Friday, January 28, 2011

A nine year old's perspective on health and exercise

Many of our clients at Urbanfitt are parents. We strongly encourage bringing kids along to training sessions or classes especially if being able to do so will make it more possible for our clients to fit their workouts into their busy schedules. Alice (changed her name for privacy) has been coming to Urbanfitt for a few years now and many times she's brought one or both of her daughters. We always encourage the girls to jump in and try some exercises out. Sara-Clare, a very gift trainer and instructor, is especially talented at engaging with kids.

Last night during Core Tabata, Alice's nine year old daughter Christine (changed name) came along and participated in class.

We received this note from Alice today...

Christine woke up this morning & said her inner thighs were very sore! She loves doing the split jumps & the frog.

It was an interesting evening with her at the gym and the walk home. She asked me whether I feel much stronger now since coming to Urbanfitt, and said that it's important for kids to exercise everyday -- she went on to explain why! She also talked about the correlation between what we eat & how we feel/look. It was a very adult way of thinking about all this.

Although we have had many discussion about food & exercise at home -- I think seeing & being able to participate in the classes has had a big impact on her -- and she's only nine!!

She was very aware that kids need at least 60 min of exercise daily -- and she listed all her daily activities to prove she gets at least that! She wondered why adults only needed 150 min. per week -- feels that's not neatly enough for us :)

Thanks so much for always encouraging her to participate when she comes with me!


The reality is that our children are going to be more influenced by how we model taking care of ourselves then by what we say or what they hear in school about health and fitness. If we really want our kids to have a health active life, then we have to show them how to do and that we really mean what we say. Walk to talk parents if you want to help your kids!!!! No one said it's easy to fit fitness in but what choice do we have really?

1 comment:

  1. Nice Blog. I read this blog and knew something about nine year old daughter Christine. Congrats Christine. Really good job, keep it.

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