by Lori Schonhaus, B.A., C.P.T., C.P.R.

 

TODAY'S YOUTH ARE MORE SEDENTARY THAN EVER BEFORE, LEAVING THEM AT GREATER RISK FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE.

Because today's youth are becoming more sedentary, increasing their level of physical activity is very important and is the main focus of the 21st century. Fitness professionals working with children should try to focus on the following:

• Focus on developing body awareness and responding to movement stimuli using music, sounds, and equipment to help develop lateral movement skills, body control, eye-hand coordination, and body image.
• Develop spatial awareness, visual perception, and fundamental motor skills, (e.g., catching, falling, running, hopping and skipping). Activities may be incorporated into fun obstacle courses, with colorful equipment and creative play set to music.
• Cognitive learning may be developed through the use of specific body parts, shapes, and colors. Fantasy or make-believe games encourage children to explore movement patterns in a continuous, creative manner.
• Children move with intermittent bursts of energy. Classes should be well supervised, yet loosely structured and designed to follow children's natural energy patterns.

• Focus on increased body awareness, rhythm and coordination, music, memory, further development of motor skills, and hand-eye coordination. A circuit format is ideal for this age group since attention span is short. Include a variety of exercise stations to challenge the individual and isolate different body parts.
• Encourage activities that include multi-impact movement combinations to help develop rhythm and muscle memory. Cooperative games are educational too. This age group can benefit from more complex obstacle courses, which incorporate the use of large muscles, locomotive skills, visual perception, spatial awareness, and cognitive and motor functions.
• Introduce participants to basic sports skills.
• Introduce kids' step and slide programs.

Ages 9-11

• Design a program to increase physical skills. Combine movement sequence, cardiovascular conditioning, muscle strength and endurance, flexibility, agility, and balance.
• Include cooperative games, which enhance social skills and group play (sportsmanship).
• Introduce fun, low-impact aerobic dance. Instructors may also choose to introduce kids' step and slide aerobic programs.

Ages 12-18

• Stress the components of physical fitness.
• Circuits and advanced obstacle courses are appropriate.
• Individual and team sports will interest this age group. Instructors may focus on developing sports skills.
• Introduce more challenging movement patterns for low-impact aerobic dance.
• Include a progressive strength-training program.
• Gradually increase intensity and duration of aerobic portion of class until minimum adult standards are met.
• For older students, instructors may choose to focus on advanced sports skills and strategies. Instruction on aerobic dance exercise, funk, step, and slide may be incorporated into a program designed for this age group.

I use a technique called FUNCTIONAL TRAINING. This style is used to enhance the young athlete’s strength, agility, quickness, speed, and coordination to better their overall performance. Different movements are used for each sport, so therefore, programs will differ accordingly. Tools such as bungies, tubing, floor rings, weighted balls, stability balls, reactions balls, and many other functional equipment are used.

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