Looking for a way to get your kids to be more active? We all know that children need to exercise to stay healthy. The good news is that kids can get all the exercise they need through play. The key is to make exercise fun, and what better way than to climb around and play in a jungle gym? But is playing in a jungle gym enough to be a good form of exercise?

Jungle gyms are a strategic way of getting your kids to exercise while simultaneously letting them have the time of their lives. In this article, we’ll show you exactly what is being worked while your kids are “playing” on their jungle gym.

Why should you buy your kids a jungle gym?

Jungle gyms are the perfect solution for parents who want their kids to be healthy and have a way to get out all their energy and be entertained. They provide a diverse range of fun challenges to conquer.

Be it the climbing frames, the monkey bars, or the swing sets, each element of the jungle gym is developed to strengthen gross motor skills and boost confidence, all in the name of fun. Some jungle gyms can also be built for indoor play, so come rain or shine, your kids have a fun way to get their energy out.

Buying your kids a jungle gym not only gets them outside in the fresh air, but as a bonus, when you’re teaching them to do these exercises, you’re also getting some good-quality bonding time with them.

What exercises do kids do while playing on a jungle gym?

The brilliant part about getting kids to play on their jungle gym is that most of the time, they don’t even realise they’re actually exercising. It’s like jungle gyms have some kind of magnetic pull that instantly draws kids to them and makes them ready to burn energy.

So, when your kids are playing their hearts out, here are some ways they’re actually exercising on a jungle gym:

Running
You’ve seen the look of determination kids get on their faces after they’ve slid down the slide and are ready to go again. They don’t walk; they run to get back to the top of the slide for the next round. Just look around a playground for a few seconds, and you’ll see kids speeding from one point to the next of jungle gyms.

While running, your kids are:

• Elevating their heart rate, which burns calories
• Boosting blood and oxygen flow to the brain and other body parts
• Promoting new cell growth and key brain chemical production
• Strengthening muscles

Climbing
Having different objects like a climbing rope, ladder, or wall attached to your jungle gym is a great way to get your kids to fine-tune their gross and fine motor skills, but there’s so much more going on with this simple exercise. While climbing, your kids will:

• Refine their speed, agility, and balance
• Sharpen their visual spacial skills as they determine where to place their hands and feet while climbing
• Increase their lean muscle mass by supporting their body weight
• Improve their strength by supporting their body weight
• Develop their fine motor movements by using hand-eye coordination
• Elevating their heart rate to burn calories
• Improve their gross motor movements by engaging their whole body

Swinging
Whether it’s swinging back and forth on the monkey bars to propel themselves forward or sitting on a push swing and using their legs to gain height, your kids are working their little bodies. While your kids are swinging, your kids will:

• Improve their body awareness to help them understand how their bodies work
• Engaging their vestibular system (in the inner ear)
• Improves coordination and motor skills by engaging multiple muscles all at once
• Strengthen their muscles because of the pumping action of swinging
• Elevate their heart rate, which helps burn calories

Are jungle gyms safe for kids?

Generally, jungle gyms are safe for kids to play and exercise on. However, they do require a fair amount of preemptive playground safety. While jungle gyms are great for exercise, and most are built with your child’s safety in mind, it’s still a raised structure that leaves room for kids to fall there and end up in the hospital with sprains, broken bones, and other injuries when they’re not careful. So, practising safety precautions while at play is vital.

Here are some safety rules to teach your kids when playing on a jungle gym:

• Don’t push or roughhouse on a jungle gym
• Always check to see if there are other kids in the way before you jump off equipment
• Stay away from broken equipment

Here are some things parents should always be aware of when their kids are playing on the jungle gym:

• Ensure there is some shock-absorbing material underneath the swing set or playground structure in case of falls
• Always keep an eye on your child as much as possible, especially in public places
• Dress your kids appropriately for the playground and avoid clothing with buttons, zippers, and loose strings, which could get tangled or caught on equipment
• Ensure there are guardrails on the tall playground equipment to prevent kids from falling

Final Thoughts

Overall, when you want your kids to get a good amount of exercise and have fun at the same time, you can’t do much better than a jungle gym. Buying your kids a jungle gym means they’ll have access to kid-friendly exercise equipment in the privacy of their own home, so they can exercise…we mean play as much as they like.