Children's Fitness

Children's Fitness Specialist

The American Fitness Professionals & Associates (AFPA) has a Children's Fitness Specialist Certification(R) that will show the Juniors how to get fit and gain self confidence too. It's about giving kids the tools, skills and experience so they can lead a physically active life the rest of their lives. It provides a multidisciplinary approach to teaching health-related fitness at the elementary school level. This comprehensive Certified Children's Fitness Specialist program helps practitioners build successful programs that will meet the challenging health demands of the 21st century.

In our fitness program we focus on Safety First and the thing we look "FORE are:

· Review the Juniors health history questionnaire by identifying each Juniors needs of additional medical evaluation.

· Make sure that the exercise area is free of clutter by removing and disassembling any dangerous equipment.

· Use Proper attire and footwear by making sure Junior are wearing shoes that are tied.

· Go over the rules in detail explanation and let the parents know what we are doing.

· Focus on exercise form and techniques, it’s not the amount of exercise we do but it’s our focus on form and technique.

· Progress gradually and provide constructive feedback for Juniors and allow them time to master a skill before moving on to more challenge levels.

· If necessary provide spotters, this is practically important when using free weight exercises.

· Encourage fluid replacement; Junior should be encouraged to drink water before, during and after every workout.

· Qualified supervision, it’s important that certified strengthening coaches and physical education teachers help in the design and supervision of all our junior fitness programs.

· Listen to all concerns and make sure Junior has fun in our Junior fitness program.

When doing warm ups we do Dynamic functional warm up that get the junior ready to play. These activities are very important because they get the core temperature of thier body up. By jogging around a circle and doing single body weight warm up the junior will do different variation of functions:

· Skips

· High nee action

· Moving feet and king legs backward

· Move side ways

· Move backward then forward

· Put had over head

· Do some big arm circles

Then moving on to dynamic stretches

· Legs swings

· Cross lift and hop

· Turn twist and hop

Our concept is built on function fitness for Juniors and we set up circuit on three station exercise circuit take 20 to 30 minutes to complete.

· Speed and agility

· Muscular strength

· Balance

First station is lateral cone hope. The idea is to balance on one leg and explode off one leg as well. It works on stability, balance and coordination. We also work on speeding agility which it builds Juniors ability to move quickly and react quickly, a simple activate such as hopscotch gives the Junior a challenge. A single leg hop is very important because Junior in sports is typically on one foot. The idea is to hop lightly on one foot land on their toes and develop spring and explosiveness in their legs.

A zigzag shuffle, four cones are set in a square and the Junior moves in a zigzag motion, it challenges Junior in a multi planner planes and motion and it is a very functional movement involving lateral movement, forward movement and backward movements. Once again the distance of the cones as well as the speed of which the Junior can perform these drill can be vary base upon their individually needs and concern, keep in mind that these conditioning drill not only focus on balance reaction and coordination but are also cardiovascular challenge. Other exercises example are; Touch and turn.

The second station focuses on muscular strength involving most of the traditional strengthening exercises. We do a body weight squat, our focus is the head is in a natural position, back is flat and you want to keep an eye that the heels don’t come off the ground some Junior have a tendency for there knees to come inward. We focus on proper form and technique has to oppose to each weight a Junior can lift. An other exercise is the lateral lunge and reach, the Junior reaches to one side and toward the other leg, they can also reach in different directions. There is probably nothing more important in a development of a Junior than a strong core. Their abdominal lower back and hip muscle material, for this we do an iso ab. We can vary the time juniors hold this and also the challenge of the exercise is having lift one arm or one leg. This is a challenging exercise where we typically have the Juniors hold anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds based on their fitness level.

We can use traditional mode of tanning such as dumbbells in a non-traditional way combining several dumbbell exercises into one, like the curl and press and it a totally body conditioning for the upper body. Certainly traditional exercises such as curls and raises can be incorporated into the program but we like the idea of functional movement which involves a certain motion as oppose to a particular muscle group. It’s not the weight each Junior lift but motion and form of each exercise that counts. Other traditional exercises include the Dumbbell Shoulder Press, once again light weights are use and the focus is on form and technique then we increase by one to two pounds. Other exercises example are; Chair push ups, Med ball twist, Med ball push up and Squat toss.

Our third station focuses on balance. It gives the Juionr a chance to recover cardiovascular from the previous section but focuses on a very important skill which is important childhood and adolescent. We start off with an exercise which is called the stork stand, the Junior stands on one leg. Once the Junior masters standing on one leg we can make the exercise more difficult by introducing a ball, throwing it back and forth, which it makes it more challenging. To develop fundamental fitness ability we do a single leg stork stand with an over hand reach, once the Junior completes 5 to 10 repetition they change legs. Another exercise in standing on a wobble board with two feet and as this becomes easier they can try to stand on one leg and through a ball back and forth. Other exercises examples are; Balance board, Side step shuffle and Step over.

Prior to beginning any exercise program, including in the JrGAP, individuals should seek medical evaluation and clearance to engage in activity. The information and materials presented in this web page are in no way intended to be a substitute for medical counsel and advice. Not all exercise programs are suitable for everyone and some programs may in fact result in injury. Activities such as that depicted in this web page should be carried out at a pace that is comfortable for the user. Users should discontinue participation in any exercise activity that causes pain or discomfort. In such event, medical consultation should be immediately obtained.

This information is provided by NSCA and credits are given to Avery Faigenbaum, Ed.D.,CSCS and Patrick Mediate, M.A., CSCS