Introducing BMK

Body Mechanics for Kids came about because of the on-going comments of my clients over the years as to why they didn’t learn this information earlier in their lives. The question is always “why wasn’t I taught this stuff in school?” So after 30 years of study and 15 years of teaching I feel it’s time to address the hole in childhood physical and anatomical education.

Doctors and therapists of every kind are inundated with structurally malfunctioning bodies daily. Whether we are active or couch potatoes our bodies are breaking down much faster than they need to partly because we are taught about movement, but we are not taught how to properly support or stabilize the movement we create.

These courses are an attempt to begin a conversation with teachers, coaches and parents who would be interested in championing the idea of teaching our youth about the long-term benefits of proper body mechanics along with sports and other activities in physical education.

Anatomy For Life is the introduction (part I) of this series, outlining basic knowledge of the body that will help students understand the simple but challenging exercises to come, as well it will help them in making good choices about their daily activities. It draws to your, and your students’ attention the fundamental principles of how our bodies work in relation to gravity, stress and movement in general. As you will see, much of the material is really commonsense. And as such I believe middle school is the right place to start building students’ interest and awareness of this subject.

Already, by middle school, young people are beginning to feel the strain on their bodies of daily living, be it through carrying schools bags full of text books and sitting all day, or their activities at their playing fields, gyms and dance studios. As they begin to take on more serious levels of training in their extra curricular activities we are already seeing stress and injury to the bodies of our young students. What will happen to them in 10 or 20 years? How will they feel by the time they are 50?

Our hope is that this material will help support youth educators to explore physical strength from the inside. Let’s give our youth adequate tools to survive the physical wear and tear of daily living, sports and stress in general. If we ignore the aches and pains of today, they only get worse with age. Just ask the parents.