Exercise is good for the body. However, it can also be harmful, especially if it is too much. For most children, playing and jumping around provides sufficient exercise to keep them healthy. However, some children participate in organized sports. Such children face a risk of over-exercising. That is because the competitive nature of the sports makes adults to push the children so that they can be winners.

A common assumption is that children are endlessly energetic. Thus, they are able to jump from one activity to the other. However, the combination of normal play and organized sports may be a bad recipe for over-exercising in children. Without proper monitoring, children engaged in organized sports can easily suffer exhaustion and exercise-related injuries. If not handled well, children can easily suffer burnout as adults assume they have all the energy to push them through the different activities.

Different children have different development rates. Thus, while children may be in the same age group, others may be lagging behind in terms of development. Unfortunately, parents and trainers want to put their children on the same training schedules as their age mates. The effect is that children will not fit in those schedules, as their bodies are not yet ready. They may end up straining, which is a result of over-exercising.

It is important to be keen on a child’s abilities to determine the exercises he/she can handle. That will help avoid giving him/her more than she can handle.