Junior Fitness squad was created after i struggled to find an extra curricular activity that my own son both enjoyed and benefited from in the area of health and fitness. Gymnastics, parkour, football, street dance, golf, boxing.........each time was the same old story, he enjoyed the first few weeks and then slowly his interest dwindled. However i did notice the main aspect of all these activitie
s that he enjoyed more than the actual activity itself was always the warm up and cool down element. This prompted me to look into finding him a fitness class for children but to my disbelief there were none that catered for his age range (6-11)
As a dad i believe it's really important for my children to be fit and more importantly healthy as does any parent especially when our job as parent's has been made even more difficult with Physical education in Primary school at a minimum and the lure of consoles and mobile phones. I know for a fact I'm not the only parent whose child if given the choice would prefer to be on a console or watching clips on an iPad instead of being out and about being active. On the flip side of that I'm very aware that times have certainly changed and gone are the days where parents can feel completely safe allowing their kids to be outside unsupervised, given the dangers society can now present our children. Factor into the mix Covid-19 and the restrictions this has had on all of us none more so than our children. One of the positives to come out of this however is the conversations and awareness around our children's mental health and i firmly believe exercise and fitness can play a big part in that. My background as an ex professional footballer , coupled with my lifelong passion for keeping fit, healthy and in shape led me to this point. I have carefully planned and created a fitness class aimed specifically at children aged 6-11 who get minimum physical activity within school and are too young to attend a gym. The classes will also benefit active, sporty children who like to take part in exercise as the classes are varied and move between circuit type activities, light weight push and pull activities and of course games to get the heart rate up and the mind active, releasing those "feel good" hormones to help keep the body and mind healthy. As well as my sporting background i have over a decade's worth of experience working with children and young people in a range of educational settings.
