CrossFit is gaining new members in the form of preschoolers, but parents should not be programming the brains of their toddlers to have such a heavy focus on physicality.
Although the preschool program has no weight-training, the exercises are a far cry from the typical activity of running around and playing games. Why do we need to push them on this path of ultra-fitness?
At the preschool level, children’s brains are practically clay; they're so easily molded by their surroundings. Heavy or frequent influences on the brain of a toddler practically program that growing brain. What affects someone as a child, affects him or her for the rest of his or her life.
While the increase in children involved in physical activity is definitely a positive, this increase in children, specifically preschoolers and specifically involved in CrossFit, a high-intensity workout regimen, is too much. The New York Times reports that in 2009 the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association found that 140,000 children under 13 years old were using personal trainers. Last year the, same industry trade group reported 460,000 children were using personal trainer, three times the amount five years ago.
The problem is not that children are putting a focus on exercise. The problem lies in the fact that intense immersion in physical training often correlates with an intense focus on one’s physical appearance, no matter what age. In addition, CrossFit is an extremely physically wearing exercise and, recently, has been suspected of being very taxing to the body. Gearing young minds toward such hard-core physical activity is, inevitably, going to result in their adult minds focusing heavily on physical appearance. The situation may seem harmless now, with no result other than lowering the rate of child obesity and a healthy, unique mindset for such a young crowd, but the long-term effects will be much more severe. Why can't we just let kids be kids?
A person solely centered on physical appearance is not a healthy person, no matter how physically conditioned. From vanity to insecurity, a mind revolving around how one looks is not a content one. People with this focus are plagued by one extreme or the other. They either sit on one side of the spectrum, completely self absorbed and overconfident, or the other, entirely discontented by their image and self destructive. The focus on what’s on the outside is detrimental to one's happiness. While this may seem like a bold statement, it’s true. When appearance takes control of a person, it consumes his or her time, energy and thoughts. The result includes constant focus on how perfect or imperfect one’s perception of his or her body is.
No matter how physically active or inactive one is, any healthy person would see why introducing toddlers to such high-powered programs at such early ages is a disaster. The workout program stands behind the motto of "forging elite fitness"; there are no 2- to 4-year-olds needing to forge any elite fitness. Playing for sports teams and simply being young can keep any child physically fit. CrossFit hails a large following, boasting of the program's success and efficiency, but a preschooler simply does not need to be involved with such extreme physical exertion.
Reach the columnist at aerumore@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @AubreyElleR
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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