Childhood is full of so much
hyperactive wonder. Mudpies and butterflies, as my
grandmother used to say. Today's urbanized world forces us
to pay closer attention to making sure our children get enough exercise. These poor kids spend so much
time at school, and we as parents spend so much time at work, that is difficult
to make sure they get enough play time in the few daylight hours remaining. As a result, we must become very
intentional about keeping them engaged in activities.
Most parents are right about
this. They enroll their children in a variety of sports. Everything from soccer
to baseball, and sometimes they get them enrolled in multiple sports at once.
This has the frustrating side effect of piling even more events into the
parent's busy day. But, for the family who
prioritizes an active lifestyle, a busy night of practices is about the only
option.
Bikes As The Ultimate Family Workout
Cycling is quickly becoming a
favorite family past time for families across America. It's a sport that almost
all of us grew up doing. And, as the adage is "You don't forget how to
ride a bike." If you are a savvy shopper, you
can find cheap bikes for the whole family online stores, like DavesCheapBikes.com. Include
them in the bike-shopping process. As a kid, there is almost nothing more
exciting than getting your very own bicycle. Add in a bike trailer and some
bikes for the older kids, and suddenly you have sport the entire family can
readily engage in.
Miles of biking trails cross
almost every urban city and they offer an extremely safe environment for the
entire family to go riding. Suddenly, getting your kid enough
activity becomes a matter of nothing more than putting helmets on and sending
them out to pedal around. If you want to increase the
challenge for them, you can get on your bike and take them on a longer ride.
Many families make it a nightly
activity. In some cases, if you are near the bike trail, you can load the bikes
up in the car and drive to the nearest trail for a fun evening of pedaling. For the weekend, longer bike
rides can be a real treat. Pack a lunch and start in the morning when it is
cool. Wrap up the day with a picnic at the park.
How Much Exercise Is Recommended For
Children?
The CDC is considered the
authority on this. They recommend sixty minutes of cardiovascular activity for
your kids every day. An hour a day of bike riding
might seem like quite a bit. However, considering the rate of Childhood obesity
in the world today, it makes a lot of sense. Only fifty years ago, televisions
were much less, and children spent the bulk of their day outside. In light of that, an hour of
activity makes sense as a bare minimum. But we have to be smart about it.
Especially if we are increasing our kid's activity level.
How Much Exercise is Too Much For Kids?
When we adults think of exercise,
we think of "going for a run" or engaging in some other
high-intensity activity for a set rate of time. Adults are good at pacing
themselves. Kids haven't fully developed
those skillsets yet. They naturally want to go in sprints. Run hard, rest. Bike
hard, rest. Play hard, rest. These micro-exercising moments
are natural and help the child find their pace and their balance.
It is essential to encourage your
kids to keep playing and keep staying active. However, do so with these
"micro-bursts" in mind. You might get them to pedal to "the stop
sign." And then you take a little break before you pedal "to the
white mailbox." As they get older, the amount of
exercise that they complete between their moments of rest should also increase.
So you might have them go one lap around the block. And then two laps. Pretty soon you have a kid who is
doing multiple laps around the block, and it becomes essential to make sure
they are listening to their body and staying safe.
How To Keep Your Kids Safe While
Exercising
Just as with adults, it is easy
to push kids too hard when they first begin exercising. They have to learn their limits. Even more importantly, they need
to master balance and self-awareness. With children spending so much of their
lives forced into a sedentary lifestyle, our children have lost the normal
awareness of themselves. This lack of motor finesse puts
the kids at risk for injuries. Trip and falls, sprains and broken bones are
risks that kids face, anyhow.
However, when you take a child
that has spent most of their life in low-risk activities and then move them up
to normal-risk activities, you have to be careful not to overdrive them. Tiredness also pushes the risk of
injury. So increase your kids' exposure to sport at a slow and steady rate. Hydration is also critical. Heat
stroke is a genuine threat and often children have not learned to listen to the
warning signs of thirst and hunger. It may be a little over-kill, but
make a game out of drinking fluids while they exercise. Each child should have
a readily available source of water and should be encouraged to drink even when
they are not thirsty. Over time, they will develop a
healthy sense of thirst, but it often takes a little while before that sense is
fully developed. Meanwhile, your proactive technique will keep them safe and
build the habit of drinking plenty of fluids.
Whether it is cycling or soccer, keeping your kid active is one of the most significant challenges you will face as a parent. It also provides the opportunity to create some of the most rewarding memories.
