COURTESY FIT360DC
While adults may not need to spend as
much time being active each day, they still
have exercise needs—about 150 minutes
per week, according to Centers for Disease
Control. The question that emerges then
is how to manage those needs with kids
bouncing off the walls.

What can kids do while their parents
get in their workout at the gym? What can
parents and kids do together to make sure
everyone gets moving? The good news is
that there’s plenty of options.

parents are working out.

Baltimore Kettlebell Club offers similar
programming, allowing kids to lift weights
and use equipment with proper instruction
and supervision. Movements such as dead-
lifts with kettlebells simulate picking up
objects, which is a natural inclination for
kids, says owner Dan Cenidoza.

“You can even imagine a toddler lift-
ing a pumpkin...Picking things up off
of the ground is a very fundamental
movement,” he says.

What can kids do at the gym?
What about a fun home workout?
Most of the time, gyms don’t permit kids to
use workout equipment or free weights. In
addition to many gyms not being insured
to cover children younger than 18, many
don’t have the ability to properly supervise
children to make sure they’re using equip-
ment in the appropriate way.

“It’s hard enough to get grown adults to
put weights back,” says Brian McGee, head
trainer at FIT360DC, a Mount Pleasant-
based fitness center. “It’d be much more
difficult for children.”
But there’s also no need for children
to use equipment to get a good work-
out. “Developmentally for a kiddo, they
don’t need to use any equipment for their
health and their movement,” Hay says. Dr.

Katie Ryder, a family medicine specialist at
Kaiser Permanente, agrees.

“We want kids’ bodies to be strong,”
Ryder adds. “But they can do that in their
natural play rather than needing heavy
weights to build extra muscle.”
At gyms where children are permitted,
designing a workout for your child could
mean finding a basketball court or quiet
CrossFit room where they can run around.

Likely, unless the child is a tween, they will
require supervision.

Ryder suggests either letting kids run
around or having them take instructions
from adults for certain bodyweight exer-
cises, such as pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups
and jumping jacks.

“Things that involve some play or com-
petition, I think, are more engaging for
kids: ‘Let me see how fast you can do this
activity’; ‘Let me see how fast you can do
10 jumping jacks,’” Ryder says. “It’s also
going to keep the kids engaged, focused
on what you’re doing and hopefully out
of the way, not left to their own curiosity
in the gym.”
Some gyms, such as Baltimore’s Push511
Fitness, which specializes in CrossFit, have
separate classes and group activities for
children which can offer structure while
If you don’t have access to a gym that
allows children or has specific kid-friendly
programs, there are still plenty of ways for
kids to get a good workout.

Ardyth Hall, owner of PUSH511 Fitness,
suggests that functional movements, which
are at the core of CrossFit exercise, can be
completed anywhere and simulate exercises
completed in day-to-day activities.

“Doing functional movements, you have
to engage your whole body basically to do
all movements,” she says. “So you’re going
to have more compound movements…and
that’s life.”
These functional movements, which
are appropriate for children because they
don’t require special equipment, exercise
10 domains of fitness, according to Hall:
accuracy, agility, balance, coordination,
flexibility, strength, power, speed, stamina
“ We want kids’
bodies to be
strong, but
they can do
that in their
natural play
rather than
needing heavy
weights to build
extra muscle.”
— DR. KATIE RYDER
Brian McGee from FIT360DC
demonstrates a variation
of a burpee.

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