Fitness & Exercise Guide

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An important way to help your child with weight loss, maintaining a normal weight and develop healthy habits is to encourage him to participate in regular physical activity. This can include participating in a physical education class in school or extracurricular sports at school or in the community.

You should also encourage regular physical activity as part of your child's regular daily routine. This can include:

• Walking or riding your bike instead of driving for short distances.
• Taking a walk with a friend or walk the family dog each afternoon.
• Using stairs instead of escalators or elevators, especially if you have to walk out of your way to find the stairs.
• Parking your car at the end of the parking lot and walking to the entrance of the mall or grocery store.
• Chores, such as doing yardwork or housework.
• Family exercise: go for routine family walks or bike rides in the neighborhood or local park.
  

However, the AAP position is that "children and adolescents should avoid the practice of weight lifting, power lifting, and body building, as well as the repetitive use of maximal amounts of weight in strength training programs, until they have reached Tanner stage 5 level of developmental maturity." This usually occurs at around age 15. Younger children, if well supervised, can perform less strenuous strength training exercises, especially if they do not lift heavy or maximal weights.

Strength training exercises can be done after the cooling down period or on alternate days from their regular exercises and they can include:

• sit-ups
• crunches
• leg lifts
• pushups
• pull-ups
• lunges
• knee bends
• heel raises
• arm curls with free weights
• other exercises that involve lifting weights, either free weights or by using weight machines

• Be patient. It can take time to get your child involved in a regular fitness routine.
• Get the whole family involved. Healthy eating habits and regular exercise should be a regular part of your family's life. It is much easier if everyone in the house follows these guidelines, than if your child has to do it alone.
• Prevent dehydration by having your child drink one to two eight ounce glasses of water before exercising and give them free access to water during their exercise routine.

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