Do Children Need Exercise?

Don't be surprised if your 8 years old child wants to start exercising and lift weights, you might wonder what you should do. While some think that it is perfectly ok if children wanted to exercise, some others think the opposite way. Exercise can bring lot of discipline in children which can result in being a better person when they grow up.

No matter how you look at this, children aren't miniature adults and so you can't follow the same methods with growing children that you follow with adults, as children are not same as adults emotionally, physiologically and anatomically.

You can make you children do yoga, which you can start when your kid is 7-8 years old. By yoga not only helps in the development of your children physically but also mentally.

All the children have immature skeletons, as their bones are not mature until they get 14 - 20 years of age. In the case of girls, exercise in childhood can have very several critical effects on bone health that can last for their entire lives.

Children are many times vulnerable to growth related over use injuries such as Osgood- Schlatter disease. This disease can cause knee pain in the period of adolescence. This is an extra-articular disease which can effect boys aged 13-14 and girls 11-12. Children of growing age have immature temperature regulation systems even due to having a large surface area compared to their muscle mass can result to be more susceptible to injury when they aren't properly warmed up.

As children don't sweat as much as adults do, they will be more susceptible to heat exhaustions as well as heat stroke. Due to having low muscle mass and immature hormone system, that makes it harder for them to develop more strength and speed compared to us. Their breathing and heart response while exercising are also different from adults, which can affect their capacity for exercise.

On the other hand, young boys and girls can improve their strength drastically with weight training although opposed in the case of adults, neurological factors are mostly responsible than muscle growth factors.

When you consider exercise programs for children, first and foremost thing is to get medical clearance. The first approach to design a program is to establish a repetition in the range of 8-12 and keep the work load appropriate for the range.

You should ensure that workouts are scheduled out to be so that the children get at least 1 - 2 full days of rest between workouts. The main focus while working out should definitely be on the form of every exercise performed, and not on the amount of weight being lifted by your children.

Before weight training, warm ups and stretching should be done. Make sure your children start off with light loads and then make adjustments accordingly. Not more than 3 consecutive exercise sessions should be done in a week. You should also see that they drink plenty of water before, and after exercise. Drinking enough water is very important factor in exercise, as the children can often times get dehydrated easily.