As the hot topic of childhood obesity continues to rage on, we ask when is the right time for children to start going to the gym?

Staying fit and healthy is important at any age and starting with a sensible fitness plan from a young age encourages us to stay fit and healthy for life!

We’re not talking about pumping iron from 5 years old but rather creating a sustainable and safe fitness plan that fits in with your child’s growth and development.

It’s all about finding an activity that your child is going to enjoy and is appropriate for their age. For example, choosing a group activity could also benefit your child by enhancing their social and team working skills as well as their fitness.

If they find a sport they really love, they may want to consider competing too, adding another element of excitement and fun.

We’re all familiar with the general benefits of introducing sport and fitness to our lives and these remain true for children too:

1. Raising self-esteem
2. Maintaining a healthy weight
3. Building a healthy body for life
4. Controlling stress
5. Improved sleep

Let’s take a look at specific benefits and activities for various ages:

2-3 year olds

At this age the main benefit we’re looking for is improved motor skills. This can be achieved through running and throwing. Fun and creativity should be promoted over structure and strict form. We want to avoid over stretching these young bones as they are still developing. Swimming is also a great activity at this age.

4-5 year olds

Motor skills are maturing and we want to start focusing on balance and coordination at this age so it’s a perfect time to introduce more complex movements such as skipping and gymnastics.

6-12 year olds

Your child will be developing their own interests and style during these years. Activities can now be extended to yoga, advanced gymnastics, climbing, swimming and team sports, such as football and basketball.

13-18 year olds

Your children are now young adults and their exercise habits will begin to look more structured and resemble adult regimes. The teenage years stereotypically lead to an adoption of more sedentary activities; it’s important to ensure other options are presented in order to keep your child fit and healthy and pave the way for adult fitness too. Options for how to get involved at this stage are endless.

Let’s help our children get fit for life!

Offering your child access to a mixture of activities from working out in the gym and swimming to taking part in team sports and group exercises, allows them to form a healthy relationship with fitness from an early age.

If you do encourage your child to take part in these activities, you need to monitor them carefully. Children can easily overdo it when they become enthusiastic. So ensure you choose the right activity and support your child to work at the right level for them.

It’s also important to share positive body messages with your children. Going to the gym isn’t about achieving the perfect body as defined by society, it is about making the right choices that promote a healthy lifestyle.

We all know that keeping our little angels occupied can be a difficult task at the best of times. As society drifts increasingly towards living our lives online, it can be even harder to convince the techie generation to take advantage of alternative methods of entertainment.

I’m not going to whine on about increasing rates of childhood obesity – that’s another post entirely, haha! That said, we are staging an intervention at Diana’s – it’s time for kids to be active, happy and healthy! To assist with this, we’re opening our doors to the under 15s until 30^th April 2016 for free with any Diana’s member!

We’re hoping this will help you turn family time into fitness time and get your kids excited about being active again. We understand that gyms can often feel like adult-only spaces but we’re keen to highlight the importance of family exercise.

By incorporating fitness as a standard family activity, you’re paving the way for your child to build it into their adult lives too, ensuring they are fit and healthy for life!

Burn off that energy!

Studies have shown that adults need on average 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week and that children need even more – up to 60 minutes per day! No wonder they don’t want to go to bed early! Get them using that energy in a productive way.

Family support

Getting the kids involved in family fitness isn’t just about their development – they can be a terrific support system to keep mum and dad on track too. Just try and skip out on an arranged session with the excuse of being too tired and see how it goes down.

Making family exercise a tradition from an early age can also help when your kids hit those straining teenage years. It provides a routine that naturally brings the family together even during that period when they want to be as far away from their embarrassing parents as possible.

Choosing an activity

There are lots of options at the gym – children are welcome to use the swimming pool, squash courts, gym and take part in exercise classes…there’s just so much choice! Here are our favourites to get you started:

1. Squash

A fantastic activity for ages 4+, squash certainly keeps you on your toes and improves your dexterity, coordination and general fitness. We are a Gold Clubmark England Squash Club and PROUD! This means that we have a great reputation for our Squash and Racketball facilities as well as being a hub for S&R tournaments, both national and local…what better place to learn?!

