Naturally, any responsible parent would be wary of overexertion. As with adult newcomers to any activity, children should be deemed physically able to take part in running before you begin. Another thing to take note of is that despite their apparent high levels of energy, children should not be expected to run at the same intensity or distance as that of an adult, i.e., the parent.

This is not merely because they might exhaust themselves too soon, but also because children’s bodies regulate heat less efficiently than adults, as their ratio of body mass to skin surface is higher. This means that they are vulnerable to suffering more detrimental effects of overheating. A simple way to prevent an unhappy ending to a maiden run is to head out when it’s cooler, such as early in the morning or late in the evening, and ensure the child receives sufficient hydration.

Most runners are concerned with running form. While children are supposed to be natural pose runners, it is by no means the only way they run. Whatever the style, the main thing to remember when running with a child is a relaxed form. Tension is most visible in the form of clenched fists, a strained-looking neck, hunched shoulders, and a scrunched up face. If this happens, reduce the pace so that you and the child can chat and laugh while running.

That said, a relaxed pace doesn’t mean ponderous running. Rather than telling the child to focus on a mid-foot strike and brisk cadence, it would be more helpful to have them imagine that they are running lightly on cotton candy or clouds.

In terms of distance covered, children less than 14 years old are advised to run less than 3 miles in one session to minimize the risk of injury. While having a child who wants to follow in your footsteps is gratifying, you have to remember that children aren’t mini-adults, and any increase in running distance/intensity should be approached gradually.

More and more studies are showing how regular physical activity can help kids not only improve their health and fitness, but that it is extending into so many other areas, such as improving their grades and self esteem. So it is crucial to make sure our young ones have the opportunity to be active everyday.

Spending some time at a park can be an excellent way to fit in some activity. Climbing monkey bars and ladders, balancing on timbers, running in the sand, etc. can all be great and safe ways to build strength and cardiovascular fitness in kids. Obviously they need to be supervised, and if the parent joins in with the child, then both are able to get a great workout.

Kids love to race, so why not use that to motivate them to move? Whether it’s by running, going through a made up obstacle course, crawling, crabwalking, etc., this can be done in a group, or on their own, or just have them race against their time on a stop watch. It’s more important to give attention to them having fun, playing nicely, and doing things with proper form, than achieving fast times.

Games of low organization, such as tag and hide and go seek, among many others (there are plenty available online if you search for them), also offer fun activities that will keep children active and interested. You can find ones to suit any location and number of kids.

Depending on your area and distance from the school, walking kids to school and back home can help give them some activity as well as an appreciation that a vehicle is not always needed to travel somewhere. Something many of our children are not exposed to.

These are just some simple and general ways that children can be physically active on a daily basis. They are solely limited to your imagination. In fact, ask yourchild(ren), and I’m sure that you’ll get many more answers.

First of all, playing sports gives your kids something to do and a group that your kids can belong to. I’m not making any promises, but I think if a child has a sport to play, he or she would have less chances to bring up the phrase no parent wants to hear: “I’m bored.” Also, playing sports can help kids meet new friends because they will be in a group with fellow peers who have the same interests.

While it is well known that sports can have tremendous effects on kids physically, many people don’t know that sports can help kids develop mentally as well.  From researches done by Family.com, kids who played sports, especially girls, are more likely to have confidence and very high self-esteem. Plus, physical activities can help kids to relieve stress and reduce depression. These same kids are also found to have excellent discipline. They learn to set goals and then work to achieve those goals. They learn that by working hard they can accomplish the things that they want to in their lives. Sports can also help many kids understand that you have to work as a team and help develop good leadership skills, which are important attributes for the future. Kids who play sports will also quickly learn that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. They learn to be good sports in both situations.

Additionally, playing sports can help kids perform better academically, believe it or not. Students who play sports in high school will be more likely to achieve academic success in high school and in the future. They will also develop math, motor, and strategic skills that will sure to help them with their future. Kids involved in sports are less likely to take drugs or smoke because they realize the impact that these destructive activities can have upon their performance. Girls who play sports are also less likely to become pregnant. What parent doesn’t want that?

With so many benefits to gain, encouraging your kid to get into sports might be a good decision.

Lifting programs are critical for many sports. I can see that my former middle school doesn’t want to “fall behind” the other teams who are providing weight rooms for their students. Many high schools care tremendously about their sports teams, and if grabbing the state title involves getting kids into weight rooms before the 9th grade, then so be it. Perhaps, with vigilant supervision, this could be a good idea. However, from personal experience I know that even high school students don’t always want, or even know how, to respect a weight room. I’ve seen kids bench without safety clamps and leave weights lying all over the floor, both extremely dangerous habits.

