KEEPING FIT; Study Puts a New Emphasis on Exercise, Eating Better – As a Family

Wayne Westcott

As I write this, I am flying back from a meeting at the U.S. Navy Fitness Headquarters where I was asked to design a research study on family fitness. The results should have application for all families.

Like other segments of our society, Navy families are faced with the dual problems of sedentary living: parents and children who are overfat and underfit. Because both can lead to serious physiological and psychological consequences, programs must be put in place to reverse these unhealthy trends. While the final results of the Navy study won’t be known for several months, I want to share some relevant information from our previous studies, and present our proposal for an effective and efficient program of family fitness. First, family fitness implies that parents and children are eating together and exercising together. Eating together is almost a lost art in America, with breakfast on the run, prepared lunches at school or work, and few sit-down dinners on a regular basis. Fast foods are typically less healthful (lower in nutrients and higher in fat) than those prepared in the kitchen. This is largely due to the lack of fruits and vegetables – other than french fries – and the preponderance of fatty meats, sodas and pastries. In my opinion, the initial step in family fitness is more home-prepared breakfasts, lunches and dinners. The second step is far fewer snacks, unless you substitute fresh fruit, yogurt or other healthy choices for chips, cookies and candies. Like our YMCA programs, Navy Fitness follows the USDA food guide pyramid recommendations for healthy eating. With this model, the majority of family food intake should come from grains, vegetables and fruits, followed by lean meats and low-fat dairy products. High-fat foods are to be consumed sparingly. The best way to avoid excessive fat consumption is to keep high-fat snacks out of the house. If there are no chips, dips or candy bars in the pantry, apples, oranges and bananas become much more desirable food choices. Family fitness, like all fitness-enhancing endeavors, requires regular exercise. All forms of exercise are acceptable, but those that are most enjoyable should be emphasized, as these activities are more likely to be continued and become permanent parts of your lifestyle. You could include both competitive sports (family tennis, golf, badminton) and recreational pursuits (family hiking, skating, canoeing, skiing).

Family fitness can be fun, especially with a variety of activities for endurance, strength and flexibility. I recommend the following format:

(1) Begin with 15 to 20 minutes of varied aerobic activities;

(2) Follow-up with 15 to 20 minutes of basic strength exercises;

(3) Conclude with 15 to 20 minutes of less structured, game-like activities with different equipment (medicine balls, playground balls, beach balls, ropes, hoops, wands) and various movements (hopping, jumping, throwing, catching, stretching). In addition to fun fitness activities, families should make time for endurance exercises for cardiovascular fitness, with aerobic activities such as walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, stepping, rowing, rope jumping and similar large muscle, repetitive exercises. Do these at least three days a week, for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

To make endurance exercise more fun, try interval-training techniques. Few kids get excited about 15 minutes of continuous pedaling on the indoor cycle. But a challenging 15-minute interval cycling program typically produces a more positive attitude and a better exercise effect. Try this: (1) three minutes of lower- effort cycling; (2) three minutes of higher-effort cycling;

(3) three minutes of lower-effort cycling; (4) three minutes of higher-effort cycling; (5) three minutes of lower-effort cycling. Another way to bypass the boredom factor is to do family cross- training. A four-member family could put one person on a treadmill, one on a cycle, one on a stepper and one on a rower. Every four minutes the family rotates exercises, for a 16-minute training session. Because younger children tend to prefer stop and go activities such as tag, low-organized games, relays and obstacle courses, you may play or supervise a few minutes of these as part of your warm-up and cool-down. The most effective ways to maintain movement are variety, enthusiasm and positive reinforcement. The Navy agrees that the key component of an effective family fitness program is strength training. Regular strength training makes stronger muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones for higher functional capacity and lower injury risk; faster metabolic rate for accelerating fat loss and keeping a desirable body weight and body composition; and greater overall strength for improved performance in sports and recreation. Excellent strength gains can be obtained with two 20-minute weight workouts weekly (on non-consecutive days). Our extensive research with children and adults reveals that 8 to 10 basic strength exercises are highly effective for overall muscular development. In a study we conducted for Town Sports International, those who did one set of 8 to 12 repetitions on eight standard weight stack machines added significantly more muscle than those who did multiple sets of 16 machine and free weight exercises. Training intensity is the key to muscle/strength development, and brief workouts get better results. Moms and dads, sons and daughters can all train on linear weight stack machines (pushing movements such as leg presses and chest presses, and pulling movements such as seated rows and pulldowns). Different strength levels are not a training barrier, as it only takes a second to move the weight stack pin to the appropriate resistance. Our studies found that higher repetition training (10 to 15 repetitions per exercise set) works best for children and is equally effective for adults. This range corresponds to 65 to 75 percent of maximum resistance, which is considered a moderate weight load. As muscle strength improves, all other physical activities become easier. The strength training center is an excellent environment for family interaction, and is especially reinforcing for overweight children who can typically train with heavier weight loads than their lighter peers. Children who simply don’t like to lift weights may get similar strength-building benefits by training with elastic bands or medicine balls. Medicine balls are ideal for family activities and can be used effectively for strengthening and stretching. Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D., is Fitness Research Director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, and author of 20 fitness books.