Enter your search term here

Parents & Caregivers

Fitness en Español

Regular exercise can improve your daughter's health and help her feel good about herself. Use these resources to help your daughter become more active. There are many ways to do this—by sharing exercise tips and ideas, by being a good role model, or by supporting her efforts to be more active. Fitness tools for your daughter, including a fitness planner and a heart rate calculator, are also listed. Read on to find out more about how you can help your daughter get fit.

Featured articles

1.    Parents can Play a Role in Preventing Childhood Obesity (PDF - 136KB)
2. Fitness for Kids Who Don't Like Sports
3. Helping Your Overweight Teen
4. Sportsmanship
5. Steroids

Web sites

1.   girlshealth.gov: Fitness - We have created the girlshealth.gov section on fitness to help adolescent girls learn more about some of the unique health issues and social situations they will encounter during the teen years. This section provides information, resources, and links to help your daughter learn more about fitness.
2.   Jump Kids Jump! is a structured jump rope and nutrition program designed to create awareness of bone health, physical activity, and the importance of calcium intake. Research has shown that jumping or high-impact exercise is very effective for increasing bone mineral density in the hip, especially during puberty. Physical activity is not only important for strong bones, but it also builds muscle and helps prevent obesity and certain diseases. The featured tool kit includes Research documentation, Program description, Fact sheet, PowerPoint calcium presentation, Bone demonstration, Pre/post test and answer key, Jump rope rhymes, Instructional manual, and DVD.
3.   The National Bone Health Campaign (Powerful Bones. Powerful Girls.) Web Site for Parents - This campaign web site provides parents with the information they may need to help their daughters build strong bones during the critical window of bone growth (ages 9-12).
4.  We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition) - We Can! is a national program designed as a one-stop resource for parents and caregivers interested in practical tools to help children 8-13 years old stay at a healthy weight. Tips and resources are provided for parents and educators to teach children how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Publications

1.   BodyWorks: A Toolkit for Healthy Girls and Strong Women - This program is used by trainers to help parents serve as role models for their children. The toolkit provides parents with hands-on tools to make small, specific behavior changes to prevent obesity and help maintain a healthy weight. The BodyWorks Toolkit is distributed through community-based organizations, state health agencies, non-profit organizations, health clinics, hospitals and health care systems.
   
   http://www.womenshealth.gov/bodyworks/
2.   Catch the Ball (Fitness Tips for Girls and Women) - Today, more girls are participating in a wider array of physical activities and sports than ever before. This brochure reviews the physical and mental health benefits of involving girls in sports and provides 10 practical tips on steps you can take to get involved in your local community and encourage girls to reach their full potential.
   
   http://fitness.gov/catch.html
3.   Healthier US: Physical Fitness - This web site provides information on the need for physical activity in adults and especially children. Resources are provided on the following topics: physical activity, nutrition, blood pressure and obesity.
   
   http://www.healthierus.gov/exercise.html
4.   Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Across Your Lifespan: Helping Your Child: Tips for Parents - This on-line guide from the Weight Control Information Network provides information on how parents can encourage their children to eat healthy and stay active.
   
   http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/child.htm
5. Children and sports: Choices for all ages (Copyright © MFMER) - This fact sheet will help you choose kids sports and other kid-friendly physical activities according to your child’s age.
   
   http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/fitness/SM00057/METHOD%3Dprint
6. Fitness for kids: Getting your children off the couch (Copyright © MFMER) - This article provides parents with simple tips to get their kids into fitness.
   
   http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/fitness/FL00030/METHOD%3Dprint
7.   Parents Can Play a Role in Preventing Childhood Obesity (Copyright © National Academy of Sciences) (PDF - 2.03 GB) - This fact sheet from the Institute of Medicine provides background on the importance of nutrition and exercise in the prevention of obesity and action steps for parents.
   
   http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/22/617/0.pdf
8.   Parents’ and Coaches’ Guide to Dehydration and Other Heat Illnesses in Children (Copyright © NATA) (PDF – 280KB) - This publication offers parents guidelines for how to keep kids safe from dehydration and heat illnesses when playing sports. Information on treatment and care options are also provided for parents to learn how to handle a situation if it arises.
   
   http://www.nata.org/consumer/docs/parentandcoachesguide.pdf

Organizations

1.   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS
   
   http://www.cdc.gov/
2.   President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, OPHS, OS, HHS
   
   http://fitness.gov/
3.   Smallstep Kids
   
   http://www.smallstep.gov/kids/flash/index.html
4.   The President's Challenge
   
   http://www.presidentschallenge.org/
5.   Weight Control Information Network, NIDDK, NIH, HHS
   
   http://win.niddk.nih.gov/index.htm
6. American Heart Association
   
   http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml%3Fidentifier%3D1200000
7. Center for Young Women's Health
   
   http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/

 

= This article, publication, web site, or organization is from the U.S. government.

= You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader® to view some of these files after you've downloaded them. If you have problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®.

Content last updated November 11, 2007

top