If you’ve ever seen a Tiny Tekkers class, you’ll know we don’t just jump straight into it. We’ll always start with a bunch of games and exercises to get the children warmed up and work on their muscle development.
Muscle development is crucial in supporting proper posture, coordination, and balance, reducing the risk of injuries and promoting overall fitness amongst a tonne of other physical and mental health benefits.
But, you don’t have to rely on us to ensure your child gets the muscle development they need, here are just five fun games you can do at home:
- Obstacle Course:
- Set up an obstacle course in your backyard or a large indoor space using items like cones, hula hoops, and agility ladders.
- Include activities like crawling under tables, jumping over hurdles, and balancing on a line.
- These activities engage various muscle groups and enhance coordination.
- Animal Movement Games:
- Create a game where children imitate the movements of different animals.
- Incorporate exercises like bear crawls, frog jumps, bunny hops, and crab walks.
- These movements help strengthen different muscle groups and improve flexibility.
- Balloon Volleyball:
- Play volleyball with balloons instead of a regular ball.
- This low-impact game encourages children to use their arms and upper body strength to hit the balloon.
- It’s a fun way to enhance hand-eye coordination and build muscles in the arms and shoulders.
- Jump Rope:
- Jump rope is an excellent cardiovascular exercise that also builds leg muscles and improves coordination.
- Create games and challenges, such as seeing how many jumps can be done in a minute or incorporating different jumping styles.
- This activity helps develop lower body strength and endurance.
- Fitness Dice:
- Create dice with different exercises written on each side (e.g., jumping jacks, squats, push-ups).
- Roll the dice and have children perform the exercise corresponding to the rolled number.
- This game adds an element of randomness and makes muscle-building exercises more engaging.
Remember to ensure that the activities are age-appropriate, and always prioritise safety. You can probably come up with some more ideas based around these ones above but whatever you decide to do, make sure it is enjoyable so that your children want to do it again and potentially as part of a daily routine.