Kids Stretching Exercise

Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle and even children need to make sure they test the limits of their muscles before they begin any exercise program. Unfortunately, many school gym programs do not include kids stretching exercise before any type of physical activity begins, often resulting in pulled muscles and strains. Many mistakenly believe that young children are constantly ready for vigorous activity, but too many are involved in non-active households and will need to protect their muscles before beginning activities.

Too many of today’s youth participate in physical activities, opting to spend a lot of time with video games or watching television. Before they join in a neighborhood game, even just running races, they should go through a series of kids stretching exercises to make sure they do not harm their delicate muscles. Stretching is designed to help them understand how far their muscles can go without straining or causing ligament damage and kids stretching exercise should be supervised by an experienced adult to prevent them from doing too much too soon.

Contrary to the popular belief that no pain is no gain, in the case of kids stretching exercise no pain is a good thing. It can be a sign that the child has pushed their muscles past the point of health exercise and really serves no useful purpose.

Stretching Plans Should Be Kept Consistent

The ideal kids stretching exercise regimen will focus on the type of exercises or physical activity in which they will be involved. For example, for running the child can loosen their leg muscles by performing back and hamstring stretches. Seated on the ground, straighten on leg and the other leg should be bent at the knee with the bottom of the foot touching the straightened leg. Leaning forward at the back, attempt to touch the forehead to the straight knee and hold for a few seconds.

After repeating this kids stretching exercise three times, switch legs and repeat the stretch. Remember to bend at the lower back and not the upper back when performing the kids stretching exercise. It will help prevent injury to the lower back and hamstring during running programs. While the forehead contacting the knee is the ideal result, the child should not stretch any further than they can do so without pain.

An important thing to remember when they are doing kids stretching exercises is not to bounce. That may be the tendency when they have problems reaching the outer limits of the exercise, but will cause more muscle strains than the stretching are designed to eliminate.