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Active Start for Healthy Kids - Stephen Virgilio
Active Start for Healthy Kids
Activities, Exercises, and Nutritional Tips
by Stephen Virgilio
NEW, 240 pages
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About Active Start for Healthy Kids
When it comes to physical activity and proper nutrition, young children need more encouragement and structure than ever before—especially in a culture inundated by video games, television, and fast food. Active Start for Healthy Kids: Activities, Exercises, and Nutritional Tips contains a wealth of fun, easy-to-implement activities that are specifically designed to teach 2- to 6-year-old children important health concepts. With this book as your guide, you can reach children in their formative years and help them develop positive behaviors that will last a lifetime.
Dr. Stephen Virgilio has been a children’s health expert for more than 25 years. In this book he provides a wealth of safe, inexpensive, and developmentally appropriate activities that parents, teachers, and caregivers can implement:
- More than 50 developmental exercises and activities for flexibility,
muscular fitness, and cardiorespiratory endurance
- 20 fun family physical activities
- 16 motor skill activities
- 21 yoga poses and games
- 18 dance and rhythm activities
- The top 10 nutritional guidelines for parents and teachers
- Heart-healthy kids’ recipes
Help children engage in exercise that will benefit them for years to come. Active Start for Healthy Kids: Activities, Exercises, and Nutritional Tips is the first step toward a fuller, longer, and better life for the next generation.
About Stephen J. Virgilio
Stephen J. Virgilio, PhD, is a professor and director of graduate studies at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. He has researched and taught the issues surrounding children's health for more than 25 years and has served as a consultant to companies such as Fisher-Price, Sport-Fun, and Dannon Yogurt as well as to school districts across the country. Dr. Virgilio codeveloped and authored the nationally known Heart Smart Program, a comprehensive health-intervention project at the elementary school level. He also served as the coauthor of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's (NASPE) Active Start Guidelines and wrote Fitness Education for Children, a book that teaches health-related fitness at the elementary school level. Dr. Virgilio has been quoted in numerous publications, including the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today newspapers, as well as Child and Parenting magazines. He also has been a guest on several national broadcasts, including the radio program Parent Talk and ABC's 20/20. Since 1977, he has been a member of NASPE and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). Dr. Virgilio resides with his wife, Irene, in East Williston, New York.
About Fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness (a state of health and well-being) and specific fitness (a task-oriented definition based on the ability to perform specific aspects of sports or occupations). Physical fitness is generally achieved through exercise.
In previous years, fitness was commonly defined as the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue. However, as automation increased leisure time, changes in lifestyles following the industrial revolution rendered this definition insufficient. These days, physical fitness is considered a measure of the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations.
Physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health or wellness. It is performed for various reasons. These include strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance and for enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent the "diseases of affluence" such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. It also improves mental health, helps prevent depression, helps to promote or maintain positive self-esteem, and can even augment an individual's sex appeal or body image Childhood obesity is a growing global concern and physical exercise may help decrease the effects of childhood obesity in developed countries.
Types of exercise: exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body. Flexibility exercises, such as stretching, improve the range of motion of muscles and joints. Aerobic exercises, such as cycling, swimming, walking, skipping rope, running, hiking or playing tennis, focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance. Anaerobic exercises, such as weight training, functional training or sprinting, increase short-term muscle strength.
Active Start for Healthy Kids
Activities, Exercises, and Nutritional Tips
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