I spoke to my new friend Jiang today and she informed me of something truly troubling. She felt horrible because she snatch deadlifted 100kg (220 lbs) today as her maximum instead of her programmed 140kg (308 lbs). Then I spoke to my cousin Drew today about four hours later and he was upset that he couldn’t beat his friend’s team on League of Legends despite having a significant advantage in terms of stats. Let’s get real—both of these children are 14 years old. Is there something I’m missing or is fitness really taking a backseat in younger generations?

Statistics on children’s fitness show that children in the United States spend more than seven hours in front of a screen and only one in three are physically active each day. However, according to the Statista research department in the UK, the business of wellness and fitness is projected to hit $27 billion by 2020.

The Journal of Exercise and Fitness shows Korea’s report card has improved significantly within the past two years regarding physical activity in youth alone. I believe that fitness isn’t declining, it’s increasing. However, it seems to be increasing for some of the wrong reasons.

Social Media Looks Good But Feels Bad

Instagram was instituted in 2010—Facebook in 2004—and peer pressure on aesthetics seemed to increase around this period. Like a double-edged sword, everyone wanted to become a personal trainer and young children started an abnormal fascination with celebrity physiques. Along with peer pressure came cyber-bullying. This led to irrational parental requests for obese children to suddenly become a physique phenom overnight.

This social media influence produced children who are physically able to be much more productive but psychologically have declined. As a result, these children begin to show abnormal relationships with food and exercise. In Cyberbullying, Social Media & Fitness Selfies: An Evolutionary Perspective by Brock DiFonzo, he explains that narcissism, victimization, self-esteem issues, and selfies are on the rise. Based on the values given, this affects females more than males.

The Decline of Socialization

As previously stated, physically active children are becoming almost nonexistent as video games and screentime increases. Social skills are on a rapid decline and result in difficulty for children when it comes to making decisions, exerting self-control, and dealing with more intrinsic feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and depression.

After the age of two, most children are primed to begin to play with peers and develop necessary interpersonal skills. During my upbringing track and field, martial arts, and dancing with church members during events was something very important to my social life. As an only child, and having a streak for being bullied, one might conclude that I had a very boring social life and or poor interpersonal skills.

However, martial arts and a healthy track record (pun intended) were an integral part of my life. I met friends throughout my school years as a result of my participation in sports, and through competition, I learned to improve myself in various ways.

A lack of physical education classes concerns parents, according to the Harvard Press Most public schools do not have a physical education program despite a minimum standard of 225 minutes of activity per week.

On the contrary, at Hunan Vocational College during my stay in Changsha, I noted that Jiang has two training sessions per day lasting two hours each, smoking American collegiate standards and outlasting a week’s worth of physical activity for children her age. Jiang expresses that it’s tough and bitter work, but she knows that it’ll pay off in the end.

In addition to training, she often goes out on Sundays with her friends and is able to interact on a much different level. She says “It’s refreshing to learn something new and enjoy childhood even though my English skills could be better.” She couldn’t imagine what life would be like without training or physical activity at least once a day.

Strong Children Create a Brighter Future

A temporary fix is adding more physical education in schools. However, a more long-term fix is engaging children in a more meaningful way. As a parent, taking your children to the YMCA or going to the gym or park with them proves much more valuable.

Children will then associate normal social life with physical activity. Program costs may be expensive, therefore implementing play dates with a large pool of children is another a solid option.

Volunteer groups such as Seeds in the Middle have year-round programs that teach children soccer and basketball. The United States Karate Center offers a free intro class. There are free summer youth camps across the US and I’m sure there are options that exist in other countries, as well. Fostering physical activity from a young age instills discipline, fun, and produces a more social child.

Training Plans for Children’s Athletics

There is a misnomer regarding training children and stunting growth. In the Journal of Physician and Sportsmedicine, there is gaining popularity of implementing strength training in prepubescent children without concern for damage to the epiphyseal tissue (growth plates) and soft tissue.

By no means does training young children turn them into genetic freaks, instead it sets up a foundation for strength in the long term. In the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation, both females and males can benefit equally with minimal to no injury.

There is an obvious need for supervision however, entrusting coaches and starting with basic skills alongside your child to allow them to toughen up when it comes to weight-bearing activities of daily living.

