The value of gamifying fitness for kids
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement.
This week I'm going to talk about the value of gamifying fitness for kids. This warble is very much inspired by this photo of Adrian covered in well over 100kg of slam balls.
We work with many children who aren't naturally drawn to being active at the best of times, let alone the relatively dry approaches to fitness that you see in most of the conventional gym industry.
For children who aren't naturally drawn to being active, one of the best things that you can do is to turn fitness into either 'play' or 'challenges' (depending on what that child is drawn to). To do this, you take a movement skill that you know has value (e.g. lifting and carrying) and embed it within another, more fun activity.
In this photo, the challenge was to see how much weight the child could stack on Adrian. In the process they lifted and carried the heavy balls. What's more, this challenge includes a strong element of self-regulation and problem solving.
What do you do when the balls are too heavy to lift? You start pushing and pulling them.
And when you can't push the heaviest ones onto Adrian's legs? You build a ramp.
This is of course just one example. With a bit of creativity, the options are endless.
If you'd like to know more, feel free to get in touch. We're happy to chat. You can find our contact details here.
Cheers
Jack