Kim Kasem, Pride Strength Training for Kids
Children are blasted with social influences on a level adults can’t even imagine. In a world of photo edits and filters, young people are exposed to unrealistic images and expectations about their self and their bodies. Many young adults and adolescents suffer from self-hatred and destruction through eating disorders and fear of food.
At Pride Strength Training in Tampa, Owner Kim Kasem has a way to touch these kids’ lives by offering them someone to talk to and a program to help them learn to live healthy and happy naturally. Removed are any references to “body fat”. Instead, Kim teaches them how to be healthy through food education and activity. Kim focuses on children around age ten and offers them education on mobility and strength. Kim’s programs focus on using their own body to build their body with examples and instruction.
“I talk to them a lot about food; how food is fuel, and how food is something that we need,” Kim says, “Especially in this day and age with all the social media causing many young females to compare themselves to Victoria Secret models, I spend a lot of time talking to them about these things.”
Kim wants Pride Strength Training to be where young people can learn a healthy mindset. Especially since health classes and PE classes are now absent in schools.
A healthy lifestyle starts in childhood. It’s been proven that children are like sponges and absorb the actions of those in their surroundings, meaning their parents and extended family. If a typical day for the adults in the family is work, then couch, it is more likely the child will grow up following this example.
There is no denying that social media engagement lacks calorie-burning attributes. So here may be the trade-off: ask your kids or grandkids to give you five minutes of activity for every five minutes they spend online. A thirty-minute walk could equal thirty minutes of game or social media time. This trade-off can work with chores as well. Need someone to clean up their room? How about monetizing making the bed and picking up dirty clothes? These duties can earn screen time too.
Our little floating rock. The only one we’ve got. Taking on a global environmental mission may be a bit much, but what about a neighborhood clean-up committee?