What exercise to strengthen legs?

[tarana]

My twins (8) have very weak leg muscles. One cannot even hop or jump rope. She was born with low muscle tone and has low upper body strength.

They are not able to keep up with other kids. We tried gym for 2 years but not progress. Their PT gave some exercises which they find it too boring. I used to put them on the treadmill but I am afraid to raise the speed too much. Its been so hot here letely we can hardly step outside. BTW both enjoy dancing.

 

Can someone suggest activities (indoors) that are fun and will tone their legs?

Any videos or Wii games?

[vettechmomof2]

trampoline, swimming, squats, stair climbing.

[bluemongoose]

I am doing tap dancing:). Just had my class tonight!

 

My legs were just awful after my last kiddo. I had 6 weeks of complete bed-rest with him, so they were like jello!

[gemrae]

Rebounding (mini trampoline). They'd love it!

[plansrme]

I don't mean "play around in the pool," I mean "swim laps." If there is an organized swim team that could take them on, swimming is a great way to build core strength. They also can use paddles and fins to provide additional resistance and strengthen their arms and legs.

 

When I was picking up my 10 yo swimmer yesterday, there was an older woman swimming laps in one of the free-swim lanes, and we (the swim moms) were all wondering why she was swimming with just one fin. We decided, in our infinite wisdom, that it was to correct some kind of weakness in the finned leg (swimming with fins is a harder workout, I believe).

 

As others have suggested, dance will eventually strengthen their legs and core, but I would think that swimming 2 or 3 times a week would do wonders, faster.

 

Terri

[Paige]

One of my twins has mild cp- she doesn't have low tone but was extremely weak in one leg. She couldn't even wiggle her toes or flex her foot at all a couple of years ago. Some things we did that her PT suggested and she liked are: mini-trampoline, smashing playdoh with her foot, using a scooter, swimming lessons, taekwondo, and frog jumps (look it up). You could also have him color standing up with one leg on a stool- having the balance off like that will strengthen the leg that isn't on the stool. I have seen huge gains with her with the taekwondo. Also, if he can't jump yet, you could practice almost jumping. Mine still can't jump on her bad leg by herself, but we would hold her hand and practice just going up and down without actually lifting off and jumping. She can now jump with both feet and with her good foot, and with her bad leg, she can hold my hand and make 1 or 2 small jumps before getting too tired. There's also the little hippity hop balls- we use them inside but they sit on them and there's a handle and you bounce on it. She liked that a lot too. Another thing that helped although she didn't like it at all was taking the stairs when we could and when she wasn't too tired. She had to work a lot on going up and stairs the right way and just doing that also strengthened her legs.

 

ETA- the smashing playdoh thing was done with playdoh toys. So, instead of using your hands to smash the play doh waffle iron, use your foot.