Exercise for Children
What types of exercise are best for children? My son is ten. He is not overweight, but he is relatively inactive. My daughter is 8, a little overweight, and not particularly physically-oriented. Is cardiovascular and calisthenic exercise the best thing for them right now?
It Depends on the Situation…
This is an interesting question. Between the ages of 6 and 10, children develop 85% of the intermuscular coordination that they are going to have for the rest of their life. This time is a very formative period in the human lifecycle.
Intermuscular Coordination, a Function of the Health of the Central Nervous System
Intermuscular coordination, in laymen's terms, is the ability of the central nervous system (CNS) to function optimally. It literally decides how strong an individual can become, because the CNS is the control center that tells the muscles how to contract -- how often to contract, how fast to contract, & even how many (muscle fibers) to contract.
The more developed the CNS is, the better the athlete the child can become, & as it pertains to being part of the general population (ie, if the kid has limited interest in athletics), the better the relationship that can be fostered between the child and their body for the rest of their life.
What all this means is that the age of the child is the major predictor of how much progress they can expect to make – physically – for the rest of their life. Ideally, age 6 to 10 is the golden period to develop healthy levels of physical ability. At the end of this very formative time, the opportunity to become a world class athlete may have passed, but there this does not mean that the child is going to be unhealthy, if they adopt a more active lifestyle.
