Childhood Obesity: What the Martial Arts get right and Everyone Else gets Wrong.

Childhood obesity is the big question health of our time.  Like so much in childhood, the ramifications of being unhealthy at a young age will be felt in adulthood.  Heart Disease is one of the biggest causes of death in developed countries.  While many risk factors are out of your control, some are well within it.  Diet and exercise are chief among them.  While it can be very difficult to regulate what a child eats at all times, you can create opportunities for exercise.  The amount of exercise someone gets can do great things to mitigate the risk of weight related health problems, and there are many of them.  It is important to create a level of activity in children that can keep them at a healthy weight range.

The problem with physical activity is finding the right program.  For many that is easy, play a team sport.  The problem arises for people who are not as physically developed or who are not athletic in general.  Whether they are too small, slow or out of shape they get marginalized in team sports because winning is such a big part of them.  As children age this threshold gets increased and children who are not physically gifted find themselves not just sitting on the sideline, but not on the team at all.  In other words the children who need it the most are getting forced to the side.  This cannot be the case with such a huge problem on our hands.

The answer is to focus on a physical activity that stays fun and engaging, but doesn’t send people away.  The martial arts provide a friendly encouraging environment for anyone who tries it.  Kids who can’t make their middle school baseball team don’t get turned aside at a karate class.  They are included and it can yield wonderful results.  Some of these children suffer from constantly being compared to their more physically gifted peers.  They have stuck labels on themselves and come to view themselves as “unathletic” because they couldn’t make a team.  The change in how they view themselves can be remarkable.  They gain a new confidence in their abilities and appearance.

If you are interested in giving your child the opportunity to become more fit and confident come into Precision MMA today.  We offer a FREE 30 day trial and private introductory lesson.  Stop in, give us a call at 845-392-8495 or go to our website at www.lagrangemartialarts.com.