Strength Training For Kids - How to Either Keep Your Kid in Shape Or Keep Your Kid From Getting Fat!

By : Brandon Richey


Well, it is no secret that epidemics such as childhood obesity and youth onset diabetes are a problem this day and age with today's youth. Kids spend more time in front of the X Box, the Playstation, and the Wii than doing anything constructive that will benefit them.

To me this is a major problem. I would blame a lot of parents for not taking a more proactive approach in trying to discipline their children to workout and be more active individuals. Now most people say I am being a little over the top when I mention the words discipline, kids, and workout all in the same sentence. Well, lets look at this logically. For one, when I was growing up me and my friends never had to be told to go out and play. As a matter of fact, we frequently asked permission to do so. Also, with many kids taking the TIME and LIBERTY to play their favorite video games the numbers show that they are certainly not doing anything positive with their health when you compare numbers on kids from about 10 years ago.

The bottom line is that there has been a change in lifestyle. As a professional I would strongly suggest that you enroll your child in a highly effective strength training program. Now when I say strength training don't assume I mean weightlifting. There is a difference. Kids can gain tremendous fitness and strength through properly manipulating and utilizing their own body-weight. With an effective strength training program a child promotes stronger muscles, stronger bones, promotes fat-loss, and lays the foundation for being a healthy and fit adult later on in life.

If you do decide to take this approach I would highly recommend hiring a professional. There are many things you can do as a parent to ensure that your child stays healthy. Aside from implementing and getting them involved in a strength and conditioning program you can enroll them into some sort of recreational sport or activity. Many of these sports include some level of strength training that is more beneficial for your child than the X Box!

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com

To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at: http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html

I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

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Positive Methods For the Prevention of Childhood Obesity

By : Robin Reichert


So many children are dealing with obesity related issues today and the same children are at severely high risk for developing serious and potentially fatal health related problems because of obesity. There are things that adults can do to help minimize childhood obesity related issues which are simple and effective. Let's take a look at some positive methods for the prevention of childhood obesity below.

Prevention tip #1: Adults should monitor what children eat as much as it is possible to do so.

When a child is very young adults often monitor what a child eats. Yet, when the child gets older the adult sometimes puts restraints on what the child eats. Children are apt to make unhealthy eating choices if allowed to do so since they will often display a preference for fatty or sugary foods. It is up to the adult to monitor a child's diet and to place appropriate restrictions on what a child consumes.

Prevention tip #2: Families should become nutritionally educated together, and adults should educate their children about nutrition.

Today's families need to learn all they can about nutrition, so that they can make better food choices and selections. Adults need to teach children about nutrition, calories, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals and children need to be taught how to make sensible food selections early on. The more nutritionally educated a family is the more empowered the family is to make good food choices.

Prevention tip #3: Parents need to junk the junk food.

Instead of bringing potato chips, fatty and/or sugary snacks, sugary cereals, and soda pop into the household, parents should opt for more positive food selections. Families should shop together, and children and parents can work together on creating a healthy food shopping list. Parents should encourage children to eat more fruits and veggies and to drink fresh water.

Prevention tip #4: Families should become physically active together in order to prevent childhood obesity.

Families should use quality time to do something physically active. Taking a walk together, playing Frisbee, playing kickball or soccer, playing tennis, or hiking and/or cycling together are just some fun ways to stay physically fit. Parents should teach children that physical exercise can actually be fun.

Prevention tip #5: Families should cook together and make meal time a family affair.

With today's busy society, many families do not even take the time to eat together anymore. The days when families sit down together all at the same time at a dining room table to eat are becoming limited, as busy schedules make it increasingly impossible to get the family together. Families that make a practice of eating together have fewer issues with obesity. It is necessary to make the time to spend with the family and to make meal time a part of the familial routine. Families can cook together too so that children can learn about positive cooking techniques, as well. A family that eats together is a healthier family overall.

Robin's Wellness Resource Center is education-focused and offers useful and reliable information on a variety of health related issues. To learn more, please visit http://www.wellness-bee.com

Robin Reichert has been studying natural health for the past 10 years. She is an AFPA Certified Nutrition and Wellness Consultant and holds a Master of Science degree in Natural Health. She is also working on a personal trainer certification through AFPA. Her passion is lifelong learning and educating others about natural health.

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Trick Kids Into Healthy Eating

By : Noel Hines


Getting your children involved in all of the stages of food and healthy eating is a must. When people get actively involved with something, they more often than not come to appreciate it more and are more receptive to it. The same can be said for our children. So the more you get them involved with all aspects of food the better. They can help with things like growing, preparation and cooking.

If you have an allotment great or if you have an area set aside in your garden for planting then you will have a good place to start. Just getting them involved in planting, nurturing or picking will hopefully increase their interest and that is all that is needed for healthy eating. Even if they do the minimum like watering a part of your produce it is worth it. To see them realise the crop growing from a seed to food for the table will be priceless.

Once the crop is ready to be picked then helping with this process should again keep their interest in the process. I must state that you should try and give them something they can see as quickly as possible. And then try and make sure that they have something to pick on a regular basis so use as many different crops as possible.

