Southern Indiana Living JanFeb 2014

Your health in focus 2014
‘Train up a child
in the way that
he should go’
Stretch-n-Grow aims to teach youngsters healthy
lifestyle principles and encourage good habits
Story // Abby Laub
Photos // Amber Sigman
When Natalie Allen of Stretch-n-Grow Southern Indiana
walks into a preschool that hosts her health
and ftness program, kids go crazy.
“You feel like a rock star when you walk in
the building,” said Allen, better known as “Coach Natalie”.
The Georgetown native owns and operates the area’s
franchise of the Texas-based Stretch-n-Grow and is passionate
about children’s health and raising a new generation of
physically ft adults.
“I just loved Stretch-n-Grow’s philosophy, because they try
to ingrain it in kids early,” she said. Allen quoted Proverbs
22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is
old, he will not depart from it.”
Stretch-n-Grow is a program that teaches young children
the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle — particularly diet
and exercise — through fun but structured programming at
their school or preschool.
Allen, who grew up as an athlete, bounced around in her
career and schooling before fnally fnding the perfect ft for
her skills and interests with Stretch-n-Grow. She studied Exercise
Science at the University of Louisville and received a
Personal Training Certifcation from the National Federation
of Personal Trainers in 2008.
“This is exactly what I want to do with my life,” she said,
adding that helping kids establish healthy patterns at an early
age is crucial to their long-term success. “I’ve just always
naturally been a trainer.”
The program sees about 200 kids per week at their current
school or daycare facilities, and Allen hopes to up that number,
adding, “once we get in they understand what it is and
they don’t want us to leave.”
“We go in and take a group of 2-year-olds, for instance,
and do a three-to-fve minute quick nutrition or safety lesson
or something to do with pet safety, or some sort of preschool
readiness that they are working on in their class already,” Allen
said.
She then leads the group through a warm up, then cardiovascular
training, resistance training, a game activity, cooldown,
ending with stretching.
“It is scaled down to what little kids like to do, but formulated
like an adult ftness class,” Allen said. “It develops
fundamental motor skills so they’re ready for sports and kindergarten.
We’re trying to teach them that sweating is a good
thing, their heart beating fast is a good thing and running
around every day is a good thing.”
Usually, Allen said with a laugh, she has to be silly and
crack jokes to get the children to learn how to do things. She
joked that teaching a proper pushup to a toddler is no small
feat. Stretching techniques are also tough.
“Using any method that is pretend stinky or has a weird
sound efect works pretty well,” she laughed. “They love
sound efects. They all end up giggling.”
Every week children are sent home with coloring sheets
with information on what they learned, like the “muscle of
the week” and contains activities to involve parents at home.
“I sometimes have parents post videos on my personal
Facebook page of their kids doing an activity they learned in
Stretch-n-Grow,” she said.
She also encourages her participants and their families to
make healthy food choices. Allen said she sees a lot of families
who have the means to eat well-rounded, healthy food
but are pressed for time.
“Usually families that make a high income work a lot of
hours and they usually have the money to put their kids in
sports and lots of activities, which is great, but it also means
they can’t be home to plan meals, and when they’re home
they want to throw something in the microwave and call it
a day.” she pointed out, adding that she likes to prepare a
bunch of meals on Sunday afternoon and have everything
ready to go for the busy week ahead. •
For more information about the program, visit www.
stretchngrowindiana.com or call 812-406-0737.
January/February 2014 • 42