You can read more about it in this BBC article …

It’s another reminder that there is a link between what you eat and how you feel. I’m suspicious of wonder diets and I fear people are too quick to appeal to allergies for their problems but there is little doubt that having a good – well balanced – diet is the best option for us all.

Well my own feelings are that sports day should be competitive and it’s up to the school to do it properly so that those who find sport difficult understand that taking part is still very important.

I think I have quite a unique perspective on all this because I’m someone who struggled with sport at school for quite a while. You see I was always pretty average at sport in the my primary school and I was still very happy just taking part. I hadn’t yet learned that sport was supposed to be all about winning. Then at secondary school (High school) I was ill for quite a while and I ended up rubbish at sport. Sports day became a very bad day for me – struggling to finish races at the back. I stopped trying. It wasn’t until the very end of my school sports career that I managed to pull things back a bit and started to push the winners (although I never actually won).

It is possible to learn a lot from such experiences. It is important to understand what competition is and how to handle it. It’s important for winners and losers.

However, I do believe that children need to be helped to understand what I think is the golden rule of sport.

“It’s not whether you win or lose it’s how you play the game”.

Sport can teach you what it’s like to win and what it’s like to lose but above all of this it can teach you the pride of having done your best. We all need to learn that there are always going to be people who can better us at one thing or another. This doesn’t make us failures as people it tells us that we should be proud of ourselves for everything we achieve.

I admire people who overcome great odds to achieve things – sometimes things that I might take for granted. Those who battle disability to walk or talk, etc. show great determination and effort. It doesn’t matter that in a straight walking race I could probably beat them (I was a race walker for while by the way) but it does matter than they are winners in life because they did their best.

So I say children should learn about competition and especially what it means to compete against yourself. Those who struggle with sport (like those who struggle with anything) should be shown that when they make an effort everyone appreciates them taking part and if no one ever does notice their effort they will at least be able to have some self pride in knowing that it wasn’t winning or losing that mattered but how they played the game.

Of course sports people feel this kind of thing as well but I think there is a difference. I’ve had both experiences in my life and I know that somehow the sickness and exhaustion that comes when you are pushing yourself as a fit person is different to that of when you are unfit.

I want to encourage you if you are just starting out to get fit.

First – some of us do understand what you are going through and we know that it is not easy. I may not know you personally but believe me that I have great admiration for anyone who makes the effort to get fit – especially if you are very unfit.

Second – understand that the pain you experience is a part of the process of getting fit. Don’t give in when it hurts (if you are worried about the pain then seek medical help – it’s wise to get checked out). The pain you feel from first starting to exercise will get less. Somehow the pain can almost become a pleasure when you get past that first part.

Third – don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s great that you are now getting some exercise.  When you first start out you should be very proud that you are making those first steps – don’t be put off by any lack of progress instead be happy you are exercising.

I’m proud of you – keep it up.

At the time he asked the question we were just trying to climb a very steep hill and we didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with it.

My answer was simple enough – because I enjoy it.

I tried to explain to him that I was not saying that I liked sweating and panting up hills (this is tough for anyone) but that I had learned how to get pleasure from the experience. Some days in the wilderness life can be pretty tough. Heavy rain and driving wind with no sign of shelter is both horrible and great at the same time. There is something about being pushed and tested that can actually be pleasurable.

I guess if this were not true then no one would be involved in any kind of sport.

It’s also true that you can learn a great deal about yourself at such times. You learn that you are capable of far more than you ever believed was possible. You learn about patience and persistance. There are so many lessons to learn.

Then when you reach the top and you look down the hill and see how far you have come you feel wonderful. What a view.

Then its a quick look at the map and on to the next hill.

I’d encourage anyone to find the same kind of challenging enterprise in their own life. Find something to do where you have to push yourself to your limits and beyond. You never know you might actually enjoy it.

The benefits of countryside walking have been known for a long time. Just today I heard about a report that said people with dogs tend to be fitter and less stressed than those without them. Having a dog forces you to get the exercise that helps make you fitter and lower stress.

But you don’t need a dog to get exercise.

I don’t have a dog and doubt that I ever will. I have nothing against dogs (although I was bitten by a couple of dogs when I was a child) and I’m happy for most people who keep them. But you don’t need a dog to get some exercise.

