The American College of Sports Medicine suggests Ten Tips for Building Fit Kids:
1. The Big Picture: Physical activity is a learned behavior that is influenced by a child’s family, friends and environment.
2. Start Positive: Positive Behaviors established early in life tend to carry over into adulthood.
3. Have Fun: Children Participate in physical activity to have fun, make friends, and learn something new.
4. Improve Physical Fitness: Children should participate in exercise and sport programs to enhance both health and skill-related components of physical fitness.
5. Develop Movement Skills: Fundamental movement skills such as jumping, kicking and throwing are learned movement patterns.
6. Build Strong Muscles and Bones: With qualified instruction, resistance training using bodyweight, simple equipment or free weights, can be safe, effective and enjoyable activity for children.
7. Mix it up: Sport diversification early in life should expose children to a wide variety of physical activity and movement experiences.
8. Raise the pulse: Children should regularly take part in rigorous exercise which requires activities that really raise heart rate and get children out of breath
9. Just Move: All types of physical activity–whether continuous, sporadic, or in bouts–are beneficial to children.
10. Stay Active: Children should engage in physical activity throughout the day with active transportation, physical education, recess, recreational exercise, sport activities, and outdoor play.
