How to Find a Personal Training Program for Your Child

It is no secret that the United States has an epidemic of people who are overweight or obese. A mere one-third of American kids gets any exercise every day. All of this means that more and more kids aged six to 19 are being classified as obese or overweight. More and more parents are looking for ways to tear their kids away from their screens and devices to get some exercise. Kids now spend an average of seven and a half hours planted looking at one. Some parents are sending their kids to personal training experts. Most people have heard of personal training adult programs but these are relatively new.

Tips on Finding the Right Personal Training Program for Your Kids:

Do not expect your child to get super active immediately. If your child has not been physically active in a long time, it is unrealistic to expect them to jump back out to soccer practice. It tool some time to get out of shape and it will take more to get back in. They do not have the cardio levels for it but also it is a great recipe for an injury. Try some warm up workouts before you want them to try out for cross-country. Just like adults need to ease back into an exercise program, so do kids.

Find a personal training program with age appropriate work outs. You cannot have the eight year old who is out of shape to do the same kind of work out as even a ten year old much less a 19 year old. They simply do not have the skills the older ones have. When children are between eight and 12, the things you should have the personal training working on them with are just the basics; running, kicking, jumping, etc. When they get to be teenagers, they can do more competitive sports. a personal trainer can set up strength building work outs for kids of all ages, just make sure they actually do that and do not just say they do.

The program should be kid friendly. Not all personal trainers are good at working with children. Personal trainers do get a general certificate but it does not specify child or adult programs. Make sure they will really cater to your child. You want this experience to leave them liking working out and playing sports not dreading it, fearing it or hating it. A trainer who is more used to working with adults may not get enough fun into the personal training program for kids. They also have a much shorter attention span so that needs to be factored in. Kids, for instance, would hate straight up fitness classes and would rather play games.

When you first start out, do not push them towards one sport. You should let them try a wide variety of sports and games to see what they like and maybe have an aptitude for. For both younger kids who have not yet been exposed to decide what sport they might like to older kids who have picked one, some variety will help their fitness level as well.

Focus on injury prevention Make sure the trainer is focusing on injury prevention, which doing multiple sports is also good for. Sports injuries in kids are now seen as more serious than they were in the past. Nothing gets kids from exercising like an injury. Make sure they pay attention when your child is on the field and do not say outdated things like, “Walk it off,” if they do get injured.

When many of us were kids, we spent a lot of time outside playing with our friends, mowing the lawn and riding our bikes. These are not activities that many kids do today. We over schedule their days and then they spent their free time glued to an electronic device. By getting them into a personal training program we can help show them how much fun it is to get out and move little even introduce them to .going to the fitness center. Tell them of the active things you did as a kid and encourage their interest in sports.