Because I was out of the habit of exercising and my life at the moment often means I spend most of my time sitting down I needed to get some more regular exercise. This coupled with my own campaign to get my children exercising more led me to set some goals.

I set the simple goal of running every morning and having a longer run (or walk) over the weekend. I only run for about 20 minutes a day (I intend to increase this). The length of the run and how long it takes are secondary to getting into the habit of running.

One of the things I often find frustrating is that most exercise programmes are worked out by those who like to exercise and are fit. If you have never been over weight you have no idea of how hard it can be to exercise. When you are unfit any exercise can make you feel really sick and horrible. I’ve been there myself – a few years back I started running in the mornings and I could only run a couple hundred meters before I was gasping for breath and had to stop. I know others won’t manage this far.

So my first tip is just to build a routine. The more you can make exercise, any exercise, a normal part of your day the more likely you are to increase it and get fit. Build the habit.

Anyway I’ve been running regularly now for a few months and it is starting to have a positive effect on my life. I really do feel better in myself, I have more energy and some of the pain of exercising has gone. My legs are now strong enough that they don’t feel like jelly when I run.

But this weekend I got a real boost.

You see I have always loved hiking. Walking in a wilderness area is wonderful to me. I like the views. I enjoy the clean air. I love the smell of warm heather. I even liked getting rained on.

When I was young I did it a lot. Then I had a long break of several years (looking back this was stupid) and over the last few years I’ve been getting back into it. The problem was that I was not very fit and as I can’t get out hiking very often I had to be content with struggling up the hills. The last month or so I got fed up with this and found lots of excuses for not going walking.

However this weekend I went for a walk. It was a moderate walk for me (about 15 miles) but I’ve struggled over this distance even then. I didn’t expect a lot but it seems my exercise has helped a lot. I was walking with my 12 year old son who has also been exercising with me.

Normally on one of these walks we would take lots of breaks up the hills and often we were so slow that we would run out of time and have to cut the walk short.

This weekend was very different. The first thing we had to do was climb a hill (it was Dartmoor after all) and we did ok. I put this down to still being fit enough as it was the first hill we had to climb. Then we went up the next hill and we found ourselves ahead of our time. Then another hill. Then the longest, steepest climb came up and I suspected by now we would need to go slow and stop a lot. We didn’t. We both steamed up the hill with a minimum of breathlessness.

This might not seem much to you but for me who used to steam up hills all the time (I was famous for it amongst my friends) this was a miracle.

I encourage you to make your own miracles. Get yourself an exercise habit. Don’t give up because winter is coming but instead set yourself some positive goals. You will be amazed at what you can achieve in even a short space of time.

Here is my suggested three stages to getting a healthier life…

Stage 1. Motivation

Unless we are motivated to do something we will not succeed in doing it. So the first step has to be to get motivated. The earliest stages in motivation are what is often called pre-contemplation. This is when you tend to get very defensive about your situation but you are aware that there is a problem. Perhaps people keep telling you there is a problem or you notice that your waist keeps expanding.

What do you do if you are in this stage?

You need to start getting educated about your situation. You can do this in secret if you want to – you don’t have to admit to anyone else that you have a problem. Perhaps you might try measuring yourself or weighing yourself (I don’t recommend doing this too often though – most of us know when we are too big or too heavy and we don’t need to be reminded by a machine!). You could try reading up on the dangers of being overweight to get you started. Here are a few sites you could use (from a quick search on Google):

http://www.mamashealth.com/eat/oweightdam.asp

http://uk.askmen.com/sports/health_150/160_mens_health.html

and in the interests of a good balanced diet of information here is an article that tells us the situation might not be as extreme as many feared but that obesity is still the major killer it has always been thought to be

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/19/health/main689523.shtml

Now the truth is that if you are getting bigger you are heading in the wrong direction.  If you keep getting bigger unchecked then you will become obese and if you become obese your weight will probably kill you. Now we all have to die from something but personally I would rather it was something outside of my control.

Then think through what life will be like if you are very fat. How will you tie up your shoe laces? How will you feel in the summer when you have to take the family to the beach.

I’m not saying that fat people should be ashamed and our obsession with skinny is just plain wrong (being very skinny is as unhealthy as being obese) but some things start to get hard when you are fat.