Engaging your children in competitions is a great start but doesn’t necessarily need to be the case, as this can backfire if done improperly. Promote wellness and health, allow your child to struggle with a push-up or two, teach them how to squat, and in the future, they will be stronger adults.

While on a recent training trip to China, I worked with Coach Jianping Ma and Dr. Buitrago at Ma Strength who allowed me to take the video above of one of their young trainees. In China, by comparison to what we do here in the States, they have vocational sports schools, schools dedicated to sports such as weightlifting, where children as young as nine years old are enrolled.

These elite establishments are for hand-picked trainees, but from the age of 12, kids are encouraged to join gyms and athletic centers to train after school. While you can get gym memberships and private training for your kids here, too, in China it is meant to be more affordable and accessible so, there is a general consensus that you have to start at an early age even though there isn’t anywhere near the same hierarchy and diversity of youth leagues and sports as here.

Somewhere in between the Chinese and American models, there is a happy medium that will encourage our kids to build a foundation in fitness. At least we can hope.

The post Create Athletic Children in This Fertile Age for Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Despite this, we have managed to create the most mentally and physically unhealthy generation in human history. One in five has a mental disorder. There’s been a 37% increase in teen depression and a 200% increase in suicides for 10-14 year olds. Physical health is on a similar decline. One study found that American teens averaged the same activity level as 60-year-olds. Since 1970, we’ve seen obesity triple in youth ages 6-19.

The same parenting paradigm that places the comfort and happiness of the children at the center of the universe is a fundamental, underlying cause of all of these issues. The parenting pendulum has shifted drastically from an emphasis on teaching values, skills, and work ethic to create and capable citizens, to an obsession with providing to excess and protecting from any pain.

Technology and Affluence as Disablers

It’s not enough that we all enjoy the highest standard of living in human history. We still feel inclined to engaged in an arms race of affluence with our kids at the forefront. So we pay for elite summer ball leagues, pitching coaches, Apple watches, and a brand new car as soon as they can drive, complete with gas and insurance. I mean, you wouldn’t want your kid to feel like you don’t love him.

The pace of technological advances has only accelerated the issues our kids face. Mobile devices make their way into children’s hands at increasingly early ages, and natural human movement decreases accordingly. Our children never experience boredom, thereby suppressing creativity and the development of patience and delayed gratification.

All the while, rather than directing better youth development strategies, schools have made technology their sacred cow, and convinced themselves that any lesson is archaic and ineffective without it. This approach makes the critical error of assuming inherent value and correlating newness with progress. They would rather accept continuous partial attention as the new norm, instead of working to correct this unhealthy trend.

The brain is malleable. It’s constantly being rewired, and our society is engineering kids to forget the joy of movement. Instead, they become dependent on distraction and instant gratification like all the rest of us, but with more severe consequences due to their still-developing minds.

The Kids Aren’t the Problem

The current parenting model deprives kids of what they need for healthy growth. They are missing clearly defined limits and responsibilities, balanced nutrition and sleep, movement and time outdoors, unstructured creative play, and boredom (yes, it’s healthy for them). It is ultimately up to the parent to set boundaries that protect their child’s development.

We can’t expect kids to volunteer for any of these practices on their own. Parents and schools will need to structure limits to technology, take kids out in nature, and intentionally impose boundaries. Parents will have to make kids go outside and play, read, eat as a family, turn off technology after limits are hit, and get to bed on time. All this may sound like common sense, but these steps are not normal anymore.

Kids aren’t going to like these change at first, if at all. The good news is, they aren’t required to like it, they’re required to comply. Some parents tell me that their kid only likes sweets and fast food, is if they are incapable of eating foods that have formed the backbone of our diet for most of human history.

The problem is not Bobby. The problem is Bobby’s parents, who won’t wait him out. He won’t starve himself. Sure, everybody’s palate is different, and there are things he will just hate, but “all vegetables” is not an option. If parents don’t insist on growing their child’s tolerance for nutritious foods, the child is doomed to struggle with health. You’re instilling patterns that virtually ensure physical and mental pains.

