ESPE Professor Expands Kids' Community Exercise Program

By Leigh DuPuy

As childhood obesity reaches epic proportions, and physical education classes and recess are scaled back or eliminated entirely in our schools, a UMass Boston professor is rising to the challenge of making exercise an integral part of a child's life.

Avery Faigenbaum, associate professor of exercise science, is leading the way by creating and fostering exercise programs for children at Dorchester's Murphy Community Center. "Community-based physical activity programs for youth groups have the potential to help children establish lifelong, healthy behaviors," he says.

Every week, Faigenbaum and four volunteer students from UMass Boston's degree programs in physical education and exercise science hold free, community exercise groups for kids. Project JUMP, a program with 7 years of success, works with children from ages 5 to 8, promoting physical activity and having fun with non-competitive games.

His latest project, Sports P.R.E.P. (Preseason Recreation and Exercise Program), is designed for older students, ages 8 to 12, who are physically inactive and not ready to handle the rigors of sports. "Sports P.R.E.P. is an opportunity for kids to get involved in physical activity that is not sports-oriented," says Faigen-baum. "This program is for all shapes and sizes."

For an hour twice a week, over three months, kids participate in a series of games designed to get them moving in a noncompetitive atmosphere. "I want boys and girls to have fun. We don't focus on winning or losing – just on play," Faigenbaum says. The program includes warm-up and cool-down stretches, non-gender-specific games, and developmentally appropriate fitness activities, which are designed to improve aerobic fitness and musculoskeletal strength.

"The program is designed to reduce the incidence of physical inactivity among urban school-age children and better prepare them for participation in sports and recreational activities," explains Faigenbaum. The program has become very popular, with 30 kids enrolled and many others on the waiting list.

What are Faigenbaum's toughest opponents? He answers candidly, "Television, Nintendo, and the availability of fast food and soda in most schools." These influences are becoming more and more apparent in the rise of disease in children. Physicians are seeing, for the first time, adult-onset diabetes prevalent in teenagers and unprecedented levels of cholesterol and hypertension in children.

Studies have shown that the good habits we develop in our childhood track into adulthood. Faigenbaum notes, "It's not impossible to change bad habits, but why not teach kids from the start that exercise can be fun?"

Faigenbaum also runs strength-training programs for children at the Quincy YMCA and shares his research and programs on www.strongkid.com.

Go to menu