Archive for April, 2007
As May approaches, I wanted to remind everyone that May is “National Physical Fitness & Sports’ month. It is a month to celebrate good health, and to teach your children not to be sedentary. If you visit my personal home page, you will find new ideas to promote the month. Two programs, ACES and PACES days are a great motivational and educational tools which teach your children about living a healthy lifestyle.
Project ACES takes place on the first Wednesday in May. Millions of children will exercise simultaneously in a symbolic gesture of fitness. PACES day encourages families to exercise. Please visit these web sites to learn more about the programs. Enjoy a ‘fit’ month of May.
April 21st, 2007
by Len Saunders
I often get asked to share techniques which help measure any muscular growth in children. Of course, you can do it the old fashioned way by asking your child to do as many push-ups or curl-ups as they can on a given day. Have them practice that exercise for a week or two, then measure how many they did on a later date to see if there is any improvement. Another fun way is something called The Tri-Fit-A-Thon.
The Tri-Fit-A-Thon (TFAT) is a unique exercise program developed to measure the growth of a child’s muscular strength. All you need is 3 minutes with 3 different exercises, and you are on your way. The Tri-Fit-A-Thon can take place at your local school, YMCA, recreation department, or even at home with parents.
How it works?
The Tri-Fit-A-Thon is an exercise marathon comprised of 3 separate exercises. Our example on this web site will be push-ups, curl-ups, and chin-ups. Points will be awarded during the event for each successful exercise performed. It is important to educate all the children on the proper techniques of the three exercises before you commence with this program.
Each participant has exactly three minutes to complete the program. Only one child at a time will execute the event, which is timed by the teacher. One minute is dedicated to each exercise. On the command of “go”, a child will start to perform the first segment of the Tri-Fit-A-Thon, which in our example is push-ups. The child should do as many push-ups as possible in the one-minute allotment. The teacher will award one point for each successful push-up completed. A child may rest at any time.
When the first minute passes, the instructor must yell out a key word such as “switch” to start the next one-minute session, which are curl-ups. On the command of “switch”, the child will start to perform as many curl-ups as possible in the one-minute quota. Again, a single point is awarded for each successful curl-up. A child may rest at any time.
As soon as one minutes passes, the teacher will once again yell out “switch” to start the third leg of the Tri-Fit-A-Thon which is chin-ups (if your facility does not have a chin-up bar, you may substitute a different exercise). The child is awarded one point for each successful chin-up completed. The child is finished with the event when they can no longer hang on the chin-up bar or if one minute passes.
For more information, visit the TFAT web site.
April 16th, 2007
by Len Saunders
We all understand how television and technology are creating sedentary children. Sitting in front of the TV opposed to going outside to play is creating overweight and obese children. Television seems to be the biggest culprit. Not only are children watching too much TV, but the content in having a negative influence on what they eat. The Courier News ( link ) reports, “In a child’s buffet of food commercials, more than 40 percent of the dishes are candy, snacks and fast food. Nowhere to be found: fresh fruit, vegetables, poultry or seafood. For years, health officials have warned that kids were being inundated with commercials about not-so-healthy foods. Now, researchers have put numbers to those warnings in the largest-ever study of commercials aimed at children.”
Translated, this means there are way too many commercials glamorizing foods low in nutrient value. When I was a child, I remember the cereal isle at the supermarket was a little section. Now, when you go to the cereal isle, the children are out of breath when they walk from one end to the other.
“Children ages 8-12 see the most food ads on TV — an average of 21 a day, or 7,600 a year. Teenagers see slightly fewer — 17 a day, or about 6,000 a year; and children ages 2-7 see the fewest — 12 a day or 4,400 a year. Since (preteens) are at an age where they’re just becoming independent consumers, understanding what type of advertising they are exposed to is especially important. Of food ads that targeted children, 34 percent were for candy and snacks, 29 percent for cereal, 10 percent for beverages, 10 percent for fast food, 4 percent for dairy products, 4 percent for prepared food and the rest for breads and pastries and dine-in restaurants.”
April 13th, 2007
by Len Saunders
I always like to post information on this web site when I decide to make a new children’s fitness program public. Today’s program is called “Jumping Jacks Day,” which gets children motivated to exercise. The web site is now complete, and can be visited by clicking here.
Imagine your school day begins at 8:00 in the morning, and ends at 3:00 in the afternoon. Now imagine a jumping jack starting at your school at 8:00 am, but not ending until 3:00 pm. Children will get very excited at the notion that your school started doing jumping jacks as soon as day began, and did not stop until the day was over! Your school will do one continuous session of jumping jacks for 7 hours. This novel idea teaches children the benefits of exercise and leading a healthy lifestyle.
Although our example of a Jumping Jacks Day uses a school setting for discriptive purposes, it can also take place in a health club, YMCA, or camp.
April 10th, 2007
by Len Saunders
It is hard to believe it is April, and the warm weather is approaching. Finally, the children can go outside to play. Sorry I have been away for a while, but I am back now and ready to post new material. I do get many emails asking how this site is doing. Personally, I am very happy with the feedback and support in the search engines. Below is an image from my stat counter for last month with regards to visitors to this web site. I don’t know if it is good or not, but I just wanted to post the results for a one month period on this site. I will be posting more articles here again soon….promise.
April 6th, 2007
by Len Saunders