Helping children and teenagers maintain adequate levels of fitness through the cool fall and winter months generally requires that recess, PE programs, and fitness classes move into the gym.
Indoor fitness and exercise programs that use gym space can take many forms including relays, games including dodge ball and basketball, gymnastics, and others.
The types of games that are played are only limited by your imagination.
Regardless of the sports and games you play and the activities you engage in, it is essential that participants warm up their muscles and stretch properly.
By warming up and stretching, those who exercise and play sports greatly reduce their risk of muscle pulls, strains, torn ligaments, and other serious injuries.
Adults who sit indoors at a desk all day during the week and go out and exercise heavily on weekends without adequate warm up are particularly susceptible to injury and it is especially important for "weekend warriors" to take the time to warm up properly.
One way to ensure that proper warm-ups take place prior to engaging in strenuous activity is to have exercise and fitness mats that are readily available in the gymnasium.
Depending on the size of the group, PE and fitness class instructors can have the mats aligned in rows or in a circle and can then lead class participants in a series of stretching exercises.
Prior to participating in vigorous activity, it is important to warm up all of the major muscle groups.
Participants can start a stretching and warm up session with some simple standing stretches.
With feet spread slightly wider than shoulder width, one can stretch the calf muscles by gently bending from the waist with back straight and touching the floor.
One can increase the stretch by then touching the right foot with both hands and then moving to the left foot.
For maximum benefit, the stretch should be held in each position for a minimum of 10 seconds.
Following the standing stretches, the second stretching warm-up involves moving from a standing position to a squat and extending the body forward by "walking" on the hands until the body is fully extended above the floor being supported by the toes and the hands in a push-up position.
One can do a push-up from this position and then "walk" backwards on the hands to a squatting position and then returning into a standing position with the hands raised high above the head, stretching for the ceiling.
This motion engages the entire body including back and arms in the warm up routine and for maximum benefit should be repeated 10 times before moving into the next set of stretches.
The push-up can be skipped or done from a kneeling position if necessary.
The next set of stretches can be done using the exercise mat.
From a seated position, the legs should be spread comfortably in front of you with toes pointed up.
Keeping the back straight and bending from the waist, lean forward as far as possible with your arms extended.
Again, it is important to keep your back straight and to bend from the waist.
You should feel a good stretch in your lower back and upper legs.
Try to hold in this stretch position for at least 10 seconds.
To increase the stretch and work different muscles, then move your hands to the right foot and hold the position for at least 10 seconds and then move to the left foot and hold.
Over time you can incrementally increase the hold time in each stretch position if desired.
There are many other types of stretches that can be done from both the standing and sitting positions, but these simple stretches have been shown to warm-up various muscle groups and when done properly and consistently, can help you and your fitness classes participate in exercise and athletic activities with a reduced risk of injury.
By building a regular stretching routine into your exercise program, you can increase your enjoyment of physical activities and improve the flexibility of your muscles.