Brookfield/Elm Grove Monthly
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JANUARY 2013 Page 4A/Freeman Brookfield & Elm Grove Mary Catanese/Special to The Freeman Hawk sighting Submitted photo Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk appeared on ESPN Radio���s Homer and Thunder show last month and signed autographs during the grand opening celebration of ATI Physical Therapy in Brookfield. Penny drive to benefit hurricane relief efforts Fifth-grade students at Tonawanda Elementary School in Elm Grove recently donated $444.47 to the Salvation Army to go toward the relief effort for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The money was raised through a weeklong penny donation competition between Mrs. Kate Petersen���s and Mr. Mike Plockelmen���s classrooms. Local health experts and facilities offer fun fitness for kids Special to the Freeman BROOKFIELD ��� Approximately 17 percent of children ages 2 to 19 are obese, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally from 1980 to , 2012 the percentage of obese adolescents aged 12 to 19 increased from 5 percent to 18 percent. One simple way for parents to counteract this frightening statistic is to ensure playtime and exercise for their children. The daily recommended amount of exercise for grade school and high school age children is a minimum of 60 minutes each day . One of the major causes for the increase in obesity is attributed to technology said , Len Saunders, an expert in physical education and physiology and an award-winning author and motivational speaker. Children spend so much time playing video games and updating Facebook, they do not just go outside and play anymore. ���Many years ago, children and play were natural companions,��� Saunders said. ���Now, children and technolo- gy are best friends. Children become very sedentary while using technology so change , is needed. Families should make time for physical activity as much as their schedule will allow it.��� According to Michelle Bond, physical education teacher at Tonawanda Elementary in Elm Grove, kids who are especially attached to their video games, should use video game time as a reward for exercise. For example, for 30 minutes of outside playtime, the child can have 10 minutes of video game time. ���Video games are a big part of most children���s life because they are fun,��� Bond said. ���As a parent and a teacher I remind students that playing video games for an extended period of time is not healthy Limiting chil. dren to the amount of time they are allowed to sit and play video games is something I recommend.��� YMCA fitness director Robyn Pearce and Saunders both stressed that the sixty minutes of required exercise should be spread throughout the day Quick spurts of exer. cise are better for young bod- ies and accommodate their short attention spans. The Waukesha YMCA offers a variety of fun games for children that are geared around agility aerobics and , fun. According to Pearce, the Virtual Vault is a combination of playtime, exercise and games. One virtual game even allows children to ride on an actual bike that is hooked up to a video game. Everything in the game is generated through the exercise on the bike. Brookfield Elite offers a similar E-zone for kids ages 6 to 12 with bikes hooked up to PS2 games and Wii Fitness. And for the toddlers, parents can sign up for Moving and Grooving, which is organized playtime for ages 2 to 4. For adolescents ages 10 to 14 interested in beginning weight training, Brookfield Elite requires them to go through the Team Nutrition Training program (TNT). According to marketing director Alex Yuspeh, TNT teaches fitness center etiquette, training programs and how to use the various machines. Unique to Brookfield Elite for children 4years-old and up is Dojo, a Shannon Venegas/Special to the Freeman Pictured from left to right are Jamie Edenharder, Kayla Neitzke, Ellen Smogoleski and Julia Jacob as they do some ground work, while Joey Rock, left, Kameron Schmor and Drew Tai do some leg work in the background at Brookfield Elite during a workout session. martial arts school inside of the Elite facility . For parents interested in learning more, Saunders has a variety of helpful books available on Amazon regarding child and adolescent fit- ness. ���Keeping Kids Fit��� is one book Saunders wrote to respond to the daily questions he received from parents. It addresses a variety of issues including proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, hydration and sports. For the kids, Saunders developed a series of exercise adventure books. ���Spunky the Monkey��� and ���Joey the Kangaroo��� are children���s storybooks the family can read and exercise with. ���The children will learn about reading and exercise simultaneously Saunders ,��� said. ���The characters of the books are lovable and fun, and children can relate to them in a fun manner and actually enjoy exercise.��� Saunders said the most important thing is getting kids involved in team sports, going for walks, hiking, or whatever activity the kids enjoy He also suggested a . variety of indoor activities for bad weather days including ���commercial-cize��� (exercising during commercial breaks), walks at the mall, indoor scavenger hunts and indoor obstacle courses. Most importantly Bond , advises to ensure the kids are having fun. Exercise is not a chore. ���This way when they are getting tired, it is worth all the hard work because they had fun while exercising,��� Bond said. 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