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Fit for Life...with Tina Talbot
AS a chartered physiotherapist with 14 years' experience treating children and being a mother myself, I am one of many parents concerned about the health of our kids.
Magazines and newspapers are continually printing statistics and research with headlines such as Children not fit enough to carry their own school bags' and so on. How can this be?
The research tells us that we actually eat 1,000 calories less a day than we did 30 years ago.
However, the average trouser size for the female population has changed from a size 12 to a size 16. Children are now predisposed to die before their parents as seven out of ten children do not do enough cardio-vascular exercise to prevent this.
The Heart Foundation recommends five sessions of 45 minutes of continual moderate exercise per week.
So much has changed and as parents we end up treating our children under the age of 10 as we do our pet dog. This sound like a horrible comparison, but some may even say we treat our dog better.
If we will not let our children out to play unsupervised, then it means that we as parents will have to take our children out', just as we as good dog owners take our dogs out'.
This then becomes a time consuming exercise in a busy and hectic life as not only do we need to take them out, but they need to do a continual moderate activity that will strengthen their heart.
This is where parents are often surprised when I explain that just because their children do trampoline, gymnastics, dancing or football, it does not necessarily mean that they are doing continual moderate exercise for 45 minutes.
Sports coaching and sessions are often divided into skills period, which are stop and start and then finish off with a game.
As a sports physiotherapist I believe that we introduce complex skills to our children too early and miss out on basic skills acquirements which is why the government is now introducing long term athlete development skills training in schools.
Our children need to learn to catch, throw, properly run, jump as well as acquire good agility, balance and speed and co-ordination. I know that it is something which our local schools are beginning to introduce in our primary schools, which is fantastic - but is it enough?
If you would like to contact Tina Talbot, she is at The Nielsen Clinic, Budmouth Sports Centre 01305 776102
9:39am Tuesday 6th May 2008
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