Then think about how your family and friends will feel when you die (especially when you die young). You could die tomorrow of course from something else but do you really want to kill yourself?

During this phase you need to get as much information as you can about what is bad about being unhealthy. Don’t just think about being overweight (if I had time I’d talk about lots of other stuff).

Now you should also start to think about all the stuff you could do if you were healthy. When you watch T.V. and see a fit and healthy person doing something great (I like watching Athletics and football – soccer to those from U.S.A.). Ignore any age issues  – most of us don’t want to compete at professional sports level – but think about how great it would be to be fit like them.

Wouldn’t you love to be able to run down the road if you needed to without getting out of breath? Wouldn’t you love to be able to go dancing and move like a dancer does? Wouldn’t you enjoy being able to play a game with your children and have them trying to keep up with you?

I’m sure you can think up a few more of these reasons to be fit.

Now you move on to the contemplation and planning stage

Stage 2. Contemplation and planning

Start thinking about what you are going to do. Don’t think about all the stuff you can’t do – this just wastes time and makes you depressed. My advice is to ignore it. If you can’t afford a gym membership or you don’t have the time to go to the gym then don’t moan about it just forget about it.

I reckon there is one thing that everyone can afford and find time for – walking. If your neighbourhood isn’t a good place to walk in then take the bus to somewhere that is. If you have children to look after then take them with you. Make it a family trip every day to somewhere you can walk. Walking has so many benefits, everyone should be doing it.

Then write down what you are going to do. Write it down (or perhaps use the bythemethod.com system to help with this). Set yourself a goal for just one week.

Now do it.

What do you do if things go wrong?

I can make you a cast iron guarantee at this point. Somewhere in your plan something will go wrong. It is the way of life that something every now and then goes wrong for us. Some of these things can be big some will be small but something somewhere is going to go wrong.

No this is not pessimism.

When something goes wrong you need to understand that it is not a disaster or even a problem. When things go wrong it is an opportunity. Here you can learn something about yourself and something about the world you live in. That learning will help you understand how to stop that same wrong thing from happening again.

Don’t ever be afraid of making mistakes and having things go wrong. I meet a lot of people who think they should be optimistic all the time and that they think this means you have to believe nothing is going to go wrong. This is just rubbish. Things do go wrong from time to time but we learn from them and move on. An optimist is someone who knows things will go wrong but believes good will come out of that wrong.

Stage 3. Keep going and evaluate

You now need to make your change stick. This means you need to keep going and build those changes into your life. When once you set yourself a goal of going walking every day you now need to make that going walking a normal part of your life.

I’m running out of time here but the best way of doing this is to keep setting goals until you feel that the goal is not necessary.

Whenever you come to the end of a goal you need to evaluate it. How did it go? Was it too easy or too difficult? What can you change to make it work?

Conclusion

Being healthy is not about going on the latest fad diet. Being healthy is a way of thinking. You need to make looking after your body part of your life. You do this by getting motivated, making plans and doing them, and then by making those changes a part of your every day life.

You need to start from where you are and make one change at a time. Do it now.

As I am trying to get my own children to exercise I thought I should do some investigating and find out what the situation is.

The research says that it is ok for children to exercise

I’ve read several reports that say there is no harm in children exercising. There seems to be a commonly held belief that somehow exercising children might stunt their growth or cause them bone problems. It turns out though that this is simply not true.

If chldren take drugs to enhance sport performance then they might well get a problem but no more than an adult would have a problem if they did the same. Or if children overdo exercise and cause themselves a serious injury then there is a risk that this injury might create joint problems later.

I guess the word of caution might be that if children overdo it and injure themselves then that injury (although it would have to be a pretty serious one) might cause them some big problems later in life.

This research also suggests that weight training is acceptable if children are well supervised. It turns out that it is when children are unsupervised that the big injuries seem to happen.

There is a hormone issue though

You see until a child reaches puberty the results of training are, most of the time, not as impressive as they are for adults. Or to be fair it mainly revolves around strength training. However it also seems that strength training is even more effective for a boy who is after puberty but before he has stopped growing. It all gets a bit complicated.

Should children run a long way?

