Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Don't Take Your Kids Jogging (or to Classical Symphony Concerts)


Child-Centered Physical Activity, Part 1
I learned an important lesson about children’s fitness at a performance of classical music. It was during the annual Lake Champlain Mozart  Festival, and my wife and I and another couple were attending a concert at Memorial Auditorium. This was during the parenting phase in which we still had only one young child, and hadn’t given up completely on grown-up recreation. My son was six, and our friends’ daughter was five, and we brought them along.
Naturally, the kids quickly became restless, and I, sharing their appreciation for the intricacies of Mozart, volunteered to take them for a walk. It was a pleasant evening and we went outside. The front entrance has a lot of stairs, and a big marble ramp with a handrail. It was a perfect playground, and other erstwhile concert-going children were already taking advantage of it. They ran up the stairs, slid down the ramp, ran up the ramp and down the stairs, and occasionally hung or swung from the handrail. It was an excellent functional training circuit, and I watched in appreciation. I considered the ways in which the adult athletes I worked might benefit from this workout.
Bushintai-Do was designed for
children and young teens.
As time passed, I noticed a pattern of exertion that did not fit the concept of this as a circuit for my adult clientele, primarily combat sport athletes. The kids put in some vigorous activity, but did not sustain it for more than a few minutes at a time. They would charge through the circuit, laughing and talking, and then flop down for a rest. Then it was back to the circuit for a few more frenzied minutes, and back down for a rest.
Since I also work with child athletes, I made a mental note to structure their workouts more along the lines of this “run and stop” pattern. I thought it would be more enjoyable for them. What I later found out was that it is not only more fun, but more natural and beneficial for them.
As parents, coaches, and mentors, we try to help children benefit from our knowledge and experience. We want them to learn, as we did, the value of hard work, determination, and the ability to delay short-term gratification in the interest of long-term success. As athletes (I include recreational athletes and other fitness enthusiasts), we know that if we persist through hard workouts on a regular basis, our bodies will adapt to the stresses we put on them, and we will become stronger and have better endurance .
Not so with prepubescent children. Research has shown that, given an exercise program that would yield significant improvements in aerobic capacity in adults, children will not make similar gains. Their transition from anaerobic to aerobic energy production is not as efficient as it is in adults. They can be forced to run for 20 minutes three times per week, but will most likely only develop a distaste for running, and exercise in general. It will be all pain and no gain.
According to Paul R. Stricker, MD, FAAP, in Aerobic Capacity and Training Ability from www.HealthyChildren.org, Hopefully this is clear. Read my lips—there is no need for elaborate, excessive, and exhaustive training programs for children and pre-pubertal athletes. This does not suit their needs or interests.”
The benefits of exercise for children, and the national crisis in juvenile fitness, are well-documented. If we want to serve this population, it is vital that we consider their specific physiological needs. We need to learn how to teach the lessons of determination, persistence, and hard work, in child-appropriate ways.
David Quinlan, Founder and Lead Instructor
Bushintai-Do Programs and Martial Way Self-Defense Center
Milton, Vermont


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