The closure of leisure facilities and the absence of grass roots sports during lockdown has had a colossal impact on the health and wellbeing of children. A recent study has identified that lockdown in Italy reduced the amount of exercise under 18s performed on a weekly basis by 64%, while their food intake increased (Pietrobelli et al, 2020).
Performance Physique Founder Arj Thiruchelvam shares a few key tips on how to boost exercise opportunities for children during the pandemic, both inside and outside if the weather allows:
Keep it short
Most parents don’t have time to coach their children but the good news is that just 10 minutes of activity can be beneficial, with 20 minutes being the optimum in terms of maximising children’s primary attention span.
There’s no need to limit yourself to an allocated time slot but make the most of the opportunities you can fit in for exercise. Ten minute sessions at different times of the week all add up!
Have fun together
It doesn’t need to be you or them, you can all exercise together and it’s not a military bootcamp! Simple games are proven to be very effective at raising the heart rate and building up a sweat.
Let everyone choose an activity and then roll a dice as a way of deciding what order to do them in. This will make for a fun 10-20 minute session and because everyone is involved in the decision making, they will be more willing to take part.
Jump to it!
Adults don’t naturally think of jumping, hopping and bouncing but these movements are demanding and not only improve fitness very quickly, but also improve joint stability and tendon strength. In my experience, these are the exercises that children enjoy doing the most and they will love it if adults join in too.
Jumping – Try a long jump from a standing start, tuck jumps to see how high up you can get your knees and vertical jumps to see how high your hand can reach on a wall.
Hopping – Mark out distances for how far everyone can hop on each leg and have a family competition, giving the children the responsibility of keeping score to practice their maths! And why not try a classic game of hopscotch?
Bouncing – fantastic for bone density, muscular strength and fitness so put hands on hips and move in a set direction (on the spot, forwards/backwards, left/right).
Triple jump – focus on an athletic hop, step and a jump landing on both feet with soft spongy knees, no straight legs!
Games for under 10’s
Sharks in the water
This is a very popular call and response game based around athletic movements and pirate role playing! Take turns in shouting the following commands while everyone else has to perform the corresponding exercises, in between running around:
Walk the plank = abdominal plank hold
Aye Aye Captain = Jump up and salute
Sharks in the water = squat and put your hands together on your head, like a shark fin
Submarines = lie on your back and lift your leg to a 90 degree angle
Scrub the deck = press up position, changing hands to scrub the floor
Island hopping = hop on one leg
Capture shuttle
Lay out some household items e.g. toys at different distances and assign how many points each one is worth (eg 5 points for the red toys, 2 points for the blue toys etc)
They will need to retrieve one item at a time and bring it back to their starting point, until they’ve collected everything. One player can do this against the clock and keep trying to improve their time, or siblings can race each other. Be creative with the rules eg bonus points or collecting two items at a time. The child can practice their maths by counting up their points.
Channels
Challenge jumping ability by placing markers such as scraps of paper on a non-slippery floor to create a lane/channel. The idea is if there is a marker on the left you need to do a right footed hop, if it’s on the right you need to do a left footed hop. If there are two markers opposite each other you do a standing long jump. Do about 6-8 of these and increase the distances.
It’s vital all of the above are supervised and guided by adults and take place in a safe environment.
Performance Physique founder Arj Thiruchelvam has a Bsc Hons in Applied Sports Science from Loughborough University & has co-designed two Sports Science Degrees for Oxford Brookes University.
Arj has 15 years’ experience of performance mentoring, including working as a Sprints & Jumps Coach for UK Athletics. Providing clear fitness & nutrition guidance utilising the latest scientific research, Arj coaches novices of all ages to Team GB Olympians to consistently improve their personal bests.
