I get a lot of people asking me questions about CrossFit Kids when I tell them that’s what I do for a living. They have a hard time trying to picture how and why a child of a young age would want or need to do “CrossFit” type movements. “Isn’t it dangerous?” they ask. “Won’t they hurt themselves?” they wonder. “Shouldn’t we just let kids be kids?” they muse.
My answer is, exercise is only dangerous if it is unsupervised and out of the range of a child’s current physical abilities. A proper fitness educator, such as the ones you’ll find in a CrossFit Kids program, should be in tune to these things at ALL times. The likelihood that children will hurt themselves while being active in a CrossFit Kids class is no more so than that they will injure themselves during a soccer match, or a raucous game of tag, or on the school playground. Supervision by adults along with an integration of education about the proper ways to move are important factors in this. We aim to teach kids to have fun via exercise, while also teaching them to the importance of injury prevention. As for letting kids be kids, that is exactly what our program is all about! Granted, CrossFit Kids classes do teach the value of physical hard work, but this is achieved through movement, play, and most of all, FUN. Of course, this reasoning applies to teens, as well as younger children. While the approach to fitness may be different from the age of 10 and up, that doesn’t mean we won’t still be focusing on doing it for the sheer love of exercise, and learning to have fun while we get fit.
There are a lot of scientific reasons why exercise is good for your kids. If you don’t believe me, just go ahead and Google it.
Here’s a great video from CrossFit Central all about the “why’s” behind the CrossFit Kids program:
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALgx2Q7T5AY’]
My favourite take away piece from that video was the quote from the International Journal of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders that shows, “kids will only treat exercise as important as their parents treat it.” So why not show your kids how much YOU value the importance of exercise by signing them up for CrossFit Kids Zone this Fall. Give them the gift of a lifelong love of fitness!
For more information contact Coach Shannon at shannon@crossfitzone.ca
Cindy Challenge Testing:
If you are needing to complete your Cindy baseline, there are a few people coming on today at 4:30 to complete the workout. Come and join them!
Today’s Workout
Buy in – Turkish Getups, 20 reps total
WOD – “Baseline”
Time to retest your Baseline! The last time we completed it in a WOD was at the beginning of April. Can you hit a PR? Can you make it on to the leaderboard?
For Time:
- 500M row
- 40 Squats
- 30 Situps
- 20 Pushups
- 10 Pullups
Zone 2 – scale to assisted pullups
Zone 1 – scale as needed
Cash Out – Pick something to test and see if you can get on the Leaderboard!
