Aerobic exercise plays an essential role in your child's healthy development, as well as helps your child build beneficial habits that can carry forward through the rest of his life. Aerobic exercise consists of any activity that increases your child's heart and respiratory rate. While many exercises may be too difficult for younger children to perform, there are several aerobic activities that children of most any age and ability can take part in.
Running
Running is the most basic aerobic exercise a child can do, but yet has one of the largest impacts on the body. Running is an aerobic activity that can help meet the hour a day of exercise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for children. Running can be as simple as running around a track or field, or can be utilized in games such as tag to make the exercise more entertaining. Running also helps increase a child's bone mineral density, which assists in building strong bones.
Jump Rope
Jump rope is also a basic aerobic exercise that children can learn to do at an early age. Starting as early as elementary school, children can build the skills necessary to both swing the rope and jump over it at the same time. The jumping and swinging action of the arm provides significant aerobic benefits, as well as bone strengthening benefits. Start with having the child only jump the rope, without swinging it themselves -- use two older children or adult helpers to swing one long rope for the child to jump over. After the child develops a rhythm and starts to recognize the height and timing needed to clear the rope with each jump, she can transition to jumping rope on her own.
Calisthenics
Calisthenics are beginning aerobic exercises that can be combined to create aerobic training circuits for children. Some common examples include jumping jacks, knee lifts, arm circles, marching, running in place, bending down and touching the toes or even simply jumping up and down. All of these exercises increase heart and respiratory rates, and provide cardio-respiratory and calorie-burning benefits for your child's body.
Basic Resistance Training
Basic resistance training exercise strengthen muscles while providing some amount of aerobic benefit at the same time. While these exercises do not increase your child's heart rate as much as other aerobic activities, they do provide additional benefit of building muscle strength. The more muscle your child builds, the more efficiently her metabolism will be, which helps the body use calories more effectively. Beginning resistance exercises that your child can perform include activities like situps, pushups and squats. Include these exercises in your child's calisthenic circuits to increase the effectiveness of the workout.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: How Much Physical Activity Do Children Need?
- American Heart Association: Physical Activity and Children
- Kids Health from Nemours: Kids and Exercise
- The American Occupational Therapy Association; The Power of a Jump Rope: An Evidence-Based Movement; Stephanie Yamkovenko
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