Doctor Tankevičius: if you pass the golden age of children, you will not correct your health mistakes

– Are 2 physical education lessons a week enough for children?

– No, of course, it’s not enough. If they were not lessons, but consultations from highly qualified specialists, physiotherapists, during those 2 weeks it is possible not to miss any developmental disorders, review the entire muscular system, activate them a little. But there is nothing to talk about about optimal exercise for 2 physical education lessons a week. The optimal load would be at least one hour a day.

– In principle, these lessons would be enough just to find out what the child is doing wrong, what to pay attention to, what to strengthen or relax.

– Yes. Now children go to physical therapists or other doctors when there are already badly neglected cases. Shortened muscles, unadjusted posture. When the changes are already irreversible.

– Maybe then better sports clubs.

– Of course. If we talk about preschoolers, then they need to play, and then when discipline comes along, we can take us to some kind of sports club. But you have to see how qualified the coach is, what is his attitude. If a coach focuses only on results, then health will not be considered. If the child is physically weak, he should start with the pool. And if the boy is agile, energetic, he can go to both basketball and karate. It is important to please the child.

– When I tell patients that a child should work on posture, I often hear the response that parents will go to the pool with the child, but once or twice a week.

– Again, if we talk about swimming and swimming when looking for the swimming result, then the activity is intense. But if we go to the pool to swim anyway, it is a facilitated activity. We entered the water in a state of weightlessness. The bones receive less load, everything is easier to do. In most cases, it is a more rehabilitative measure. Higher loads on muscles and bones, which is very important for calcium to build up and strengthen, is not the case. The pool is best combined with other sports, where there are jumps, setbacks and water to be a means of recovery.

– I can’t fail to mention the trampoline, which is quite controversial. Is it a good sport or dangerous?

– Pediatric orthopedists would say that the risk is really very high. But it is usually risky due to lack of use of guards, child neglect. In fact, a trampoline is a very good tool for physical activity. If the child jumps safely, everything is fine because children generally like it. But if the child is insecure or poor in coordination, the character is aggressive, this should be treated with caution as the injuries are very serious.

– I had to deal with families whose children have problems with concentration, adrenaline, aggression. When they drop everything while playing sports, it is easier to agree with them. Have you noticed, can you agree or deny it?

– Yes, I work as a karate coach for 22 years. It includes children and the hyperactive, and others simply suppressed, immobile. Any purposeful work that develops focus or discipline pays off. But not in all cases. If the case is more serious, it is necessary to work on the child individually, as it can cause chaos in the group. Of course, you can try. Some may need some individual workouts.

– And we came to the idea that very often parents think that they will give the child and the coach will take care of him. Then there is no result, everyone is dissatisfied and angry. Is it enough to hand over the child and then get him back healthy?

– You need to see how many times a week your child is in that group, usually for a very short time. For best results, if the coach and parents work together, the task is done. For example, as a karate coach, I always recommend that children exercise at home. And by training with others, they come together to compete with others, communicate, and perform tasks that one cannot perform.

– After the quarantine, many obese children with posture problems, muscular work. The main excuse was that there was quarantine and there were no circles. But parents must also set an example.

– Now is the time when sports activities compete with fun and passive activities. When I started working as a coach, there were still not so many computers and phones or the Internet could only be turned on at home. Now that the Internet is available everywhere, children will always choose activities that are more fun and easier. You don’t even need quarantine. When I asked my parents why the boy did not come to training, they told me that he was playing with the phone. Parents look at him irresponsibly. I have a daughter myself and I try to keep her busy for at least an hour a day and earn that time by playing on the computer. Most adults watch shows looking for excuses that some sport is inappropriate, that something is dangerous, and the like. Then use those arguments to justify your low level of physical activity.

– Convenient truths. Nitrate vegetables, dangerous trampoline, leaded fish, sprayed fruit. Another question is, what should parents ask the coach every time they pick up or drop off a child?

– One might wonder where the weakest places are, what they could do at home on their own. Maybe you need another professional to correct the faults a bit, which a coach cannot do in general training. <...> Sometimes a child from that group, who is in very poor physical condition, comes to the consultation with the parents, he just gives him a program at home, what to do with the parents every day, what kind of exercise. It is the responsibility of the parents because the children’s thinking is not critical, they think that the problems will solve themselves. But as you grow older, missing that golden age of physical and mental development, sometimes that neglect produces irreparable things. For example, the chest is not shaped as it should. The spine as well. The child does not develop as it was genetically given.

– All the more because children are made of plastic and can achieve these results much more easily than adults.

– Exactly. Then you will not change how the skeleton is formed, the shape of the knees, feet, the shoulder girdle. It will be very difficult to adjust.

– And as always, wish the audience at the end of the show.

– Take care of your health and, as they say, if you want to be the boss, be the boss first yourself. We all know what to do, but we don’t know. Let’s stop and start leading.