart wheel as well as your 10 year old son or daughter, but you can at least stay active enough to be around them and engage in their activities a little.
Engaging in physical activity with kids will keep you “young at heart.” This is pretty darn true. Going outside and running around with a bunch of over adrenalized kids will definitely get your heart pumping, which is a great form of aerobic exercise. In addition, this can help keep other variables such as agility, awareness, coordination and balance in check as well.
The next time lil’ Johnny asks you to play a game of Two Square, take him up on that. You will be helping shape the future of humanity and also getting some much needed exercise for yourself as well!