I’m sure that a great deal of thought went into creating the weight room for my former middle school, but I wonder if all of the right questions were raised and that the right answers were given. When is it safe for children to start lifting weights? I’ve heard that weight training has been proven to be safe for kids; when exercises are performed correctly, kids are no more likely to get injured than adults. However, the fact of the matter is that kids don’t always follow rules or proper technique, even when both have been clearly outlined.  Well, how much supervision should there be? Is having one adult in the room, as is often the case, enough to ensure that every child is properly performing each exercise? Kids often see large weights as challenges, and will try to have unsafe lifting competitions with their friends. When all is said and done will lifting actually benefit the athletics programs and will these benefits outweigh the risks?

The question of what age a child can start lifting does not have a clear-cut answer, and maybe that’s why my former school went ahead and created the new weight room. After all, the “right” age is probably unique to every child, right? But I’m curious, are elementary schools next?

Well, I did not realize this, but apparently, hula hooping is making a comeback. I used to think that it was just a thing that little kids did, but that is not the case anymore. Even Michelle Obama is into hula hooping! Last October she hooped for health and was able to get 142 swivels in! She definitely kept up with the best of them!

Why the hula hooping craze? Well, it is a really good source of exercise! The hula hoops used during exercising are not your standard little kid hoops. The exercising hoops are a little bigger and are weighted. This weight, about 2 pounds, will help a lot because you will not really have to worry about the lack of rhythm or being clumsy. Hula hoops are used in exercises to firm, tone and burn body fat.

Using a hoop has a lot of benefits. For instance, they massages your intestines and organs as it circles your waist. Hula hooping can help you have some meditative times, allow your heart rate to go up so you can lose weight, it increases the flow of blood to your brain, increases your energy level, enhances spinal flexibility, and more.

Hula hooping, according to the American Council on Exercise, burns about 200 calories every 30 minutes. That is not too shabby for a childhood “sport!” A lot of people prefer hooping because other sports put too much stress on the body. Another thing about hooping that people enjoy is that it puts a lot of emphasis on strengthening the abdominal area and torso. These are two areas that most people strive to trim down.

Hooping will bring back the old memories while getting fit!

Well, once the snow comes along, ski season will be in full blast.

Teaching someone how to ski is an interesting experience. It is not too hard to learn, in opposition to first starting snowboarding, but it can be challenging. For those of you who are looking to bring your children out into the amazing world of skiing or to teach a friend how this sport works, here are a few hints.

First and foremost, figure out if they can handle the cold temperatures, the uncomfortable boots, and the rest of the equipment. Speaking of equipment, do not get the cheap stuff. Buying or renting good quality equipment will not only aid your “student’s” overall experience, but it also will make your life easier. Figure out how they learn best–by watching, example, doing, trying, etc?

Start them off on the bunny slopes with the carrot lift. It should be extremely flat and boring for you, but trust me, your child or friend will think that they are going too fast to handle at the beginning on even this slope, so make sure that they are comfortable on these slopes first. Once you can get them to make big turns, how to use the pizza wedge technique, and how to stop, you can test them out on the lift. Take a lift up and take a long green circle trail down. They will learn so much on that one trail and may even find it easier going down on a slope because they’ll have more momentum.

However, I will admit that the best thing to do would be to enroll them in a one hour class. A lot of times you can get a package for beginners for free which would include rentals, a lesson, and a lower mountain pass. Other times you can get some great deal that includes all three items.

My three year old son loves to play sports. The park my family frequents has a large grassy play area around the little play structure on sand, so we bring a bag full of sports equipment. In the duffle we keep a soccer ball, a large blue plastic bat and oversized plastic baseballs, as well as wiffle balls and a bouncy ball.

When we play soccer, we concentrate on getting Three-feet-of-fun only to kick the ball instead of pick it up. The whole point of the game is running up one and down the field just kicking the ball. Then my husband and I will stand on opposite sides of each other with our legs apart, making a goal area and have Three-feet-of-fun practice kicking at a target — the goal.

For baseball, we focus on Three-feet-of-fun’s stance and teaching him how to hit the ball. As long as the bat cracks against the ball, it counts, and we run around in a diamond pattern on made up bases. If he misses the ball (we don’t play with a T) we holler out, “Strike!” but he gets as many swings as he wants. There will be time enough to teach him that you only get three strikes and that you can be called, “Out!”

We use the bouncy ball to play catch instead of the baseballs/wiffle balls. Bouncy balls are a lot softer if you don’t catch them and get hit with them instead. So, we play catch, and then we throw the ball as far as we can and race to go get it. Strangely enough, our son wins a lot, but we don’t let him win all the time because we also want to impart good sportsmanship.