Yoga for Kids

For the longest time I have been wanting to write about this, but have always found other subjects and this just kept getting pushed to the back of the shelf.  Well, when I woke up two hours before my alarm went off, I found this idea kicking around my head and finally am getting around to write about this.

We sell yoga videos for kids at work.  Well, not videos.  Video.  One, but if you can find one there's bound to be more.  When I walk past it, I can't help but think that it's both good and bad.  It's good because it gets kids up and about.  It gets them off their asses and exercising, you can't argue that point.  But I don't remember growing up and having an exercise video I watched to keep me active.  I went outside and played or I went downstairs and ran around down there.  In fact, I can remember my mom owning a few workout VHS (look it up people not born before the 90s) but I do not remember her saying 'here kids, watch this and work out.'  She sent us outside to play with the neighbor kids.  Even in the winter time, we went outside.  We dug tunnels in the back yard.  We went to the Michigan Bell building and went sledding on the huge snow piles from the parking lots that I have always hoped the workers made for the neighborhood kids.   

When you are young enough, you don't realize that you are exercising and that it is good for you when you are playing.  You go out and run around because you are having fun.  You are playing with other kids, but you are outside.  Now, here is where I think that having an exercise video for kids is bad.  If you have a kid exercising using a video, they are still inside.  As people talk about our kids living a more sedentary lifestyle the easiest way to put an end to that is to get them out of the house.  Make them go out and play kick the can or kickball or dodge ball or tag (or freeze tag, or tv tag, or one of the thousands of types of tag we use to play as kids).  Make them get out of the house and get some fresh air, it does a body good. 





Either way, it's good for kids to get away from sitting around and exercising.  Even if the exercising takes place in front of the television that is the root of some of this evil.