This is more controversial because most people (without any real research to back it up) have decided that it is harmful for children to run a long way. There is no evidence that running a long way is harmful for children, indeed some of the great African athletes have been running a long way since they were very young. Some running as much as 10 kilometers to get to school and ten back home again – every day.

It’s all about being sensible and not forcing the issue

The best advice seems to be to let the child dictate the programme. We should not make children train harder than they feel they can. If a child goes on a long run they should have the option to walk some of the way if they want. If a child is training for strength then they should not be forced to push themselves to their limit. Injury prevention becomes a prime issue for children taking up sport. The idea that someone is not a team player unless they can “take one for the team” and push themselves to the point of injury is bad policy. This does not mean letting children be lazy but just listening to them and understanding not to push them when they have reached their limits.

Skills are the key

The most important thing for children is that they learn the key skills they need to enjoy a sport and exercise safely. The younger a child can learn how to play a sport or how to jump or sprint the better. When they have gained the core skills they will find it much easier to push themselves later without having to learn the basics. This is particularly important for exercising skills where learning the basics can make exercise more effective and safer.

Can children exercise? Yes. Is there any point? Yes.

Sorry people there are no excuses any more.

Table of contents for Getting children to exercise

1. Why should children exercise anyway?
2. Finding information about children’s athletics
3. Getting children fit for sport

There are many things that children enjoy. Experience tells me that these are the very same things that we all enjoy. Playing games, laughing, hanging around with friends, computer games, just messing about, etc.

Perhaps the secret to helping children into sport is to think about the kinds of things we might enjoy and encouraging them to get involved.

Anyway today I wanted to talk about something that is easy for us all to do and which can make a big difference to our ability to enjoy sport (and life in general).

I’m talking about stretching and mobility.

I suffer with a bad back. It resulted from an old sporting injury and it means that I can’t be as active as I wold like to be. However one thing I have always been able to do and which I have found is great for a bad back is stretching your muscles.

This is the part of yoga that people go to yoga classes for. If you are looking for a way to get your muscles moving without all the mumbo-jhumbo that goes with yoga philosophy then get yourself in to stretching.

There are plenty of web sites on the Internet that offer good stretching advice and if you follow some of their ideas you will soon find that your muscles are loosening up and you get less aches and pains.

This stretching will help you get ready for sport. I think one of the reasons so many of us don’t like sport is that it is hard work and makes you hurt afterwards. If your muscles are ready for it then the pain is less and recovery is much quicker.

How does this relate to children?

Well I think children enjoy stretching and if you are having trouble getting them to do anything then this is a good start. There is no getting sweaty or out of breath (of course these are good things really but if you don’t do sport at the moment then you need to start somewhere) and you can do them in your own home without anyone else watching. If you do it together in the spirit of fun it can even be really good fun and cause a fair bit of hilarity.

You will also find that your children are probably better at it than you are and children always like stuff that they can do better than adults.

So pick a time of day you are going to do this together (I recommend before bed – get the children in their pyjamas and they will be in loose clothing all ready for stretching) and commit to it for a given number of days (I suggest starting with 1 week).

Then get yourself a good book on stretching and take care to read any warnings.

Then get started.

My warning!!

Stretching should not hurt and whilst it is hard to do some serious damage stretching it is possible. Listen to your body and only go as far as your body says you can.

Never make stretching a competition. This will make people overdo the stretch and ignore the pain. In this case no pain means gain (not no pain no gain).

Always follow instructions carefully.

If you never exercise and/or are very overweight you should seek the advice of your doctor before undertaking any exercise programme.

Have fun!

Table of contents for Getting children to exercise

1. Why should children exercise anyway?
2. Finding information about children’s athletics
3. Getting children fit for sport

So you’ve got your children interested in sport and athletics and now you want some information to get them started. The web should be full of it of course – but it isn’t. If I want to know about the latest sports game for the Wii or what is happening on T.V. it’s easy but trying to find something about how to get my children fit is near impossible.

There are the usual culprits of soccer training etc or products you can buy to help but in general things are pretty bad. Then if you want information about children and athletics you can pretty much forget it. I’m wanting something I can do with my children at home by the way.

Well done to the Australians by the way. They have a programme set up to encourage children to take part in Athletics: ACTLAA. There is even the very information I was searching for on their site on the Coaching page where they have a pdf download called the Home Training Guide. It’s good to see so many of their medal winning athletes have started in this children’s programme.

