CrossFit Kids Encourages Monkey Business
CrossFit for kids — even the preschool demographic — is now a thing with CrossFit Kids. But wait. Before you start thinking it’s about pushing 3-year-olds to extremes and extremely sore muscles, you should read this New York Times article about this latest fitness trend. Before I read the article, the thought of CrossFit and kids made me twitchy. But when you see it’s all about encouraging activity in kids rather than pushing kids to athletic extremes, it starts to seem so great.
Instead of Olympic lifting and competition, CrossFit Kids is all about encouraging activity for kids by doing what kids do best — play! So CrossFit staples like box jumps, squats and pull-ups are instead put in motion by super-hero jumps, frog imitation and being monkeys. Duck Duck Goose takes the place of sprints, and crawling through tunnels is way more fun than the bear crawls adults do. The kids learn some fundamentals — burpees and nutrition — but it’s all under the fun umbrella of play, and there are breaks for drawing and water.
While it’s hard to marry the idea of CrossFit and kids in our heads, in reality, CrossFit Kids is a much gentler partnership!
CrossFit memberships can be pricey — the article reports that one “box” charges $140 a month for once-weekly classes. So if you’d rather encourage activity at home and on the cheap, we’ve put together a guide on working out with kids along with some essential products you’ll need along the way!
What do you think of the CrossFit Kids trend? —Erin