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Kids want to exercise

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Fit Kids, Smarter Kids
by Jeff Galloway

Kids Want To Exercise—Let Them!

“Kids who exercise regularly can gain major control over attitude, energy level, bone strength and health.”

Kids naturally want to exercise. From a very early age, when feeling sleepy and lethargic, kids move around more in the crib, push more against the car seat restraints, jump out of their seats, and run down the hallway. You can see the joy in their faces as they exert themselves.

Compared with a kid who sits in a room, an exercising kid will learn volumes about the body, the environment, how to change attitude. Exertion forces the individual to solve more problems, which is a primary contributor to becoming smarter. Kids who exercise from an early age learn to intuitively solve problems of movement and exertion, creating a greater ease in movement. Early childhood movement activities have been shown to trigger learning capabilities in the brain (see “Early Childhood Fitness” chapter).

Smart doctors have known about the benefits of exercise for generations. Several have told me, in various ways, that if exercise were a controlled medication to increase energy for learning, it would be the most heavily prescribed on record because of the known benefits in practically every area of the body. Unlike drugs, there are no negative side effects to exercise that are not under one’s control. Regular doses make one feel more alive and positive, help one deal with setbacks and depression, and blend the mind, body and spirit into a team for top performance in any area. Exercisers feel more alive and are capable of enjoying more of life while dealing directly with problems.

Kids do what we do. Sedentary parents tend to produce kids that don’t exercise. But an adult leader who regularly exercises, is a major positive influence on the lifetime health of these future adults.

Kids often limit their exercise because we discourage them from doing so. So many schools limit the natural opportunities of children to exert themselves during recess, etc, and actually teach them to be sedentary.

Safety and liability must be considered—but many of the constraints imposed by institutions are designed to promote the convenience of the supervisors. Many rules have little connection with common sense. Surely there are safety issues and times when we should tell kids “don’t move”. But if this is a way of life, kids will learn to be sedentary.

Institutional Control. When a child takes off and runs down the hall we scold them and often punish them. The “good” child is the child that is sitting in place, not moving, and not learning anything but how to be sedentary and to do what one is told. I’m not encouraging childhood anarchy. It is possible to allow kids to be active without disturbing everyone nearby, and you’ll find the activities in this book.

There’s no greater gift you can give a child than the gift of exercise. It improves stamina and develops the capacity to do more of everything without hitting a physical wall. Will power and mental endurance improve at the same time, preparing the child to tap into the capability of the total human organism. Kids can see that “work pays off” when they exercise regularly, which is a wonderful life lesson in itself. We want our kids to live a long life, and you’ll see studies listed in this book which show this. More important is the fact that a kid who enjoys exercise will have a gift that keeps on giving, improving the quality of everything they do—of life itself.

The Plan. In this book you’ll find a strategy for making exercise fun, for bringing parents and kids together to exercise, and strategic plans to keep exercise interesting. Nothing is set in stone. As you try different activities, you’ll expand the variety to keep it interesting. Kids can be fit at any age.

Running and walking are the basic exercise in this book, because they are the easiest to do, and provide the most time-efficient benefit. Other exercises are always encouraged, and a point system is provided to rate the equivalent efforts in the “reward points” section of this book.

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