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Dear Carol,
My 12 year-old son, Allen, has played sports year round for almost seven years.
This fall, Allen will not be playing a sport (usually soccer). He wants to run on our treadmill to get in shape for basketball which starts in November.
Can you recommend a treadmill training program for a 12 year-old boy? He is not overweight and has played baseball all summer. However, if he doesn't do ANYTHING this fall, he will be in no shape for basketball come November.
Thanks for your help,
Lisa
Dear
Lisa,
Here's a low keyed, simple treadmill training program that assumes a few things:
1. Your son is fairly active, has gym class a couple times a week, plays at recess and is already getting in about 20-30 minutes of physical exercise a day.
2. That the treadmill program will be used to supplement this 20-30 minutes of physical activity.
3. That this program is to maintain aerobic capactiy and strength, but is not meant as an intensive training program and will be adapted to meet your son's needs.
I have recommended a simple plan for your son to keep him in shape. It's based on 'time' running, not distance since I don't know your son's pace. It has running days and cross training days. The cross training days should be spent with other aerorbic/endurance activities: walking, cycling, swimming, or any pick-up game that incorporates some running. If your son does track his mileage with this program, he should consider filling out our Log-a-Mile chart to work for a ribbon.
Each running session should also include a little easy jogging to warm his muscles, then a little stretching, before he gets on the treadmill. It's a good idea to do a complete stretching routine after the running, remembering however to do slow-controlled stretches, never to the point of pain; just easy stretches.
On the 'run' days, he should start out easy and increase his pace until he feels that he is getting a good workout, then decrease his pace towards the end of the workout.
The running plan has him running from 5- 15 minutes at a time. The running times can be gradually be increased up to 20 minutes in a session, but I wouldn't advise anything over that except as an occasional event (say if he wanted to enter a 5k or other distance event).
Number of minutes/activity
R= run, XT= Cross Train I= intervals, S= strength
| Week # | Mon. | Tues. | Wed. | Thurs. | Fri. | Sat. | Sun. |
| 1 | R 5-10 | XT | R 5-10, S | XT | R 5-10 | XT | R 5 |
| 2 | R 5-10 | XT | R 5-10, S | XT | R 5-10 | XT | R 5 |
| 3 | R 5-10 | XT |
R 5-10, S | XT | I 15 | XT | R 5 |
| 4 | R 7-12 | XT | R 7-12, S | XT | I 15 | XT | R 7 |
| 5 | R 7-12 | XT | R 7-12, S | XT | I 15 | XT | R 7 |
| 6 | R 7-12 | XT | R 7-12, S | XT | I 15 | XT | R 7 |
The strength training should consist of pushups, crunches, and squats, etc., just with his own body weight, not with hand held weights.
For the interval workouts, he can use a program that is built into the treadmill or he can do something like the following, but of course adjusted to his own pace.
ex: set at 2 mph walk for a minute , 3 mph fast walk 1 min. , 3.5 jog for 2 min., 5 mph run for 2, 4mph run for 2, 5mph fun for 2, then 3.5 jog for 2, 3mph fast walk 1 min, 2 mph walk 2 min to warm down.
Of course he would adjust the nos. to meet his running pace. The interval above would be fairly easy, maybe just a starting point to get the idea.
Run for a lifetime,
Carol
 Note from the kid's editor: Staying active and eating nutritious foods are two important ingredients to becoming a healthy and fit kid.
Do you have any questions about a child's running program? Feel free to email the kid's editor at carol.kids@rodale.com.
 
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