Healthy Kids – Roidless

Why Kids Should Do Yoga, and How to Practice as a Family

Blog, Fitness, Healthy Kids, Yoga / admin

Why Kids Should Do Yoga, and How to Practice as a Family Although yoga is often a serious meditative practice for adults, there’s tremendous value in getting the whole family involved, says Amber DiPietro, a NASM-certified trainer and E-RYT 500 yoga teacher. Especially these days, there’s so much to gain from yoga, for kids and parents alike. “Yoga has an abundance of benefits whether you’re practicing solo or as a family,” she says. “It reduces stress and anxiety, improves focus and concentration, and can also lower blood pressure, benefit sleep, increase energy, and improve muscle strength and flexibility.” Benefits of Yoga for Kids Research has indicated that yoga (for kids and teens alike) can boost self-esteem, memory, and mood. Benefits for kids All these benefits have been shown to improve their quality of life, overall wellbeing, and stress management. Other research has even connected a consistent yoga practice to mitigating symptoms of attention deficit disorder, including inattentiveness and hyperactivity. Benefits for teens Teens can reap these benefits as well. A study on yoga for kids in high school found that after just a single class, participants showed decreases in anger, depression symptoms, and fatigue. Benefits for parents For parents or caregivers, doing yoga together creates the opportunity to get some quality time where everyone can connect, DiPietro says. You may even get to know each other a little better. “You get to see how your child learns and persists, and your child sees the power of a healthy lifestyle,” she notes. “Simply practicing breath exercises and finding synchronicity can build a stronger bond.” The Best Yoga Poses for Kids A great introduction to yoga for the whole family is a short Level 1 class on BODi’s Yoga52 program. These offer some excellent yoga poses for beginners, and you can choose the duration that fits into everyone’s schedule. For example, you can break a 30-minute class down into two parts so you practice 15 minutes at a time. That way, you can establish consistency and get into the habit of doing yoga together. If you want to flow through some poses on your own, here are a few that are good for beginners. 1. Child’s pose Start on all fours, with your hands directly below your shoulders and your knees hip width or wider. Bring your big toes together. Exhale and sink your hips back toward your heels. Rest your belly between your thighs and your forehead on your mat. Extend your arms out in front of you (palms down, to stretch the whole back) or along your sides (palms up, to stretch between the shoulders). Stay for a few breaths up to a few minutes. 2. Cat-cow stretch Inhale: Cow pose Get down on all fours, with your knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. Keep your back flat, your gaze toward the floor, and your neck long. As you inhale, arch your back, lifting your tailbone and chest toward the ceiling while dropping your belly toward the mat. Keep your shoulders away from your ears, shoulder blades broad across your back, and your head in line with your torso. Exhale: Cat pose From cow pose, as you exhale, round your back, tuck your tailbone, and curl your chin toward your chest. Keep your shoulders and knees in place. Inhale into cow pose. Repeat this flow for up to 10 breaths, or longer if desired. 3. Downward-facing dog Start on all fours, with your knees directly below your hips, and wrists a few inches forward of your shoulders. Point your fingertips forward and spread your fingers wide. On an exhale, tuck your toes, press into your hands, straighten your arms and legs, and lift your hips up toward the ceiling. Keep your hands shoulder-width apart and feet hip-width apart. Rotate your shoulders outward to avoid scrunching them. Keep your arms straight, and engage your biceps to keep your elbows from locking out. Look back at your toes and keep your ears in line with your arms. Hold the pose for one minute. How to Progress in Your Family Practice Whether you’re doing yoga as a family, as a parent-kid combo, or seeing your older child or teenager trying some solo yoga practices, it’s likely that as you get more comfortable with yoga, you’ll want to keep adding poses. “When you’re ready to up the challenge, you may want to try some higher-level Yoga52 classes,” says Brent Laffoon, a Yoga52 trainer. “Even if you and your kids can’t do every pose or sequence, it’s fun to explore different options,” he says. Plus, you can tweak the poses and even invent some of your own based on basic yoga poses. Being creative as a family is just one more way to make yoga for kids a joyful activity for everyone. “Spread your wings a little,” says Laffoon. “Make sure you’re keeping up the level of enthusiasm and enjoyment, and putting in a bit of challenge can do that and keep it fresh.” The post Why Kids Should Do Yoga, and How to Practice as a Family appeared first on BODi. Although yoga is often a serious meditative practice for adults, there’s tremendous value in getting the whole family involved, says Amber DiPietro, a NASM-certified trainer and E-RYT 500 yoga teacher. Especially these days, there’s so much to gain from yoga, for kids and parents alike. “Yoga has an abundance of benefits whether you’re practicing solo or […] The post Why Kids Should Do Yoga, and How to Practice as a Family appeared first on BODi. Kayne Toyosato{authorlink}https://www.bodi.com/blog/yoga-for-kidsBODi BODi is a Health Esteem platform to help you embrace the person you are today so you can take action to achieve all your health and fitness goals. https://bodiblog.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/plugins/bod-blog/assets/vendor/beachbodydigital/wordpress-core-plugins/beachbody.png

