The first year is a crucial period of time for babies as they are rapidly growing up physically, learning motor skills and language. Learning gross motor skills such as crawling, sitting up, rolling on their back and fine motor skills such as hand-eye coordination and grabbing objects in their hands will allow your children to interact with their environment.

While your babies complete their developmental milestones on time, they might still be lacking in upper body strength that is crucial for their development through childhood. This is because babies spend more time walking then crawling after they have learnt it and since they will not be spending their time to lift weights, it will lead to them having a weaker upper body strength.

Unlike adults who will gain muscles and increased stamina through long distance running and weights training, you can increase upper body strength of children through play, helping them to gain gross and fine motor skills. Read on to find out how you can increase the upper body strength of children through play.

Play Outdoors

Playing outdoors is essential in the development of your children’s different groups of muscle. There are different physical activities that children can engage outdoor and these include climbing, running and jumping. Such activities allow them to exercise many muscle groups simultaneously as they will be moving their entire bodies. In addition, for activities like skipping, children will require other skills such as coordination and balance which allow them to practice their upper body stability. When children engage in swinging actions, they are also able to strengthen their arms and shoulder’s muscles.

Indoor Gyms

Indoor gyms usually consist of different indoor gym products such as trapeze bars, monkey bars, ladders and climbing ropes. These indoor gym products are extremely beneficial in increasing children’s upper body strength.

When children are playing with bars, they will move their arms and hold on to and shift their whole body’s weight from one side to another. This allows them to engage many different muscle groups and it is equivalent to a full-body workout for children.

Similarly, for trapeze bars, they can also increase their upper body strength as they hold their weight using the bars. They will be making use of their upper body muscles such as shoulders as they pull themselves up.

Climbing on ladders and ropes is another good exercise for children as well. They are able to increase and train their muscle tone by resisting against the force applied when they have to move to a different spot on the ladders or ropes. Other than using physical body strength, they will also have to think of the next movement that they have to make in order to get to their final destination. While it is common and right to discourage children from climbing, it is very beneficial for them to engage in climbing in safe space as climbing has a plethora of benefits.

Indoor gyms are great as they can be used all year round even if the season is not summer and you can even turn on the air conditioning too. Other than being suitable for children, it is also great for adults as they can play with their children.

As a parent, you can help to increase the upper body strength of your children through play time outdoors or indoors.

If you are interested in purchasing an indoor gym equipment for your children, you can contact Fitness Kid to find out more about their uses and benefits.