Kids' Fitness

Keeping kids active and healthy

Kids are naturally drawn to running, jumping and playing games, so make the most of these instinctive tendencies to keep your little ones fit and healthy. Whether it's getting out on bikes or walking, days out to the park or the woods, joining an exercise class, martial arts, swimming pool or sports club or even gymnastics for toddlers there are lots of ways to get your kids active both indoors and outdoors and make a real Change4Life. On top of that, we have lots of advice for helping your kids maintain a healthy lifestyle here and on the Essex Mums forum. On this page you'll find advice for helping your kids keep fit, as well as details of a few classes they might be interested in joining and how to encourage healthy living through play at centres like Monkey Bizzness in Hockley.

Click here for helpful information about Fitness for Mums and Healthy Eating for the whole family.

Run by Great Ormond Street Hospital, we provide thousands of clinically approved pages of age-appropriate content and advice. We mix the clinical skills and experience of our world-famous staff with a creative team of writers and designers to provide all ages with a trusted educational health resource. Click here for more information.

Okami Martial Arts

We have classes for Little Dragons (4-7 yr. olds) and Families (8+ to Adults). We teach Boxercise and KickBoxercise and can teach one-to-one as well. All personal fitness training meets individual needs, goals and abilities.

Fitness increases energy and promotes physical, mental and psychological well being and reduces the risk of premature health problems. In children there is fun and enjoyment, improved self esteem, reduced anxiety and stress, enhanced bone formation, weight management, social interaction and increased skill development.

Click here for class times

Sports Classes on Essex Mums

Classes from David Lloyd Sports Centre, Basildon

Parent and Tots Tennis

As part of a new initiative being run by David Lloyd we will be running a Mini tennis group for 3-5 year olds called Parents & Tots. This new group will allow parents and their children to experience learning the game of tennis together.

As all parents are aware being part of a new group can be intimidating for young children, so with the parents on court with them for the first time it will help create a fun comfortable environment to learn and interact in.

Also it’s a new and exciting way of getting you involved in your kid’s tennis and being in the process of passing on the knowledge of the game from our coaches to both parent and child. This group will be run on Fridays at 4-5pm.

All Stars Swimming

Swimming is not only a fun and effective way of staying fit but also an imperative skill to ensure our safety in many areas of life. At David Lloyd Basildon our highly qualified team of swimming teachers offer all ages and all abilities the opportunity to further their swimming skills. Our diverse timetable caters for young toddlers just beginning their learning curriculum to the more advanced children and teens who wish to swim competitively. Adults of all abilities are also welcome to attend. Regardless of whether you wish to participate in one of the group classes or if you require a little more attention and wish to enrol in private one to one classes; we can without a doubt accommodate you your needs.

As a benefit for Essex Mums members we can offer anybody that would like to join David Lloyd Basildon in January the following:

NO Joining fee offer (saving up to £150)
FREE online support worth £30
50% discount on first course bookings for junior swimming and tennis lessons.

Tumble Tots: Room to Grow in a Safe Environment

All young children need to grow, to learn and to move at a rate they find comfortable. Each Tumble Tots sessions combines fun, excitement and challenge in a safe and caring environment. All sessions use unique equipment and are run by leaders specially trained to get the best out of your child.

Help your child develop the vital physical skills and confident needed for life with Tumble Tot, Britain's leading active physical play programme. Week by week it develops not only agility, balance, climbing and co-ordination skills, but also essential listening and language skills so useful in school and later life.
Put your child's energy to good use - give him or her a headstart by finding out more about Tumble Tots today!

Programmes overview

Designed to develop children's physical skills of agility, balance, co-ordination and climbing, through the use of brightly coloured Tumble Tots equipment. The programme is structured to develop children's positive personality traits including confidence and self-esteem. Each 45-minute weekly session combines fun, excitement and challenge in a safe and caring environment. All sessions use unique equipment and are run by staff specially trained to get the best out of your child. It is structured according to the different ages and stages of a child's development. Child psychologists and educators agree that a structured programme in movement should be a part of every child's education.

Tumble Tots

Gymbabes
Babies from six months to walking

With parent involvement, Gymbabes helps to stimulate and encourage babies to use all their senses, gently and without pressure. Playing, exploring, crawling and learning together in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.

Tumble Tots

Tumble Tots
This class is for children who can walk confidently.

Walking to two years old
This class is for children who can walk confidently. With parental participation, the confident walker is now encouraged to climb, jump, roll… and other elementary physical activities that help stimulate body awareness.

Two to Three years of age
Sessions are now based around 'activity stations' which form the basis for various task sequences. These are designed to enable children to develop their sense of balance, co-ordination and agility. Still with parent participation, children in this age group now start learning to listen to instructions.

Three years to school age
Sessions now focus on even more challenging task sequences with the use of higher pieces of equipment. As the more confident child now participates on his/her own, tasks are designed to further develop a child's co-ordination, ball skills, body awareness and control.

School age to seven years

These are Tumble Tots graduates and children who have started school. The programme introduces far more demanding skills to the maturing child. Children now learn to work with and without equipment and are introduced to teamwork and relays

For listings of Tumble Tots classes across Essex, see the Essex Mums forum by clicking here.

Change4Life is a lifestyle revolution which aims to help mums, dads and families eat well, move more and live longer. Through Change4Life the government is aiming to reduce the rising number of people who are overweight or obese by helping parents to understand obesity and support them in being able to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Change4Life is designed to be supportive and helpful and is encouraging families to make eight healthy lifestyle behaviour changes by offering practical ideas and advice.