Why Kids Should Do Yoga, and How to Practice as a Family Read More »

Got Parental Burnout? JBYB’s Carmel Rodriguez on Striking “Perfectly Imperfect” Balance

Got Parental Burnout? JBYB’s Carmel Rodriguez on Striking “Perfectly Imperfect” Balance Trying to juggle work, family time, fitness goals, healthy eating, self-care, and social events can be overwhelming. So how does Carmel Rodriguez — Just Bring Your Body trainer, fitness influencer, model, entrepreneur, and mom of two — manage to strike the perfect balance? She doesn’t! And here’s why: Endlessly chasing an unrealistic ideal of “perfect balance” just adds unnecessary stress to your life. And anything that spikes your stress level — including the pressure to be perfect — is “not really the investment you want to make,” Carmel says. Instead, she embraces being “unbalanced and perfectly imperfect.” So what does that mean to her? “‘Perfectly imperfect’ means that on some days, you will have it down,” Carmel says. “You’ll get your workout in, you’ll have dinner on the table, you’ll hug your kids a thousand times, the house will be clean, and you’ll be able to relax for a second.” “And the next day, it’ll all go out the window,” she adds. “And that’s something to be happy about — because it may not be perfect, but that’s what life is about.” Here are her tips for finding your own “perfectly imperfect” sweet spot. 1. Let Go of Perfection “I’ve tried to be perfect in all aspects — and I failed every single time, because there’s no such thing,” Carmel says. Her advice: Let go of the self-imposed pressure to do all the things. “You want to keep going and going, and that’s okay — you need to have that drive,” she says. “But at the same time, you need to understand that we are human beings and we cannot keep going like that.” “We’re fighters by nature, but we need to just sit back and accept — that pile of laundry ain’t going nowhere for the next day or two, and we’re going to do takeout tonight,” Carmel adds. “The mythical ‘balance’ is that sometimes you have to let go of the things we think we have to hold on to so tightly.” 2. Embrace Where You Are Right Now When life is hectic, it’s normal to want to regain a sense of calm ASAP — or at least maintain the appearance that you’re handling everything with ease. “As parents, we want to look like we have it all together when we head outside that door,” Carmel says. But you may feel less stressed if you stop trying to fight the hectic pace of your life and simply accept that your current reality is not entirely together. “When I’m overwhelmed, everything is on top of me, my stress levels are high, I’m on the verge of a panic attack, and I just can’t cope — I will sit back, and I will breathe, and I will accept my situation,” Carmel says. “If we find the acceptance in it, a lot of weight will be lifted off our shoulders,” she adds. 3. Wake Up a Few Minutes Earlier If you have a hard time carving out time for yourself, try setting your alarm a bit earlier. “My best and most proven time management strategy is to wake up early,” Carmel says. “Get up as early as you can, and have a little bit of time in the morning for yourself.” You can use that time to do a breathing exercise, catch up on household tasks, or get your workout done and dusted before the rest of the house wakes up. “When that’s done, it’s finished, and the rest of my day can carry on,” Carmel says. 4. Look for One-Minute Tasks It can be hard to get motivated to tackle time-consuming tasks when you know you’re not going to have time to complete them. And that means those tasks just keep piling up. So instead of taking an all-or-nothing approach, Carmel tackles her to-do list one minute at a time — literally. “If you see something around you that you could do in under a minute, get it done,” she says. “Just do it right away. Get it out of your hair. Even if there’s a counter full of dishes and you can get four or five done, get four or five done, and then you can walk away. And you have little accomplishments throughout the day.” 5. Stay Active Together There may be days when you really can’t carve out 30 minutes for a full workout. But you can still get movement into your day by making your family time active. When Carmel’s kids were younger, she says, she would build obstacle courses in the yard using their toys. Or she would push both kids in the stroller, using the hill near her son’s preschool for an extra challenge. Now that their kids are older and both involved in competitive sports, Carmel and her husband turn practices and games into active family time. “My husband and I try to attend every single game with the kids,” she says. In between games, they find ways to train together — like running soccer drills with their daughter. “My husband would coach us, and we’d do the drills together and partner up,” she says. 6. Nix the “Parent Guilt” It’s normal to feel like you should devote every spare minute to family bonding time. But taking time out of your day to do a workout or cook a healthy meal benefits the whole family. “If I’m not functioning very well — my anxiety’s high, I’m overwhelmed, I’m overworked, unsatisfied, unhappy, angry — my entire family is going to feel that,” Carmel says. Working out gives her a chance to recharge and relieve stress. “That’s my investment in my family — taking care of myself for them,” she says. “And not only that…I paint a picture for my kids. They’re going to see that they need to make time for themselves.” 7. Minimize Obstacles “On a logistics level, you have to have your stuff carved out,” Carmel says. “You have to eliminate those