Circuit Training for Kids

When I learned how to be an elementary school PE teacher, Circuit Training was one of my favorite activities I did with my classes. I also used Circuit Training with the high school lacrosse team I coached. When it is rainy and you can't go outside to play, it is nice to have a way to tire everyone out (and get a little workout yourself).

Materials Needed:

- carpet or yoga mat

- some space to move around and not bump into things

- timer

- music

Directions:

1. Make a simple task card (see below) with activities in these four areas:

Aerobic/Cardiovascular

Abdominal strength

Upper Body strength

Flexibility

2. Time you and your child doing an activity in each section for 1-2 minutes with a short rest in between each one. Repeat the sequence again and again, choosing new activities in each area. If you complete the circuit six times you'll get about a 30 minute workout session that is a lot of fun!

3. Play music while you workout. We loved Tot's Radio on iTunes Radio.

Here are some of the activities that you could include on your task cards:

Aerobic/Cardiovascular

- jumping jacks

- jog/jump in place

- side to side jumping

- pretend jump roping

- stick jumping (jump over a stick- front jump and back jump)

- hoping on one foot (and switch halfway)

- aerobic karate kicks

Abdominal Strength

- full sit ups

- crunches

- backwards sit-ups (start sitting up and go back slowly to the ground)

- knee to chest curls
- plank (hold for 1 minute or as long as you can)

Upper Body Strength- arm circles

- bear-crawls/crab walk

- push up arm circles (do push up and lift arm off ground and wave at your friends... then switch to the other side)

- push ups with knees on the ground

- right/left punches

Flexibility

- butterfly stretch

- hamstring stretch

- calf stretch

- shoulders/triceps stretch

(This website has tons of stretches with diagrams, if you don't know some of these)

Here is an example of a sample circuit session that we did:

1. Jogging around the room- 2 min (cardio)

2. Crunches- 2 min (abs)- my son sat on my legs and was my resistance

3. Crab walk- 2 min (upper body)- my son mostly crawled around

4. Butterfly stretch- 2 min (flexibility)

Grade: B+ for 2 year-olds

I would give this an A+ for the workout I got. My son mostly just liked running around and jumping and jumping on me (which gave me an even better workout). For older 3 and 4 year-olds, this would be great. We did the circuit for about 30 minutes and both slept soundly last night! I woke up nice and sore. I also added in some of my favorite ab exercises from workout classes I've been to while we were working out. You can also add in a lower body strength area if you are feeling motivated. Some ideas would be: lunge karate kicks, speed skater jumps, wall sits, calf raises, and side kicks.

Mostly we just had fun being together and having fun. I don't think my son and I have laughed that hard together EVER.

Language Development:

You can use this activity to teach your child about where their muscles are and what the names of the muscles are. I also worked on teaching my son the names of the different exercises we were doing.