Monday, November 29, 2010
Fitness
So far, my basic paleo, re-re-restarted early November, has been going swimmingly, minus a big weekend for thanksgiving. Right now, I don't have a gym membership, so Superslow isn't happening much. However, my 14yo needs to work on upper arm strength so he will have better range for basketball. So, today I started the 100 pushups program with him. Anyone else want to play?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
How about a super slow pushup routine, feet on a chair, feet on a table, feet against the wall in a handstand...
You don't need a gym.
I think I'm up for that. My boy was interested in doing some exercises since I've been talking about it. Maybe this would be appropriate.
He's only seven, though. Anyone have advice on strength training for the younguns? No one seems to talk about that much, though one would imagine that our paleolithic forebears would have been exercising more than we do now, and at a young age.
I'd also like to know more about other exercise schemes like this one, that don't require weights. The gym at my office sucks, and I don't want to drop cash on a home gym. Anyone know of such that fit with the superslow concept?
Dr. Pat,
I'd probably do something like that. But my boy has a long way to go to get some arm strength at all. I'd happily keep going after the 6-8 week 100 pushups.
Honestly, superslow pushups are excellent...back when I was better in shape, I could do 4-5.
My issue thus far is that superslow without a gym was looking tricky for 2 reasons:
1. I can't do a superslow pullup any longer. Historically, I've been lighter, and able to do 2.
2. Squats without weights are tough.
Yesterday, I learned that we can manage a pullup in a superslow fashion here. So I'm down to 1 problem. But it's a doozy. I need squats with an adult sitting on my shoulders to do it right.
Perfidy,
For kids, I tend strongly to the play harder camp. Soccer, BBall, Baseball, Tag, Swimming. I am not too excited about real weight training until puberty...but that's probably way over-cautious on my part. I know that junior high was the first time we hit pushups, pullups, bardips, etc.
The boy plays soccer. Once things settle down post move, he'll start up the kung fu again. Thing is, we just moved into town, and he doesn't know any of the neighbor kids yet. So, he spends a lot of time in the house and yard. He plays, he's active, not even remotely overweight - he's rather skinny, actually. But he doesn't get much opportunity at this point to actually get strong, because his play is not strenuous.
I see where you're coming from on the waiting for weight training. Why I am considering it is for two reasons. One, because he doesn't get much strength building play as things are. Two, he's interested, wants to do what Dad's doing, and I figured that push ups are unlikely to do any damage. It'd be a fun thing to do together, and we can track progress, etc., and it's a whole learning thing without being an obvious learning thing.
And if I do come up with a non-weight superslow program and do it at home, he'll be wanting to do that as well - so I interested in what's out there as far as advice for kids.
I can't really see that it could do harm - seeing as I'm not aiming to turn into a body builder or anything.
I remember reading, somewhere, that strength gotten early affects bone development - denser, stronger bones. I suppose I need to break down and do the real research.
"I am not too excited about real weight training until puberty"
True, based on my experience. As a kid, we played tag, more or less daily. In winter, this meant running in snow boots through snow. This was basically all my athletic activities.
Before puberty, I was weak and weedy. All of a sudden around puberty, I was surprised to find myself one of the best sprinters in my school and developed absurd lower body strength. (Relative to the amount of effort I put in.) So, low testosterone == no muscle development.
Those muscles also seem to be resistant to laziness-induced decay. (By university I could still leg press over triple my body weight. Tag stopped by grade 8.) Based on the fact that being skinny during adolescence makes it harder to get fat later, I suspect the timing is important.
I've read a little bit about strength training for children. The conclusions were:
1. There is a general feeling against it, but nobody has any evidence that it is actually bad in any way.
2. The one real objection is that children can be pretty silly. Give a 7 year old a bench press and there's a good chance they might drop it on their face one day.
3. All the above was about using weights. Nobody had anything against bodyweight stuff like pushups, pullups, climbing a rope, running in thick snow in heavy boots and all that sort of thing. This avoids point 2.
4. They aren't going to pack on much muscle until puberty.
Continuing point 4, the only kids who do seem to get big at all are swimmers. But adult swimmers aren't particularly big compared to other adults. Implying that children respond to high volume work much more than heavy stuff.
About swimming.
I was very much into swimming when I was young. I could swim a kilometer when I was 6 years old.
Swimming is a TERRIBLE sport for children to get into.
1.I've heard athletics coaches argue that swimmers are totally uncoordinated when on land. I know I certainly was/am.
2. Swimming is very low impact/intensity. You can do a lot of swimming without destroying yourself. Sounds good right? Wrong!
You see, if you are a child who is into swimming, you'll want to compete, get into the school team, city team, state team...
But swimming is a sport that it is possible to put in 5 hours practice a day. (You can't do that with say sprinting, you'll die in a week.)
And if it is possible, then you can be pretty sure that some people will do it. And to compete with them, you will have to do it too...
Things are a bit better if the child is a girl, she can probably reach a higher level of competition before going up against machines that live in the pool.
The boy is stronger than I thought. Or skinnier. He did seven honest pushups, and another three sketchy ones.
Thanks to the superslow, I managed almost thirty yesterday, which is more than I've ever done before. (yay, me.) But damn if I don't hurt today. The pushups didn't hit exactly the same places my weights do.
He's pretty excited about the push up thing. He kept wanting to do more, I had to convince him that he needed to wait before doing more.
I think we'll roll with this for a while. I don't expect my son to gain serious muscle mass at all, but he should at least get a bit stronger.
Perfidy,
I couldn't manage 30. But the boy is excited too...and getting stronger faster than I am. On the other hand, this is day 4 (rest day 2), and I hurt.
Dr. Pat,
I also swam like a fish from young ages. OTOH, I went into Springboard Diving, not swimming, and didn't do the 47 hour a week work for a middling-serious swimmer .
At the same time, Matt Crawford has a post up talking about how this model is taking over everything. All practice, all the time.
Also, thanks for the Weights info for kids.
Matt Crawford's observation is really sad.
Don't most people just want to be happy? Why does everyone have to be an expert? What's wrong with having a mediocre job that doesn't take over your life and spending your evenings at the pub with friends?
Why is it so difficult to just let kids be childish?
Post a Comment