Make Your Kid Mow the Lawn

Here is a common scenario I see in the schools where I work:

Stevie is 12. His parents feel bad for him because he is overweight and doesn’t play well with others. He eats whatever he likes, and generally does whatever he likes. There is no expectation for him to contribute to the operation of the household. Concerned for his health and wellbeing, his parents want to set him up to work out with a trainer.

Stop! Make him mow the lawn! Adolescents are physically and mentally capable of performing a huge variety of tasks that will induce a good bit of moving. They aren’t going to want to mow the lawn, do the dishes, or learn to do their own laundry. But here’s the thing: if your children have no chores and aren’t expected to contribute, they are being set up for failure. It is essential for them to learn that living a fulfilled life requires contribution.

Have a big lawn? No problem. Have a sibling split the work. Or a buddy. Or you. Already paying for lawncare, because you want the lawn to look good? No problem. Your kid is bright enough to learn to do it right, so get outside and teach them. When they mess up something small, use it as teaching opportunity where lessons are conveyed. Your pride can stomach a few months of less-than-immaculate lawn maintenance.

And no, riding mowers don’t count.

Your Kids Are Not Above Hard Work

Our kids need to be outside more, moving more, and I think physical labor is a great way to accomplish both. It requires a small degree of toughness, a quality we should want to develop in our youth. When we allow our kids to avoid physical exertion of any kind, we deprive them of exposure to the stimuli their bodies expect to adapt and grow.

More than that, life throws physical challenges everyone’s way, and if this has become a foreign concept, we’ll be overwhelmed and consumed by it. Any dream worth chasing comes with suffering, and we must make kids ready for that.

My superintendent talks about a summer he and his brother dug a ditch six feet deep for a building foundation. He expresses how he learned to work through discomfort, persist, and even find joy in struggle. Through college, I worked summers at a construction job in Florida. At the end of every day, I was soaked in sweat, covered in dirt, and beat. But it was an invaluable experience for my physical, mental, and social development.

Our parenting model would have us do everything possible to prevent our kids from having experiences like these. We have become convinced that manual labor is something beneath our children. But when we teach them that hard physical work is something to be avoided, we create the mentality that ensures they will fight obesity and chronic disease for the rest of their life.

The costs of our overprotection are not limited to soft hands and physical frailty. We create mental instability in our kids when their experiences tell them that the world should be made easy, fair, and interesting for them. The cost of never letting them fail is never letting them overcome obstacles that create growth, self-worth, and willingness to chase scary goals.

The costs of giving a 16-year-old a $30,000 car is an inflated sense of importance, and a warped worldview that expects extreme luxury at all times. They’ll be more inclined to spend exorbitantly and expect that people take care of them. When the normal challenges of the real world come along, they’ll be stuck with no experience of how to deal with them. Even if they figure it out, there will still be the perception that they deserve more, that this isn’t fair and that they are a victim of bad luck.

The Kids Won’t Raise Themselves

As much as we want to give our children everything that makes them happy, things don’t matter for your kid’s development. Other than your time and love, what they need are skills, lessons, and understanding. They need to understand the value of work, find joy in learning, and experience the lessons of hard physical labor. They need to appreciate that nobody is entitled to anything.

Kids aren’t dumb, either. If you tell them that you are treating them like an adult, they’ll come to appreciate that. But you cannot expect them to find the best developmental practices on their own. Most kids will always choose flickering screens and happy meals over mowing the grass and eating vegetables. They do not yet have the capacity for self-imposed restrictions that build willpower or the mental space to grow creativity. Children will not set their own sleep schedule to ensure they are growing and developing properly. They will not understand any of these things unless you teach them these lessons.

Let’s create what we wish to see. If we complain that “kids today are so entitled,” it is we, the adults, that will have to make changes to stop that.

The post The Most Physically and Mentally Unhealthy Generation in History appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It takes a village to raise our children. Unfortunately, our village is busy playing Candy Crush and obsessively scrolling through five social media feeds. Okay, maybe that’s not fair. Most of the village is at work, playing “whack-a-mole” against to-do lists and extra projects that never end. When it’s time to go home, we fly out the door, collect the kids, and rush them to their respective practices. No time to cook a meal. When was the last time you cooked? Doesn’t matter; it’s a drive-thru for tonight.

This is the rat race that characterizes many a parent’s existence. They can only hope the schools are filling in the gaps. Unfortunately, poor health and sedentary behavior are even more entrenched in these bad habit factories.

There is no more important duty than that of raising a healthy, inspired generation. But even the best education is futile without parental support. Parents must intentionally create a vision and path for their children. If parents don’t understand the many pitfalls our village has created, and don’t prioritize developing an independent child, it simply won’t happen.

The good news is that there are some basic, actionable tenants of inspired human development. By making a few key lifestyle changes, your child will be far more inclined to thrive physically and mentally.

Create Opportunities for Natural Movement

We were made to move, and health is easy to maintain if we continue to do it. So much of our physical pain, movement pattern loss, and stiffness is simply a consequence of spending long portions of our day in a chair, and casting our feet and ankles in heavily padded shoes.

In my experience working with 12 different high school sports, I’ve noticed that basketball players consistently have the tightest ankles and hips. I attribute this to their shoes, which allow no movement all the way through the high ankle. They cut off feedback to the feet, allowing very unnatural foot strike patterns, and the weakening of toes, arches, and ankles.

Make your home a shoe free zone! Encourage the kids to play and move barefoot whenever possible. When buying shoes, look for the flattest, widest sole possible, with the least padding. The more their feet can develop naturally, the better their whole bodies will feel.

Likewise, limit their sitting. Kids are in a chair most the school day. Please don’t bring them home to sit more. Make the back yard a play paradise. You don’t need to buy much, just send them outside with a ball and they’ll figure the rest out. When they do read, color, or play with crafts, have them do so on the floor. They’ll constantly readjust and continue to use their body as one unit.

Rules for Screen Time

If we want more active, physically healthy kids, we should create less opportunity for them to sit and do nothing. Having a TV in their bedroom subjects them to the constant beckoning of infinite distraction. Video games, movies, and TV shows will all will keep them up later than they should be, and keep them sitting still.

In the same vein, nothing is more prone to disrupt productivity than our social media and mobile phone habits. I’m not advocating total denial, but we must create habits that allow us to use these tools for our benefit, rather than be controlled by them.

Curing this addiction in our kids has to start with the example we set. Common Sense Media surveyed 1800 parents of kids ages 8 to 18, and found that parents, on average, spent a startling 9 hours and 22 minutes per day on their screens. And yet somehow, 78% of them still think that they are acting as good role models in the use of technology for their children.

“No phone zones” are a great tool to create control and open up the rediscovery of simple enjoyments. A recent New York Times article proposed four that I particularly liked:

• In the Bed: This is proven to improve sleep, and will likely promote more communication and connection amongst spouses. Your children need at least eight hours of sleep. If they have a phone in their bed, it’s likely they are in bed but not sleeping for some time.
• At the Table: Eating together is an essential time to connect as a family, teach life lessons, and take time to value what is going on in each person’s life. Don’t let the phone interrupt or distract from that. Awkward silence? Embrace the rare lull, chew slowly, and take a genuine interest in whatever topic pops up.
• Reading a Book: If you don’t read, maybe less mobile phone time will help you start. As Mark Twain said, “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man that cannot read.” Your reading will make it far more likely that your children read. So relax, and enjoy a distraction-free book.
• In the Outdoors: There are a host of health benefits to getting outside. We were meant to be connected with nature and the outside world. If you do take your phone along to take pictures, put it in airplane mode.

By committing to no-phone zones, you allow yourself freedom from distraction and enable focused time for connection, relaxation, and creative activities. Furthermore, respecting these zones is a discipline. One must deny a comfort in an effort to gain something far greater. Frew things are as valuable as this simple practice of delaying gratification.

Homework First

Another great method to instill discipline is requiring homework be done immediately after the kids get home. Willpower is a skill that must be trained, and the ability to set priorities will serve them well throughout life. Education must be treated as a value, which means it must come before other things.

Take the time to discuss what is going on at school. Always praise effort, not performance. Studies have shown that praising effort creates a desire to continue working hard and challenging oneself. This will help ensure your children like education.

Show an interest in subjects, so that they come to life. There is a significant trend towards parents and students wanting grades without actually acquiring skills or thought processes from the class. Make it clear that education is a wonderful opportunity that will enrich your life and make the world more vivid and interesting.

