Developing a positive and supportive environment around sports and exercise for youth can have a long lasting positive effect on their health and wellness.
Children are meant to run, jump and climb. Physical activity for children offers a host of both physical and mental benefits. Exercise is important for their physical health as it helps maintain a healthy weight, improves sleep, and builds strong bones and muscles. It also offers mental health benefits such as positive body image, reduced depression and anxiety.
Here are some tips on how you can engage your kids in an active lifestyle that is fun and rewarding.
Play Together
Being active doesn’t always mean you need to be participating in an organized sport activity, such as baseball practice or a swim lesson. In fact, those impromptu games of playing catch or going for a bike ride with your child is one of the best ways to ingrain a healthy and active lifestyle into your child's life. It is also much more meaningful because they are doing it with you, their role model. The more time and energy you spend being active, the more it will stick with them for the long run. Plus spending time together is fun, which is the most important part and attributes positive associations with engaging in physical activity.
Be A Role Model
It is hard to convince your child that an active lifestyle is a healthy lifestyle when you are not active yourself. Taking care of yourself teaches your child the importance of an active healthy lifestyle. It also allows you to engage in activities together and motivate one another.
Keep It Fun
One of the best ways to create a positive and supportive environment around sports is to keep it fun. Especially when children are younger, not taking sports or their performance too seriously will help them relax and have fun while playing sports. Putting too much pressure on them to perform can cause them to feel bad about themselves and sports in general because they feel as though they are not good enough or a disappointment.