After the crops are picked and you begin to prepare them for use in your kitchen you should get your kids involved in preparing a meal and eating it once it has been complete, I will give you some ideas on this later. It will definitely taste a lot better than any processed food.

It will not take much to do a small area for your personal crops and it will save you money. If you go a step further and decide to video the process it will be something you can show family and friends to give the kids added satisfaction and recognition of their achievement.

Why not hide the food you want your children to eat with in their normal food. Here is an example you can add half a shredded onion to a coleslaw whether you buy it or make it yourself. Another example is shedding carrots to add to mashed potatoes. Why not try a soup and packing it with lots of other goodies. You can do this kind of thing for all sorts of food and the kids will not realise and just ask for more.

The younger you do this idea of getting them involved with all the stages of food and using some of the ways to hide foods they think they do not like then you are well on your way to healthy eating practices.

They will be further ideas available soon.

Take a look at this web site: http://www.computerbass.com/kidseat

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Systematic VS Individualistic Solutions to Childhood Obesity

By : Rick Osbourne


In 21st century America we've developed a system that encourages kids to get fat. For example we have a fast food industry along with a sugary drink, cereal, and candy industry that are all extremely adept at encouraging kids to eat poorly. We have a TV and video game industry that has perfected the art of enticing kids to sit still and watch mindless programs, or play meaningless games that waste hours, days, weeks, months, years, and lives.

We've developed mass produced school systems that are so consumed by science and math that they pay little more than lip service to physical education. In the process1 schools are inadvertently reinforcing the sedentary behaviors that TV and video games have so successfully introduced at a pre-school level.

We've also developed unsafe neighborhoods that cause parents to keep their kids indoors instead of allowing them to go outside and run, jump, climb, and play with other kids. We have more and more single parent families in which Mom works so many hours per week at minimum wage that she no longer spends time with her kids who are in turn, spending most of their time in front of the TV, playing video games, and growing overweight if not obese.

This scenario could be carried on almost infinitely, while each piece of the puzzle has its own set of academicians who are busy studying one aspect of the problem and generating a cornucopia of abstract statistics aimed at correcting a broken system. Each piece of the puzzle also has legislators who are sponsoring legislation, humanitarian not-for-profit corporations who are feverishly underwriting projects, and a media that's reporting the story in a way that causes childhood obesity prevention to be confusing, complicated, intimidating, and expensive.

The problem is we're spending $120 billion annually jousting with these systematic windmills while childhood obesity continues to grow like a forest fire raging out of control. In other words, the problem is... what we're doing failing at every turn!

Let's Fix Individuals Instead of the System

If we're really interested in solving the problem, we must start looking at childhood obesity with a different set of eyes. We need to get creative and climb outside of the box before the next generation is incapable of fitting inside the box.

So here's my question. Instead of spending time, energy, and money on fixing the system, what if we devised ways to naturally immunize our kids against the system that's actively undermining them?

For example, what if we naturally immunized kids against fast food advertising? What if we naturally immunized kids against TV and video games? What if we naturally immunized kids against the void of PE in school, etc.? What if our kids suddenly became strong and resilient enough to fend off all these systematic carcinogens? What if the system was suddenly drained of its ability to produce self destructive behaviors in our kids?

Kids Naturally Immunized Against the System

In this light the question becomes, how can we naturally immunize kids against the system that's become so brutally efficient at corrupting their eating and exercise habits and undermining their health and their future in so many ways? Let me offer five possibilities* for your consideration.

1. Find ways to help your kids learn to do pull ups because kids who can do pull ups are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

2. Find ways to help your kids learn to do dips because kids who can do dips are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

3. Find ways to help your kids learn to do hand stand push ups because kids who can do hand stand push ups are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

4. Find ways to help your kids learn to climb a rope because kids who can climb a rope are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

5. Find ways to help your kids learn to master any sufficiently challenging body weight exercise because kids who can do sufficiently challenging body weight exercises are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, they've naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How incredibly cool is that?

One More Way to Say It

Let me say this in a little different way. Show me 10 McDonald's employees who can do pull ups and I'll show you 10 McDonald's employees who are not obese. Show me 100 TV and video game lovers who can do dips and I'll show you 100 TV and video game lovers who are not obese. Show me 1000 kids who loathe PE but can do hand stand push ups or climb a rope, and I'll show you 1000 kids who are not obese.

Instead of Waiting on Systematic Cures, Take the Bull by the Horns Yourself

Instead of waiting for experts to correct the broken system, let's take the matter into our own hands and immunize kids against it by starting young, helping them learn to master and maintain the ability to do sufficiently challenging body weight exercises. If we have parents and educators helping kids to naturally immunize themselves against a system that's designed to undermine them, my bet is the windmills will collapse at our feet, and the system will find itself being corrected from the bottom up instead of from the top down. What do you think?

*These are all examples of what is known in some circles as a functional acid test strategy (FATS) against childhood obesity.

Rick Osbourne spent 17 years as a physical educator and coach. He currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, (http://www.pullyourownweight.net) an informational website whose claim to fame is a strategy that motivates kids to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and his book "Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity," (on Amazon) shows parents and educators how to motivate their kids to eat better, exercise more, and to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne a can be reached at Osbourne.rick@gmail.com

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