According to Mayo Clinic, children 6 and older need at least one hour per day of physical activity. Most of that hour should be moderate or rigorous aerobic activity.
Plus, kids should participate in muscle strengthening and bone strengthening activities at least three days a week.
Child-specific gyms like Obstacle Warrior Kids in Garland are offering space for young people to explore and enjoy movement through free play. “This is my kids’ way of getting all that energy out, but inside where it’s air-conditioned, and it’s a great workout,” said Bina Beechum, a mom of 4.
Obstacle Warrior Kids is 18,000 square feet of everything from monkey bars to trapeze to a 10-foot wall. More than an organized total body workout, Obstacle Warrior Kids is about a boost for the brain.
“They think they're just playing. They have no idea they're building life skills, they're building confidence and self-esteem,” said owner Lauren DeSisso.
DeSisso, a self-proclaimed lifetime athlete and fitness fanatic, is also a mom of two boys. “It's not just another kids entertainment place,” DeSisso said.
The idea behind opening Obstacle Warrior Kids was inspired by one of DeSisso’s sons. “He was born 16 weeks early,” DeSisso said. “They told us he'd never walk, he'd never talk.”
Her son’s neurological challenges and physical struggles of how to swing a baseball bat or shoot a basketball meant this mom had to get creative.
“There's no specific technique to anything,” DeSisso explained. “You've got to feel your body, and you do it your own way. Everybody's got their own technique and there's not a lot of right and wrong to it. It's just practice over and over and eventually, your body will do it.”
At Obstacle Warrior Kids, it’s not that everyone is a “winner” – it’s about celebrating effort.
“Most of the time here, they're going to fail more than they're going to succeed at these obstacles. I think that's a lot like life,” DeSisso said. “We're going to fail way more than we're going to succeed, and as a society, we don't praise that. We don't praise our kids' failures. And here we do. When they finally achieve [an obstacle], they have this confidence come over them. You literally see it over their whole body and come out of their eyes. I think that they can take that confidence out into their lives by overcoming these tangible obstacles.”
A lesson about not giving up on an unlikely playground.
To learn more about Obstacle Warrior Kids and their various locations: https://obstaclekids.com/