But where is everyone else?

I don’t let a silly thing like this put me off so I’m continuing my research and armed with the Home Training Guide I’m going to keep going.

Seems to me though that basic guides on how to encourage your child into sports ought to be produced by every Government and Sport that is going. It’s not enough to say ‘join a club’. Not everyone has a club near them and even fewer can afford the kind of fees this brings (especially if you have 4 children). For instance even if it is only £2 a week that is £8 a week for 4 or £416 a year; to say nothing of clothing and travel etc.  I know health is important but it doesn’t matter how important something is if you are on the brink of survival these costs mount up and put you off.

What most people seem to say is just get them active playing games. We have a small garden and live on a busy street. I think we are probably pretty typical in this. Anyway games are fine but when space is limited so is the exercise. We have to do something more than this – especially if we are going to be getting into athletics.

Anyway back to moving forwards – never let a silly thing like I can’t afford it put you off.

Make a programme

Get what information you can (I’ll keep you posted on what I find) and then put a programme together with your children. Get their agreement on it and then stick to it. Remember that you are the adult so you will have to take a lead in self-discipline. This may be hard but you are doing it for your children remember. If you have to get up at 6am to get the exercise in then you are the one who sets the alarm and gets them up when it is time.

This is just what we are doing

We are going to do some skills training on Friday evenings (this is what I need the information for). Then every day at 6am we are going for a run. We are doing this together because my children are too young to do this on their own. So far this discipline is proving harder for some than others. I don’t press the point at this stage – I don’t want to make this a chore for them because it should be fun.

The hardest part is for me. I don’t like getting up that early and now its dark in the mornings it is really tough but I am the parent and it is up to me to take a lead.

So getting my children fitter is not easy. It requires commitment from me and enthusiasm from them. Without the commitment nothing will be accomplished.

Do you know of any good web sites with information about sports training for children at home?

If you do then add a comment and let us all know.

Table of contents for Getting children to exercise

1. Why should children exercise anyway?
2. Finding information about children’s athletics
3. Getting children fit for sport

It’s easy for parents and teachers to tell children that they should get more exercise but what if the children don’t see the point? I doubt there are many children who worry about their future health. Like the rest of us I they probably assume that somehow things will be fine for them. So how can children get excited about exercise and is there any help from “the method”?

Having a clear idea of what you want to do and why you want to do it

Nobody ever really achieved anything without an idea of what they were trying to achieve. It just stands to reason. You are not going to get anywhere without knowing where you are trying to get to.

Children are just the same in this regard. They need an idea of where they are trying to get to. Most of the exercise stuff that I read talks about getting fit for a lifetime of good health and other inspiring messages like that. Frankly most of us don’t want to do anything that we will have to wait a lifetime to appreciate. A lifetime of good health sounds good but what 8 year old is thinking about what life will be like for them when they are 80 when they think 30 is getting a bit old really.

So stop banging on about later health benefits it doesn’t work. When you are old you wish you had listened of course but by then it’s too late.

So children need something a bit closer.

Get your children interested in some sports

You have to seize opportunities when they come along. We have just had the Olympics on our T.V.s and now its the Paralympics. Lots of good sport to watch and with the British Team winning stuff its all very exciting.

Children like this kind of excitement and even if you are not that bothered about it get your children to watch some good sports (the kind of thing where people actually exercise – not car racing). If you can get them to an actual sporting event then get them there, there is always a lot more excitement at an event.

Ask them

Sadly people rarely ask children what they want. So start asking your children what they want as far as sport and exercise goes. Don’t give up when they just grunt back – chances are they are grunting because they are tired or don’t think you will listen. Ask them again another time – don’t be aggressive just ask their opinion.

Ask them why they want it

Try to get them to say why they want something. Get them to put some emotions with it. Getting some emotional attachment to something you want can help you get it.

Get them to write it down

I’ve done this with my children now and I’ve got them to write this down. What they have not written much but they have written it down. Over time I will get them to expand on this.

They have all kinds of reasons for wanting to do things but what I will help them do (which is the best thing for them at their age) is to work on general fitness.

I’ll let you know how we get along but at least now they have something that will inspire them to get started. If you don’t know what you want it is hard to get started in the first place.