Fitness blogger criticised for workout videos targeting children as young as one

The show uses animated characters to teach exercise

Animated Ashy and her friends exercise together (Ashy and Friends)

A fitness blogger and personal trainer is being criticised for promoting “damaging” body image messages after releasing workout videos that teach children as young as one how to squat, salsa dance, and eat healthily.

Ashy Bines, 29, uses her platform as a social media influencer to show off her toned body and run her Australian fitness empire.

But now the mum has come under fire for her new business venture, Ashy and Friends - a workout cartoon targeted towards getting young children to exercise.

According to the Ashy and Friends website, the new “Edu-tainment” DVD series is a “fun packed music, fitness and education show for one to six years olds. It is a highly interactive experience and will have your child singing, dancing, exercising and smiling from ear to ear.”

And it is “perfect for boys and girls ages one to six.”

Featuring cartoon characters, which will help animated Ashy and her magic shoes fly around the world, each episode will also teach children about “geography, language, music, nutrition and fitness,” according to the website, because “more than ever it is CRITICAL to inspire a love of health and fitness in our children.”

However, Christine Morgan, CEO of The Butterfly Foundation, an organisation dedicated to people with eating disorders and negative body image, does not think the videos are a good idea.

Speaking to Mamamia about Ashy and Friends, Morgan said: “I think it's a marketing ploy to adults and to parents who have been inundated with the messaging of: do not let your child get fat. In this time, when obesity is threatening, don't let your child get fat. And since when did that translate into a toddler having to be so concerned about putting on weight? That to me is just taking it too far.”

Ashy and Friends teaches children how to work out (Ashy and Friends)

Morgan continued: "Even if they don't understand it at the time, that subliminal messaging is going to go in, and all of the concerns about shape and size, at the earliest, earliest age, and the damage that can be done by that is just astounding."

And as Bines has built her empire focused on the “ideal” body, which she promotes to her 910,000 Instagram followers, Morgan wonders whether Bines confuses health with size - a belief that could be potentially harmful, as size and weight are not the only factors that determine health.

However, personal trainer Benji Tiger sees no issue with getting children to exercise.

Benji, a trainer at Orangetheory Fitness in Boca Raton, Florida, told The Independent: "Resistance training is great for children and people of all ages. Along with that, weight-bearing exercise will help to build strong bones and improve overall cardiovascular strength.

"Children in today's world are definitely under active with all the technology we have so readily accessible so cardio workouts such as jumping, running, skipping etc. are fun and safe ways for children to get the effective type of workout they need," she continued.

"So, while they are still growing I think it's a great idea for children to be working out, so long as it is the appropriate types of workouts," Benji told The Independent.

The Ashy and Friends website does share statistics regarding childhood obesity, “the most significant health problem currently facing our nation,” as well as nutritional statistics that show children in Australia are not eating enough fruits and vegetables, nor getting enough exercise.

The Independent has reached out to a representative for Ashy Bines for comment.