Margie Weiss: Hi, my name Margie Weiss, this is upside down fitness for kids. What we’re going to do first is warm up, because it’s really important that you get your muscles warmed, your body temperature up, get your body a little bit looser before you start to do things both for you and the athlete. So, kids, what we want to do with them is something that’s simple enough, that it’s not going to be uncomfortable for them to do so that they will make sure that their body does actually get warmed up. So, we’re just going to march. Every child knows how to walk, so we’re going to just march. Doesn’t matter whether you’re on a beat, whether you’re on music, as long as the body is moving, the temperature is going up.
We’re going to straddle our legs just a little bit wider, that way we can squeeze our hips and our inner thighs, then we’re going to come in nice and low. So, we’re stretching out the back of the legs, belly is into your backbone, body is nice and tall, but the shoulders are low. As we stand up and march, we’re going to lift our knees just a little bit, so it’s up and up and up and up. Working the hip flexure here, take it just to whatever flexibility level you can handle, same thing with your child. Then we’re just going to march it wide a little bit more so that we can stop in place. You’re going to sit in a little chair, the object behind this warm up -- these are called squats, and they’re really important, especially for the adult whose knees may not be quite as good as the child.
We’re going to sit back as if you’re sitting into a chair, but you don’t quite want to touch it. So, you’re going to keep your knees behind your toes, you’re going to keep your belly button to your backbone, and you’re going to squeeze your glute muscles as you go down and up. The squat is one of the best ways to warm up the body fully in just one motion. From this position, we’re just going to take our legs; one to the back, one to the front, then tuck your hip under just a little bit, and you’re going to bend the knees and come back up. We’re stretching off the hip flexure here. Body is tall, you want to pretend like you’ve got a tea cup on your head, and you don’t want to lose it.
As we stand up, we’re going to go to the other side. Back foot is back, heel is up, tuck your hip under, you’re going to bend this back leg. You want to think of a vertical column from the time you go down to the time you come up. Head is in line as you do the exercise. Belly is always to the backbone for safety, you catch it at about 90-degrees, bring it back up. I’m going to come back to the center, legs are kind of wide, I’m going to bend one leg and just stretch, stretching out the inner thigh. If you want you can lift your toe and you can drop a shoulder to start the back workout. Keep your knee inside your toes for safety.
Now going to the other side; lift the toe, sink into it, back is kind of flat, chin is out. Coming right back to center, we’re going to do some back here, we’re going to arch it a little bit, we’re going to round it a little bit. As you arch, push your belly down, stick your hips out the backdoor. But as you round, pretend like there is a big resist-a-ball, a huge ball in front of you and you’re trying to hug it with your body. Arching it one more time, we’re going to tuck our hips under, then we’re going to bring it back up. We’re going to do the shoulders, and this is more for the adult than for the child, because the adult is going to be spotting the child, so we’re rolling the shoulders to the back. I’m going to do the same thing to the front, so you just roll and let it return. Neck, you’re going to stretch just by leaning to the side, drop the shoulder, let the head relax, again, belly is still tight to your backbone. Let it fall to the front, stretch the back, drop the shoulders just a bit and look to the other side, relax your ear, just going right to your shoulder.
As you stand up you’re going to take an arm across, we’re going to drop the shoulder, grab a hold, and just bring it across. Same thing to the other side, breathe out, drop your shoulder, take it across. Then you’re going to go way up overhead, bring it back, this is for your triceps, which are right here, look down and just gently press back. Then do it to the other side; look up, look down, press it in. Just a few more things; hands to the back, you’re going to take a big breath up, arch your back, lift your head to the ceiling, stretch out the chest muscles through here, and then bring it up. This time we’ll do the opposite. Round your back a little bit, press your hands forward, put your head duck under, and your shoulders rise. Drop your shoulders, lift your chest, open out and lift upwards with the chin but not back, and then bring it on down. Shake stuff out and we’re ready for a workout.
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