A guide to youth exercise at home

4/14/2020

Hi everyone, welcome back to the blog. It is week 5 of Health From Home! So far, most of our education has been geared towards our own health, and ways to optimize and balance our work lives with measures to maintain health and fitness. But what often goes overlooked (or, underlooked - is that a word? Well, it is now) is the physical health of youth that may be quarantined along with us! This post is dedicated to those with kids in the house, and how parents can find effective yet fun ways to keep the kids active at home.

It's not an ideal reality, but today's youth are slower and weaker than previous generations. During this time of quarantine, it is essential that kids at home are getting an appropriate outlet for physical activity - 60 minutes per day, ideally. But included in that physical activity, should be some kind of regimented exercise, with strength training included. Home-school physical education or recess shouldn't be ignored, but it CAN be fun for parents and kids alike to sneak in some exercise.

The benefits of youth strength training and exercise are very well documented. In 2018, the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee summarized a decade of research on the impact of physical activity on all demographics, across body types, medical conditions, race/ethnicity, age and gender. All are summarized here. Youth findings are summarized here. If you have a concern with a pre-existing condition, and are unsure about the efficacy or safety of exercise for a child, start by reading through this research, and chat with your doctor about a plan. There are no two ways about it - we absolutely have to find a way to keep the kids active!

General Recommendations, according to the World Health Organization

For children and young people, physical activity includes play, games, sports, transportation, chores, recreation, physical education, or planned exercise, in the context of family, school, and community activities. the recommendations to improve cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, bone health, and cardiovascular and metabolic health biomarkers are:

1. Children and youth aged 5-17 should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate - to vigorous-intensity physical activity daily.
2. Amounts of physical activity greater than 60 minutes provide additional health benefits.
3. Most of the daily physical activity should be aerobic. Vigorous-intensity activities should be incorporated, including those that strengthen muscle and bone, at least 3 times per week.
4. For those kids who are getting no, or very little, exercise, there should be a focus on slowly integrating exercise more and more, as they will be high responders to even doing just a little, with the goal to get to the 60 minute standard
5. It is best to break up the 60 minutes into 2-3 segments throughout the day. This mirrors the typical school day with recess and PE class, and allows kids to play hard for short durations. This style of play suits them perfectly

It is a MYTH that resistance training is detrimental to physical development in youth! Well designed youth strength training programs can have a favorable influence on bone growth and development. Here are some guidelines to follow with youth resistance training:

Education of proper technique. Coaching technique for youth is basically the same for teaching adults. The internet is rife with how-to's on basic lifting technique. It is not the aim of this particular post to educate on all of the techniques involved in each lift - that may be coming yet in another post. But in the meantime, if you would like further help in this regard, please leave a comment or send me an email and I'd be glad to help you out
Basics are enough! Strength training for youth can include lifting, carrying, squats, lunges, push-ups, and pull-ups. Dumbbell exercises can include overhead pressing, and rows. Isometric holds, like planks and wall-sits, are also great. Stay away from isolated exercises that only work one joint - biceps curls, triceps extensions, etc. Youth strengthening should include multi-joint movements that teach functional and overall strengthening on a neural level - NOT be about hypertrophy and muscle definition!
Should remain Sub-Max. Unlike with cardio-based play and exercise, max efforts should NOT be the goal with resistance training. Emphasize repetitions over resistance, and to stop the set shortly after the muscles start feeling tired.
"Distracted" methods work great! Strength sessions don't have to be a defined time on their own. There are many ways we can "sneak in" strengthening. Helping with chores, like carrying the groceries, raking, shoveling, pushing the wheelbarrow, all encourage functional strengthening. Pair something challenging yet doable for them, and teach them the merits of a strong healthy body and hard work.
Make it FUN! Here are some ideas
1. Look in the games cupboard and choose games where exercise can easily be incorporated. I made a video with my 10-year old son, and adapted exercise to Battleship, Uno, and Connect4 - view it here. Card games are especially easy to adapt.
2. Get out the sidewalk chalk, and draw 10 2x2 ft boxes connected, and do ladder drills in the driveway
3. Hiking: Have them carry their own pack with water and supplies - a heavier pack (again, challenging yet doable!) is a great way for them to strengthen the back and joints. Play I-spy and assign an exercise to things you see. For instance, a squirrel = 4 lunges, a bird's nest= 3 push-ups, etc. Look around the house and use your creativity with what you have.
4. Read their response - they shouldn't feel forced or shamed if they're not having fun.

And most importantly...!

Now that we are playing parent AND teacher, it is up to parents to MODEL the behavior we want to see in our kids. This couldn't be more true in terms of exercise and physical activity. We should be emphasizing how FUN exercise is and reciting its basic merits and benefits any chance we get! If our kids see us doing a video, they are much more likely to jump in and participate. Sometimes it's nice to do our own workouts just to have personal time and focus on the self, but save some time and energy for physical activity with them!

Until next time!