Kids love pretending to be all sorts of things, so why not put all of that imagining to good use!
Animal Walks are a great way to use pretending to help with improving coordination and strength. There are tons of different animals you could be, but here are some of our favorites.
Try a few out with your child and show them that working out can be silly and fun!
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Bear Walks
What it works on: Shoulder Strength & Bilateral Coordination
How to do it correctly: Stand with legs straight and reach to floor with hands. Begin moving forward working to move one hand and the opposite foot at a time. The goal is to keep the legs straight and “bear” equal weight on the shoulder and legs – pun intended :)
Snake Rolls (Log Rolls)
What it works on: Core Strength & Body Awareness
How to do it correctly: Have your child lay on their back with arms above the head. Begin to roll over to stomach and continue to back again trying to keep arms and legs straight and use only the core to roll over. The tricky part is trying to roll in a straight line!
Frog Jumps
What it works on: Leg Strength (Quadriceps), Power, & Landing on Feet
How to do it correctly: Squat like a frog with hand on the floor in front. Jump in the sky with arms above their head and return to starting position. The goal is to jump all the way up using all the power in the legs and control their body on way back down to land on their feet. Challenge: Add a tuck jump!
Crab Walks
What it works on: Back/Hip Strength & Body Control
How to do it correctly: Have your child start sitting on their bottom with hands behind them, push up to table position (pictured below). Then move in the direction of their head (backwards) while keeping their bottom off the floor. It is important to keep the hips lifted as high as they can to increase the strength in the back.
Bear Walks Backwards
What it works on: Core Strength & Body Awareness
How to do it correctly: Stand with legs straight and reach to the floor with hands. Begin moving backward working to move one hand and the opposite foot at a time. The goal is to keep the legs straight and bear equal weight on the shoulder and legs.
A common mistake children make is to drag their hands and only have weight on their legs -this stops the core from working and shows a lack of body awareness.
Kangaroo Jumps (Punches)
What it works on: Leg Strength (calves) & Impact
How to do it correctly: Begin by standing with legs together and arms raised straight above your head. Start jumping forward keeping the legs and arms straight. The goal of this one is to push off the toes to start the jump, not jump by bending your knees. This is also a great exercise for learning to punch off the springboard to vault in gymnastics.
Bunny Hops
What it works on: Shoulder, Core, & Leg Strength
How to do it correctly: This one is tricky to learn, but fun once your child understands it! Have your child start by squatting and balancing on two feet only, then shift their weight forward and onto the hands. Next leave the hands in place and hop the feet into the hands. The pattern would be: move hands then hop feet in.
The common mistakes are to either turn them into frog jumps or when hopping the feet in, they hop to their knees instead. This is also helpful for helping kids understand how to shift their weight for a handstand or a cartwheel.
Bear Walks with One Leg
What it works on: Balance, Core Strength & Leg Flexibility
How to do it correctly: Stand with legs straight and reach to floor with hands, now raise one leg straight behind you. Begin moving forward by moving the hands and hop forward with the foot that is down. Once you get the hang of that work to straighten the lifted leg and begin holding it higher.
This is a great intro to kicking into a handstand since it is the same motion and will help train the core to balance on the hands during the hop forward.
Happy imagining!
My Gym Lake Mary 