Let’s look at the science behind the claims that the exercise we use in Ready Steady Move! is beneficial to children’s health.
Exercise has been shown not only to encourage healthier lifestyles in children, but also to increase their concentration and energy levels, leading to better academic performance. Ready Steady Move! employs a variety of exercise methodologies including yoga, Pilates, martial arts and dance to encourage overall body strength, coordination, balance and fitness.
The physical and mental benefits of yoga, known by practitioners for millennia, have now been proven in many scientific studies. Yoga is known to improve sleep, flexibility and concentration, to promote healthy eating habits and to strengthen the heart.
Yoga is especially beneficial for children, as it promotes the correct muscle and bone development to build strong, yet supple bodies – bodies that will attain healthy postures and, just as importantly, understand how to relax in the face of the continuing bombardment of stress that pervades modern day living.
Pilates, an exercise discipline known throughout the world for its myriad health benefits, has been confined until now to the world of adults. No longer! It now plays a central part of the Ready Steady Move! fitness programs.
By the time your child completes their third year of Ready Steady Move! they will have learned and practiced a significant number of Pilates techniques designed to improve both core muscle and kinesthetic abilities. These in turn aid in producing correct breathing, neck alignment, rib and scapular stabilization and pelvic mobility.
Dance encourages both brain development and overall health, which in turn leads to better concentration, mood, spatial recognition and even long-term memory.
Moreover, its physical benefits of increased coordination, cardiovascular fitness and body control, together with its well-documented improving of psychological health, make dance ideal for young children – or children of any and all ages.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2013 Oct 30.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK201501/
Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · January 2010 DOI: 10.1089/acm.2009.0044 · Source: PubMed
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41164086_The_Health_Benefits_of_Yoga_and_Exercise_A_Review_of_Comparison_Studies/link/0deec52a99f6bc7802000000/download
By June Kloubec – Muscles Ligaments Tendons J. 2011 Apr-Jun; 1(2): 61–66. Published online 2011 Dec 29.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666467/
On the Brain, The Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute
https://neuro.hms.harvard.edu/harvard-mahoney-neuroscience-institute/brain-newsletter/and-brain-series/dancing-and-brain
Brad Binder, PhD – A Literature Review
https://www.virginiatkd.com/wp-content/uploads/benefits.pdf