National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month Offers Kids a Chance to Be Silly, Have Fun with ACE

Parents Can Incorporate Health into Family Time with Creative Activities and Snack Ideas

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Whether playing “hula hoop chain,” “jump and splash” or “solar circuit,” the American Council on Exercise (ACE) is helping parents incorporate fitness into their children’s daily activities with a dose of fun. To commemorate National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, ACE offers a suite of creative videos on the youth fitness section of ACE GetFit to inspire parents to integrate physical activity into their children’s everyday routine. The videos address a wide range of wellness topics, ranging from exercise activity ideas to healthy school lunch recipes.

“For kids, fitness is all about playing and having fun and we want to empower children to engage in activities that not only get them moving, but that also help develop and refine motor skills, build strength and agility, and get their active imaginations flowing”

“For kids, fitness is all about playing and having fun and we want to empower children to engage in activities that not only get them moving, but that also help develop and refine motor skills, build strength and agility, and get their active imaginations flowing,” said Jessica Matthews, ACE exercise physiologist. “Over the past decade, we have seen obesity rates among our youth continue to rise, signaling an epidemic that can be remedied by the adoption of a healthy lifestyle that includes physical activity. By providing these free resources, we hope to empower parents to help their children lead their most fit lives.”

The ACE videos showcase ways to creatively use popular items like sidewalk chalk, jump ropes and hula hoops, to help parents boost their children’s physical activity levels while having fun. Led by certified ACE professionals, each video includes ideas suitable for young children through adolescents.

The 2012-2013 school year marks the beginning of new national school lunch guidelines for nutrition, and ACE is helping parents continue the trend when packing lunches at home. The kid-friendly ACE Healthy Cooking Tips video series offers ideas on easy meals to prepare that also incorporate the recommended amount of servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and show how to engage children in meal preparation as a way to begin their education on healthy eating. New videos in the series will debut on the site throughout the month of September.

Educators are also able to download a complimentary copy of ACE’s Operation FitKids curriculum, which was developed in response to the budget cuts affecting physical education in schools. The curriculum, which is available in two options aimed at grades 3-5 and grades 6-8, provides ideas on how to incorporate physical activity into classroom learning and teach the importance of healthy and active lifestyles.

To commemorate National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, ACE is offering a special incentive for fitness professionals to obtain youth fitness-related continuing education credits. From September 6-30, you’ll receive 10% off continuing education courses focused on youth strength training, youth fitness guidelines and program design. To redeem, select your courses from ACE’s online Continuing Education Center and enter promo code YOUTHFIT10 at checkout.

For more ideas on family fitness activities, healthy recipes and to locate fitness professionals across the country that can aid in starting or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, visit www.ACEfitness.org.

About ACE

Since 1985, American Council on Exercise (ACE) has evolved from a small nonprofit dedicated to educating people about proper fitness to a 50,000-strong network of certified Personal Trainers, Group Fitness Instructors (GFI), Lifestyle & Weight Management Coaches (LWMC), and Advanced Health & Fitness Specialists (AHFS). As the largest NCCA-accredited nonprofit fitness certification organization in the world, ACE provides quality continuing education to professionals and conducts independent science-based research to protect all Americans from unsafe and ineffective products. Our goal is to inspire people to live their most fit lives through free fitness resources including workouts, nutrition information and expert advice. For more information, call [phone] or visit ACEfitness.org. AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EXERCISE, ACE and ACE logos are Registered Trademarks of the American Council on Exercise.