Our Goal is to identify products and services that will help you as a parent, get your child more active. The reviews and articles are designed to give you ideas that are fun, creative, and most important, not in front of a video game! To submit and idea for inclusion, please email: childrensfitnessreviews@gmail.com

Create Good Habits While Thier Young!

A company called Get Kids Moving (www.getkidsmoving.com) has come up with a deck of cards called "Exercards" designed for children ages 3 to 7. The cards are a clever mix of exercise activities and academics. Think of them as flash cards for the mind & body. Each card has an activity that a child (with parent!) can do.

There are stretching activities, aerobic activities, and many cards that help with balance and coordination. Each exercise will tie in learning the alphabet, months & days, even creative storytelling. A fun way to build good fitness habits and educational foundation for young children.

Training Young Athletes

For older children that are already involved in organized sports (which could mean older than 6, anymore), coaches and trainers have found the best way to keep their kids fit is to cross train in unrelated sports. If you coach a softball team, maybe once a week, play a game of basketball or soccer. It doesn't even need to be another sport. A game of ultimate frisbee can be a great diversion from the normal practice routine, and you gain the added benefit of improving speed, coordination and strength while having fun!

The Indoor Obstacle Course

In the winter it can be difficult for many to find fun activites for kids that are indoors. A quick easy activity is to create an obstacle course in your house. It could be as simple as setting up chairs, tables and pillows to have your child crawl and climb over, to adding additional elements like balloons and string barriers.  If you would like to make the course more physical, have your child stop at "stations" along the way to hop on one foot, do jumping jacks, or pushups. To increase the difficulty, have your child try to balance a ball on a toilet paper roll, while completing the course. The options are limited only to your imagination. This is a great activity that will keep the kids away from the TV!

Aerobics for Fit Kids

Denise Austin, who has released countless videos that stand as a testament to her expertise, here extends her talents to a younger generation. Combining elements of dance, yoga, stretching, and traditional aerobics, this fun and engaging routine will get kids off the couch and on their feet. The workout requires no extra equipment, and minimal space and also includes a bonus routine  intended for the whole family to use together. The DVD is 43 minutes long, and is appropriate for all kids. It begins with a six-minute warm up of stretches and lunges, followed by seven minutes of cardio-funk, kick-boxing, and traditional aerobics. The program ends with a strengthening segment of push-ups, abdominal exercises, and beginning yoga. The always perky Austin provides adequate verbal coaching to a dozen kids who perform the moves. This moderately fast-paced program assumes its participants are fairly fit at the onset and in only a few cases offers reduced levels of participation for varying abilities. This is an energetic exercise option for general youth fitness.

Have Your Child Ski Witout the Snow!

A new fun exercise product has become popular over the last few years called the Trikke. The Trikke is a scooter like product the simulates the sensation of downhill skiing. The Trikke is easy to use, but difficult to master. My nine year old son loved the sensation, and learned how the side to side motion powered the Trikke. The benefits are that it will deliver a very good aerobic exercise for your child. The side to side motion really works the legs and helps to improve balance and coordination. And, it's fun to try and master. The downside is that a young child make get frustrated trying to get started on the Trikke. I definitely recommend finding a large flat area (parking lot, cul de sac) to get started. It may be too difficult to get started going uphill, and too scary to go downhill. Trikke has become popular enought that local groups are forming to go on family outings, and the Trikke would be perfect for most bicycle trails. 

Competitive Cup Stacking for Fun and Competition!

Cup Stacking has become a worldwide phenomenon. Children groups, individuals, schools, and clubs are into competitve speed cup stacking. If you are not familiar with cup stacking, it is basically taking cups and stacking them into pyramids, or other designs as fast as possible, and then unstacking them. It is easy to learn, inexpensive to get started, and fun for most elementary age children. According to the World Sport Stacking Association (www.worldsportstackingassociation.org), Sport stacking not only develops important physical skills, such as hand-eye coordination, quickness and focus, it also promotes selfconfidence, teamwork and good sportsmanship. The WSSA encourages participation from age 4 and up. So if you are looking for a physical activity for any child this might fit the bill. It is fun to on your own, or with your family (my son beats me regularly), or you can get more serious and compete in tournaments. The cost to get started is mininal, you can use plastic cups from your cupboard, or start with a cup stacking kit. I recommend the kit, because the cups take a beating when you are trying to stack them in a hurry. Also most kits, come with a storage bag, so it is easy to keep track of everything.  

Fitness At Home

Many parents and kids think of organized sports when they think of fitness. Though there are many advantages to signing your child up for the softball team, practice and games once or twice a week will not be enough to reach activity goals, of 60 minutes per day. In addition, parents can no longer rely on physical education in the schools to provide enough physical activity for children. There are many ways to keep your kids moving at home.

- Incorporate physical activity into the daily routine. From household chores to an after dinner walk, keep your family active every day.

- Allow enough time for free play. Kids can burn more calories and have more hun when left to their own devices. Playing tag, riding bikes around the neighborhood, and building snowmen are some favorite childhood pastimes.

- Keep a variety of games and sports equipment on hand. It doesn' t have to be expensive - an assortment of balls, hula-hoops, and jump ropes can keep kids busy for hours.

- Be active together. It will get you moving and kids love to play with their parents.

- Limit time spent in sedentary activities, such as watching television, going online, and playing video games.

When you have exhausted the possibilities at home, take advantage of the local playgrounds and athletic fields. Make family fitness outings a part of your regular routine. Let family members choose the activity, go hiking, ice-skating, anything goes as long as everyone can participate. The most important part of helping your child commit to fitness includes being a postive role model by show your child that exercise is important by exercising yourself.

Updated and reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD

www.kidshealth.org

Resistance Bands For Flexibility and Strength

Athletes have been using stretch bands for years to help warm up and stretch before competition or practice. But, simple band use can be a fun and inexpensive way to create a "home gym" for yourself and your children. Many view resistance bands for adults only, but there are a wide variety of products, with varying resistance for anyone wanting to use this workout technique.  Children can participate in a resistance band program to tone little muscles and inspire growth. It is a fun little quick exercise that can hold the attention of even the most rambunctious child. There are so many exercises that may be conducted with resistance bands that boredom is never a factor. Youth coaches have even begun to implement resistance band usage in sports to increase their players' flexibility and endurance.

Bodylastics, a exercise company that has been around for 10 years, and has been featured in many national publications, has created a starter kit for people that would like to have the home gym experience without the high costs associated with Bowflex, and other high profile home exercise equipment companies. Bodylastics is a system of elastic tubing that can generate up to 15 different levels of resistance. Resistance band exercise not only provides for excellent muscle build up, but it definitely increases one's flexibility and range of motion. The basic Bodylastics kit can be purchased for less than $40, and individual resistance bands with as little as 5 pounds of resistance can be purchased for only $12.

Workouts conducted for children with resistance bands, are easy and inexpensive way to improve a childs strength and flexibility.