Always Promote Movement by Moving With Your Kids
In our busy lives it can be hard to make time to get down on the floor and play with your kids, or be silly and run through a forest with your kids pretending you are running away from monsters. These may be some of the most important moments for both you and your kids. Say YES more often. Not only will you be improving your connection with your kids, but you will be fostering healthier lives for both you and your kids. You will show your kids that you yourself consider movement important, and this will help them believe that movement is important because our kids want to emulate us. You as parents will get healthier because you will be moving your body in different ways in order to get stronger and avoid injuries. Say goodbye to flat ground and straight lines. Get out in the forest together, jump, run, wrestle, have fun, be together. We aren’t saying you should do this all day long, but can you set aside 5, 10, 20, 30, or 60 minutes a day where you can just be fully present with your kids moving like a kid with your kids? The lifelong benefits will be immense for your health, your children’s health, and for your connection. Have fun, be silly, move like a kid with your kids. Check out some more benefits below.
Move Like a Kid, With Your Kids
Timing: You just need little moments throughout your day
Level of Difficulty: Easy-hard depending on what you choose
Serving Size: Start with small moments, grow from there
Spiciness: It can feel pretty spicy if you haven’t moved like a kid in a while!
INGREDIENTS
Just yourself and a willingness to move in different ways
REASONING AND BENEFITS
What do kids like to do? They walk on ledges, run through forests, sit on the ground, crawl on the ground, sleep anywhere, roll, jump, climb, swing, hang, twist, duck, and dive. What do we as adults do? We lay in beds, sit in chairs, look at our phones, walk on flat ground in straight lines, exercise with machines, and the very thought of doing a somersault could make us dizzy or pull a hamstring. The muscles in our bodies are meant to complement each other, and work together. When we stop using our bodies and muscles in all the ways we are capable, we fall into the old saying use-it-or-lose-it, we forget how to move, and we can injure ourselves easier. Just look at how kids squat, lunge, hold things overhead, and move in general. They are absolute masters of their bodies and joints. Just because you are an adult does not mean that you cannot move like a kid, your body may just have forgotten how. Moving with your kids will show them how important it is, and will have them looking forward to continuing to move how they want. You will get stronger together, you will avoid injuries together, you will have more fun together, and you will be able to play with your kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. Your brain will even benefit! A lot of our brain coordination comes from postural and positional information, and our dexterity and balance work with this. Walking on an uneven forest trail will send millions of postural signals to the brain, which is way more than walking on flat concrete will send. This constant flow of postural information will help maintain balance, which is incredibly beneficial as we age to avoid falling and hurting ourselves.
INSTRUCTIONS
Start thinking about when and where you can fit different movements into your daily life with your kids. Here are some examples: walk through the park or forest instead of on the sidewalk, walk on curbs for balance, sit on the ground, sit in a chair with no back support, hold a squat position, jump over things, jump up onto things, sprint, hang on a pergola or park monkey bars, climb something, do exercises with twisting, play on the ground with your kids, grandkids, nieces/nephews.
Most of those examples can be done at any time. Break up your normal day and send some new positional and postural information to your brain.
Ease into fast movements like jumping and sprinting if you haven’t done them in a while. Doing a full sprint is a recipe for injury if you haven’t done it in a while or warmed up. Slowly start increasing your speed until you are able to run as fast as you can, just like you used to as a kid all the time.
Start exercise routines that incorporate a lot of these movements. Some examples: yoga, dancing, martial arts, boxing, forest running.
Most importantly, say YES when your kids ask to play with you. Everyone wins.
PRO TIP: Say yes to your kids when they ask you to play and move in fun different ways. Also, as the adult you can start the play and movement as well. Make time to have fun together.
* Rotational movements are incredible for keeping our bodies strong, agile, and avoiding injuries. For example: dancing, yoga, martial arts, boxing.
** Moving like a kid again will activate your brain more than living how we live right now—in straight lines with limited movement. Fewer movements means fewer signals to the brain.
*** Starting to move in all the ways we are capable can even fix back pain. That fact alone should get us all trying this out. Back pain is no fun, and it is far too common. Move like a kid, get rid of back pain, and promote movement to your kids so they never develop it in the first place.
