Let’s MOVE With Our Kids!
Nobody said parenting was going to be easy.
Okay, let's not kid ourselves. There is a small little gremlin in the back of your brain that wants your kid to be a "State Champion." To be able to look up at your child on the podium wearing her First Place medal would fill you with so much Pride and Joy. You may even pound your chest like a fucking Silver Back!
Not to put too much pressure on you though Bro - but this dream of yours is greatly dependent upon the physical activity YOU do now!
In a study done at Boston University, Researches found that the children of 2 physically active parents are 5 times more likely to be physically active than those children that have inactive parents.
So while you are working on your Beer Belly (which, if we are being honest...does take a lot of work), you gotta be thinking about the example you are setting for your future "Full-Ride" starting quarterback.
As the pediatric physical therapist Tara Losquadro Liddle explains, “Exercise establishes core physical strength and the biomechanical patterns that will last a lifetime—patterns that in a large part will determine how a child approaches and reacts to the world”.
But, know this...our window is limited. One study from 2004 showed that by age 9, children are much less likely to follow their parent's example of exercise. So, by the geriatric age of 9 years-old our kids have decided the exercise is "not for them."
Children of 2 physically active parents are 5x more likely to be physically active than those children that have inactive parents.
Physical activity, at a young age, not only helps to establish healthy physical habits in our children, it also increases our children's brain function!
In his extensive review “Exercise and Children’s Intelligence, Cognition, and Academic Achievement", Dr. Phillip Tomporowski remarked, "Evidence accrued from research conducted over the past few years suggests that gains in children’s mental functioning due to exercise training are seen most clearly on tasks that involve executive functions. Executive functions are involved in performing goal-directed actions in complex stimulus environments, especially novel ones, in which elements are constantly changing. Behaviors such as these have long been seen as important for children’s adaptive functioning. Exercise training programs may prove to be simple, yet important, methods of enhancing aspects of children’s mental functioning that are central to cognitive and social development."
In Dr. Tomporowski's review, the STROOP TEST was used. The Stroop Test measures our Executive Function (see Blog #1). The Stroop effect has been widely used in psychology. Among the most important uses is to measure a person's selective attention capacity and skills, as well as their processing speed ability. Results showed that those children that participated in short rest/high intensity exercise scored much better than those children that participated in low intensity continuous activity or no activity at all.
Exercise training programs may prove to be simple, yet important, methods of enhancing aspects of children’s mental functioning that are central to cognitive and social development.
So to lay this all out for you...GO EXERCISE WITH YOUR KIDS!
If you want your kid to set a State Record or become the next Doogie Howser, get out there (with them) and work up a sweat!