Avery Faigenbaum Helps Kids Have Fun with Fitness
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Faigenbaum Helps Kids Have Fun with Fitness
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After participating in a strength-training workshop for kids at the local YMCA, one little girl was heard to say, “This is good from my head.” Pediatric exercise scientistand assistant professor Avery Faigenbaum cites this example when he talks about the community fitness programs he runs for children. He notes that pressure on academic achievement is increasing in schools while physical education programs and recess are being eliminated. “I don’t know Ph.D. students who can sit and study for ten hours at a time. How can children?”
Children’s fitness levels are so low they are becoming part of a national health epidemic. According to the National Center for Health Statistics 2000, the percentages of overweight boys and girls have more than doubled during the past two decades. Physicians are seeing, for the first time, adult onset diabetes prevalent in teenagers and unprecedented levels of cholesterol and hypertension in children.
Faigenbaum’s youth fitness programs are designed to combat the trend. “I want to get kids interested in fitness and having fun,” he says. He believes in creating a well-balanced program that includes strength training, aerobic, flexibility, and agility exercises. He says, “They should participate in 30 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise every day as a part of recreation, sports, transportation, and planned exercise.”
He does this with children of all ages in three different initiatives locally. He and his students run an after-school program, Project Jump, at the Murphy Community Center in Dorchester for five-to-eight year olds which promotes physical activity and having fun with non-competitive games. There, Faigenbaum also works with children ranging from nine to twelve years old in a sports prep program that promotes agility, strengthening, and flexibility. He also runs a strength-training program with ten-year-old children at Quincy’s South Shore YMCA.
It’s not all about exercise, however, as Faigenbaum focuses on the connection between healthy bodies and minds. Not only does he try to educate parents and children on the importance of nutrition and hydration, he focuses on fostering emotional connections with his students. “It’s about building relationships with the kids and helping them feel connected,” he says.
Faigenbaum outlines his approach in his latest book Youth Fitness, as well as in articles for journals such as Sports Medicine in the Pediatric Office. He has also created an on-line resource for educators, parents, and fitness professionals at www.strong kid.com.