Did you know that if we carry on as we are, 9 out of 10 of today’s kids risk growing up with dangerous levels of fat in their bodies? This can lead to serious illnesses in later life like heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.

What is Change4Life in Southend?

A number of local agencies in Southend are supporting Change4Life to help spread the word and support children, adults and families to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Change4Life isn’t about telling families what to do. It’s about providing parents with lots of tips and ideas so that they can choose the ways that will work best for their family.

Agencies involved in Change4Life in Southend include: NHS South East Essex, Southend Borough Council, Southend United Community and Education Trust, Sustrans and The South East School Sports Partnership.

There are 8 healthy behaviours that we want to help families adopt. They are:

1.   Swapping food and drink with added sugar for options that are lower in sugar or sugar-free. Referred to as ‘sugar swaps’
2.   Making sure kids eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and veg every day
3.   Making time for regular meals to help avoid unhealthy eating habits
4.   Setting a limit on the number of snacks and treats kids have each day
5.   Making sure kids eat the right sized portions for their age and size
6.   Taking simple steps to eat less fat by comparing food labels, swapping certain foods for others and changing the way food is cooked and prepared
7.   Making sure kids do at least 60 minutes of physical activity - like playing outside, walking or swimming - every day
8.   Limiting ‘sitting down’ activities, like watching TV or playing computer games, and encouraging kids to do something more active

To find out more about the national Change4Life programme visit www.nhs.uk/change4life or call 0300 123 3434.*

* Calls to 03 numbers should cost no more than geographic 01 or 02 calls, and may be part of inclusive minutes subject to your provider and your call package. We’re open from 9am to 8pm, 7 days a week.

Walk4Life – the easiest way to get up and about!

We all want our children to grow up to be happy, healthy adults, but it can sometimes be hard to know how to help them along. Change4Life is here to help us all, but especially our children, eat well, move more and live longer. And a great way to keep active and stay healthy is by walking.

This is where Walk4Life can help. It gives you loads of simple, fun games that will help you get your children outdoors and walking in the fresh air. It doesn’t matter if it’s just an everyday journey or going out to see new places, walking is the easiest way for them to get up and about. And you can go along with them and join in the fun too!

Click here to visit the Walk4Life website

Swim4Life – let’s get back into the water!

Swim4Life gives you lots of simple, fun games that will help you get your kids into the local pool and moving around. Whether it’s doing handstands in the water or swimming to the bottom of the deep end, there are so many things you can do in the pool they’ll never get bored. You can get into the water and join in the fun too!

For ideas to help your family enjoy one of the nation’s favourite activities, including downloads and a video of some of the games you can play, search ‘Change4Life’ or call 0300 123 4567.*

Click here to visit the Swim4Life website

Get on your bike and Change4Life

Cycling is a great way of moving more, and getting out and about on your bike will help keep you active and stay healthy.

The Bike4Life information pack gives you loads of tips and information that make riding fun for everyone. You’ll find advice on buying a bike, hints on riding safely and fun ways to make trips even more enjoyable. There’s even information on learning to ride a bike or helping regain confidence.

Click here to visit the Bike4Life website

Play4Life

A great way to get children up and about is through play. It’s very important to give children the time and space to play using their own imaginations, and to help parents to help them do just that. Organised games can be great fun, and a good way for adults to get involved too,

That’s why we’ve just launched Play4Life, but we need your support. By talking to families about all the benefits of playing and encouraging them to let their children play as often as possible, you will be helping them to make a Change4Life.

The Play4Life toolkit is full of useful tips and information on making play an everyday part of families lives. You’ll find advice on how to support children to play indoors and outdoors as well as ways to keep them safe while they’re burning off all that energy. It also highlights the benefits of playing, like building children’s confidence and helping them develop new skills.

For ideas to help the families you work with play more, visit www.nhs.uk/change4life and click on ‘partners and supporters’ to download the Play4Life toolkit.

Play4Life and Monkey Bizzness

Monkey Bizzness is partnering the government’s change4life campaign which will give customers a fantastic opportunity to see how indoor play works as part of a campaign called play4life.

Play4life is a sub brand of the Governments new Change 4 Life campaign aiming to reverse the UK’s alarming obesity statistics. If current rates continue, by 2050 90% of children will be overweight or obese at a cost to the taxpayer of £50bn. Obesity can cause life threatening diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Which is why it’s really important that we all get together to do something about it today.

Did you know that a typical visit to an indoor play centre like Monkey Bizzness provides double your child’s recommended daily activity levels? The true benefits of indoor play however, is that it is “Exercise in Disguise” so your children don’t even realise that they are exercising; it’s play at their own pace and in a safe and secure environment. Fit, family, fun for everyone.

Come and take advantage of the huge play structure and our mini Gym sessions which is a great way to ensure your children get their 60 active minutes each day. The unique thing about visiting a play centre is that it is so unstructured so a child can work at their own pace, taking calculated risk and building friendships. The educational value of our play equipment is vast and you can also take advantage of our great menu serving Healthy food and drink. Why not bring the whole family and enjoy a fantastic day out.

To coincide with the play4life campaign with have Pilates for adults every Friday @ 10am giving any parent or guardian the opportunity to exercise with their children present. Our Junior Gym equipment is available for use every Tuesday and Thursday from 11am – 5pm in our sports area.

Monkey Bizzness is a member of the Play Providers Association (PPA) the association committed to raising the standards of play centres. We have stringent safety and maintenance procedures in line with the PPA Code of Practice. We hope to see you involved in play4life as we try and get children in our area more active.

14 Eldon Way, Hockley, Essex, SS54AD
www.monkeybizznessadventureplay.co.uk
Telephone 01702 202066