The Citizen (KZN)

Expose your kids to exercise

-

Scientists are in a constant quest to solve some of the world’s most challengin­g problems. They have invested in making our lives easier through understand­ing and it is through this evolutiona­ry research process that humans evolve for the better.

Sixty percent of American children don’t get enough cardiovasc­ular exercise according to a new study, and from a previous study done sampling 25 million kids across 28 countries figures have declined significan­tly since 1975.

Children aged nine to 17 were asked to run as far as possible in 15 minutes. Typically, children ran between 800 and 3 200m in the given time period. This research has highlighte­d that children are 15% less fit than their parents were as youngsters. To put it into perspectiv­e, children are one-and-a-half minutes slower than their peers of 30 years ago.

As each year goes by, the problem becomes worse, which means to life insurance companies and medical aid providers that their future clients are at a higher risk of cardiovasc­ular disease. It is not that they won’t insure you, it just means that when you do a physical and you fall into the category of “unfit individual­s”, it will contribute to your premiums being higher.

There are various reasons as to why this is happening and one must take into account behavioura­l, physical and psychologi­cal aspects. It is easy to point the finger at one single case but more realis

Test protocol

In order to start tracking your fitness levels, perform a traditiona­l one-mile (1 609m) run for time. Please consult your doctor before doing any strenuous exercises. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what you get in the beginning. Sure, it will tell you how unfit or fit you are. The value is of importance because it gives you a baseline reading and if you keep improving this score, you are on the right track to beating the statistica­l norm of 60% of Americans who are cardiovasc­ularly unfit. The reason I refer to American data is because their system of tracking and data collection is superior to most parts of the world including South Africa.

Set up

With any good sports science test you want accuracy and you want to standardis­e your testing battery so that you are not testing a one-miler running uphill tically the factors that are affecting children are more complex and intertwine­d. Instead of playing the blame game, lets focus our attention on some solutions.

As a parent, the last thing in the world I want is when my children grow up they blame me for not doing more for them by way of getting them more exposed to sport, exercise and a healthy lifestyle. but instead file a flat surface – preferably a sports field. Measure out 1 609m with cones so you have a start, mid, and end point. Make sure your distance is linear or oval, the last thing you want is setting up a square, your times will be slower, and you will probably cut the corners, making the test invalid. Other factors to consider are surface areas, time of day, humidity and temperatur­e.

Warm up

Make sure you start off by warming up, loosening up your joints and increasing blood flow and oxygen to the muscles. Most runners just put on their shoes and start running and then wonder why they have alignment issues, sore knees, shin splints and other preventabl­e problems associated with running. Do things right from the start, and since your test is for time, see warming up in the same way you would warm up a Formula One car – slow and steady before the big race.

Norms

In the US they have a youth fitness program called the Presidents Challenge which is a national initiative to get kids more fit and healthy. One of the tests is the one-mile run and they have a considerab­le amount of data to give you guidelines as to where you should be according to your age.

Conclusion

The year is quite disastrous from a fitness, sport and health point of view because of the restrictio­ns placed on sport at school. Your environmen­t might not be safe enough to get the daily exercise needed.

In my sports science practice I am seeing more and more parents coming to us that start off the conversati­on by saying: “both myself and my wife are not sporty or active”. They come to us for a reason and that reason is laudable. Even though they were not exposed to sport or activity they have made a conscious decision that even if their kids are more “book orientated”, to balance their lives with health and fitness and more importantl­y teach them how to use the right muscles and the right techniques.

You could speak to profession­als that specialise in youth performanc­e like Advanced Sports Performanc­e take matters into your own hands and make sure you and your children are fit.

 ?? Pictures: iStock ??
Pictures: iStock

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa