CrossFit for kids: A love of movement can start early

No one questions the wisdom of parents reading to their children to further their intellectual development. That is a well-established parental responsibility.

One's duty to prepare tots for a lifetime of healthy movement and a physically active future through careful attention to their physical development, however, is less clear cut, but no less vital, according to Brian Schultz, owner of CrossFit Rise, 1207 Remington Road, Suite 107, Schaumburg.

"Fitness is a lifelong adventure and developing good movement patterns early in life will accelerate the development of a child's neuromuscular system and help to enhance their kinesthetic awareness," explained Schultz.

"You can begin this process as soon as a child is born by gently manipulating their arms and legs and later, when they get to crawling and walking age, you can get down and play with them and invent games that will keep them active and moving," he continued.

"The key is to keep things simple and fun for the child. In the early years (under 8), expose your kids to as much physical activity as possible and let them be free and creative in their play. They will naturally engage in aspects of CrossFit and weightlifting without even knowing it by running, jumping, squatting, pulling and pushing. Climbing the ropes at the playground, playing on the monkey bars, playing a game of tag, pushing each other on the swings, pressing their backpack up to their cubbie, squatting down to pick up a ball are all compound functional movements that will serve them well in life," Schultz explained.

Invent games to play with them that involve activity like balloon volleyball, squatting like a gorilla or chasing their dog around the backyard.

Let them be rambunctious in their play. In fact, encourage it. The days of "children should be seen and not heard" are gone. If you want your children to enjoy sports and recreation for a lifetime, you need to lay the groundwork at an early age by encouraging them to be aware of their body and how it can and should move.

Unfortunately, it seems as if physical education in schools is in rapid decline, as it is replaced with other programs, according to Schultz. That is compounded by kids' own disinterest and preference for screen time.

"Children spending time on tablets and smartphones has truly become an epidemic as parents hand them a screen so that the adults can enjoy some quiet," he admitted. "So it boils down to the parents' responsibility to be physical role models for their children and to encourage fun, active, creative play.

"Do as much as you can with your children. A couple of times each week, take your kids on a bike ride; take them on a nature hike or to the playground; play catch in the yard; do a CrossFit workout with them. And encourage them to sign up for lots of different sports and activities."

As children become more physically literate, Schultz said they will become more confident and cognitively aware.

"CrossFit workouts can be scaled down and modified to fit anyone's ability and that also applies to children," he said. "You want to teach them how to move in multiple planes so that they increase their agility and balance and you can do this by getting them to run backwards, run sideways, squat, hop up and down and otherwise move in many different ways and directions."

The trick is to keep the workouts short.

"Plan multiple, varied movements at high intensity, and keep it fun," he said. "For instance, time your child running around the house and give them their time. Let them rest and then have them do it again and time them again. That is fun for them to compare their times and you are engaging them in a period of work, followed by a period of rest," Schultz explained.

In addition, he cautioned, do not use physical activity as a punishment for bad behavior. You do not want to create a "negative ethos" about physical activity because you want your child to develop a passion for it.

Later, as a child starts moving toward their teen years and becomes more involved in sports, here is where it is important, according to Schultz and many sports scientists, to keep children on a general physical preparedness (GPP) track, as opposed to year-round sport specialization.

"You don't want to force your child to play nothing but baseball, for instance," he said. "If a child is only concentrating on throwing or hitting muscle patterns, it can hinder a child's development because they are only learning to move in a single plane of movement. In addition, they often burn out on the sport and their likelihood of injury increases. Instead, we need to encourage young athletes to develop in a broad sense."

This is also a good time to start laying the foundation for strength training and metabolic conditioning. Despite many warnings to the contrary, Schultz said that there is nothing wrong with children learning to lift weights.

"The most important aspect here is that proper mechanics are stressed exclusively at the beginning using light to no-weight (bodyweight only or using a PVC pipe) workouts to assist the child in developing proper neural pathways to create strong motor recruitment patterns that will last a life time," he said. "Just like learning to ride a bike at an early age, you never forget."

"There is an acronym in CrossFit that I really like: MCI (mechanics, consistency, intensity). This means that you need to spend the time to learn all of the proper mechanics of movement in order to keep yourself safe and reduce your chance of injury. Both adults and children can become consistent with these mechanics through practice and repetition. Then, with mechanics and consistency in place, they can increase the intensity by increasing speed of movement, increasing the weight and combining more movements."

If you are interested in helping your young children to prepare for a lifetime of enjoying sports and recreation and healthy movement, Schultz suggests visiting www.activeforlife.com.