2. Swimming

Exercising in water is a fantastic way to get an all over body workout, low impact on your joints and of course great cardio too! Take part in lane swimming, Aqua Zumba classes or even learn to swim for the first time with our Swim School & 1-2-1- lessons…it’s never too late or too early to learn!

3. Junior Crossfit

Inspiring the next generation of athletes, your little one could be the next Mo Farrah or Jessica Ennis-Hill! We’ll burn off their excess energy in our safe gym environment.

Whatever you choose to do, remember to make it fun and stay safe! It’s easy for children to push themselves too far, particularly when they are enthusiastic and enjoying themselves. Make sure you build in regular breaks and keep hydrated!

Between weekends and school holidays, children have plenty of free time to use up all that pent-up energy youth provides them with but too often we find them slumped in front of games consoles, while the sun is shining.

At Diana’s we’re staging a fitness intervention – it’s time for kids to active, happy and healthy!

Tennis

Use the impact of Wimbledon to get children picking up a racket and heading straight to the courts. It’s the perfect summer sport and they can learn lots of different skills from serving to volleying.

Play together as a family in a round-robin tournament or if you’re feeling brave play a game of kids vs. parents – winners get first dibs on the strawberries and cream! Game, set and match!

Squash

This racket sport is a year round favourite and its fast moving pace is ideal for children. Challenge the kids to see how long they can maintain a rally for – with the ball whizzing around at speeds up to 170mph they’ll definitely be kept on their toes!

Whether they’d like to improve their game or learn a new sport, we have several Junior Squash coaches who can help them develop their skills while having fun in lively sessions.

Football

The nation’s favourite sport is everywhere: from the buzzing Premier League to Sunday league and the recent surge of Women’s football following England Ladies success.

Start off by taking a ball to the park for a kick about with jumpers as goal posts, and you could soon be signing them up to weekly coaching sessions for boys and girls of all abilities.

Swimming

Swimming is a life skill in itself but making a splash in the pool is also relaxing and lots of fun! Let them embrace being a merperson with swimming lessons to teach them how to have fun and be safe in water.

Grab your goggles and join them in the swimming pool to help them practice their different strokes – children always enjoy showing off their new skills.

Athletics

Have fun as a family by creating a mini Olympics; each family member represents a different country and you compete in different activities from long jump to sprinting.

You could even introduce silly activities such as the three-legged race and egg-and-spoon! By keeping score the kids will experience and enjoy the adrenaline associated with physical activity.

Gym

Did you know children as young as 11 have access to our cardio equipment when supervised by an adult? The gym is a perfect introduction to a healthy lifestyle, where they can watch and learn how you work out.

We have child and family membership options available – we’re a fitness family!

When first joining a gym to improve fitness and lose weight, it can be a very daunting experience. You start the journey with an eagerness to fulfil your goals but as time goes by your motivation starts to flag and your training becomes stagnant, leading to you slowly losing all interest.

Smash your fitness goals with group exercise

Group exercise classes can reignite your passion for the gym and set you back on your weight loss and fitness journey. You will have more fun exercising with the group than if you were alone and you meet people who have similar goals to you. You’ll quickly find these new found friends will encourage you to attend more regularly and boost your motivation to meet those goals.

Achieve more with motivational instructors

Working out as a group with a dedicated instructor challenges you to push beyond your own perceived limitations. I monitor each member of my classes closely and motivate you to push past the fatigue.

I also encourage you by helping you improve your form and providing hints and tips throughout the class. I like you to understand how the exercise is impacting your body too so we discuss the muscles worked and benefits you should expect to see over time.

Join our family

Group exercise is like belonging to a family. We all go through the pain and the joy of success together. We praise each other to boost esteem and work together to stay on track. Classes quickly become addictive!

Try a class today and join our family!