Kids Fitness Classes
Keeping kids active in Winter is a daunting but essential task. Below 0 temperatures and ice make it dangerous to play outside. Playing inside causes chaos. What do you do?
At La Bodega, we offer kids fitness classes. Our classes are imaginative, inspirational, and playful. Our program challenges children mentally and physically through specific exercises designed to increase strength, confidence, and focus.
The benefits of kids fitness classes are infinite but here are just a few to consider:
1. It strengthens the heart. The heart is a muscle, and like other muscles, its performance improves when it's regularly challenged by exercise. The heart responds to exercise by becoming stronger and more efficient. Strengthening the heart muscle can help ward off heart disease—the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—even in early childhood.
2. It helps keep arteries and veins clear. Exercise reduces the amount of harmful cholesterol and fats in a person's blood. It increases the flexibility of the walls of blood vessels, and helps to lower blood pressure. This can reduce a person's risk for heart attack and stroke.
3. It strengthens the lungs. Working hard increases lung capacity, and their efficiency in moving air in and out of the body. As a result, more oxygen is drawn into the body and more carbon dioxide and other waste gases are expelled. Regular exercise helps prevent the decline in oxygen intake that occurs naturally with age or as a result of inactivity.
4. It reduces blood sugar levels. Exercise prevents sugar from accumulating in the blood by triggering muscles to take up more glucose from the bloodstream and use it for energy. This can reduce a person's risk of developing diabetes.
5. It controls weight. When a person is sedentary, he tends to be taking in more calories than are needed. These unused calories accumulate as fat. A person who is physically active may have a deficit of calories, which takes fat away and lowers weight. Lowered weight is good for the heart and can be beneficial in people with diabetes.
6. It strengthens bones. Just as muscles grow stronger when physically stressed, bones also respond by getting stronger. Adults start losing bone mass in their 20s, but those who exercise regularly reach greater peak bone density (before the drop-off) than those who don't, according to the National Institutes of Health. Increased bone density helps prevent osteoporosis, a condition in which bones lose density, weaken, and become porous and fragile.
7. It enhances emotional well-being. Most people report that they feel calm and have a sense of well-being after they exercise. Exercise, according to one theory, releases beta-endorphin, a natural substance in the body that is hundreds of times more potent than morphine.