Eat Well, at Home and Together

As I’ve already mentioned, eating together without phones and TV has major upsides. Possibly the greatest benefit is the opportunity to nourish the body with better food options than you will be served at most restaurants. You also gain the chance to teach your children how to prepare and eat actual foods.

We are witnessing an epidemic of obesity, juvenile diabetes, and lifestyle-related illness in this country. According to Dr. Marc Bubbs, “the Western diet is chock-full of processed convenience foods that are high in added sugar, harmful trans fats, food additives, and artificial sweeteners, and are deficient in fiber and key micronutrients.” Cooking at home is one of the only ways around these dietary pitfalls. By cooking at home, you have a springboard to teach your children to prepare their own meals, as they get older. Perhaps nothing is more crucial to eating nutritiously.

I encourage you to challenge the beliefs that “kids” foods should be treats, that they need separate options at dinner, and that dessert should come at the end of each meal. If we want our kids to be healthy, we cannot continue to feed them mac and cheese with a soda and a couple cookies for dinner every night. A kids’ menu should simply be smaller portions of what the adults are eating, not a parade of fish sticks, chicken nuggets, or hot dogs, all washed down with soda and followed by ice cream. I understand kids can be picky, but we have a responsibility to help our kids learn healthy habits. Look after their dietary choices with the same (or more) scrutiny that you place on your own.

Chores and Savings

Please give your children chores. I’m not saying that your four-year-old needs to mow the lawn. But it is essential that, by early elementary years, kids begin to understand they are not entitled to anything, and all people must contribute. Chores can be simple, yet teach great lessons. Get a chore board, and require your son or daughter to accomplish their portion of the list by Saturday each week. This will help them learn to plan and budget time. When they put everything off until Saturday and can’t go out to play, they’ll have learned a great lesson.

Attach an allowance to these chores, and use it to teach financial responsibility. They can stop asking you to buy them things on every grocery trip, because they’ll have a little bit of their own money to manage. Explain to them that the amount they save is the amount of each “check” that they get to keep. Everything else is lost after it’s spent. These invaluable lessons are easily created by parents, and will open the door to a lifetime of good habits and possibility.

Let Them Set Their Own Alarm

If we want our children to be self-sufficient and healthy, they will need to be able to take control of their daily plans. This begins with being able to predict the time necessary to get up, eat, and be ready for school. It’s invaluable to let your son or daughter take responsibility for his or her own success or failure in the morning.

Most great people have morning rituals. We put our children on the fast track to creating their own life when we entrust them with the responsibility of preparing themselves for the day. I’m not saying to just stop waking up your 8-year-old and see what happens. Set expectations for punctuality. Walk them through a morning timeline, and help them plan what getting ready might entail. If they are a hard sleeper, suggest an alarm clock by the bed and one across the room that will force them to get up. The goal is to get them to a point where they no longer do need you.

Shape the Child for the Path

Let us be clear about what it means to change your child’s habitual path. We want to control what is easy to control, in an effort to create youth who are better able to thrive independently. A great teacher once told me, “we must shape the child for the path, not the path for the child.” This is the greatest goal. Establishing these habits early helps entrench them as the preset norm. As they get older and you give them more freedom, they’ll still make many mistakes. However, they will always have that experience in health, discipline, and good habits. That, coupled with their love of learning, will make a return to balance much more likely.

My own mother would tell you that the hardest part of parenting is to do what you think is right for your child, without making them feel deprived or too different. This was true when she raised me, and remains the great challenge of youth development in the 21st century. We must excite our children about the lessons we wish to instill in them and enthusiastically support them, because we are asking them to be different. It’s up to us to make them proud of their effort to be a positive difference among their peers. Only then will they embrace their own vision and independence, and go on to thrive throughout life.

Signing your kids up for little league is just the beginning:

Parents: You Are the First Coach

The post Parenting Strategies for Healthier Kids appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Two Coaching Styles

Most coaches fall into one of two categories – a transactional coach or a transformational coach. The original definitions of transactional and transformational came from a business management perspective, and the two terms were later applied to sports coaches.

Transactional coaching can best be summarized by an individual exchange (or transaction) between a coach and an athlete to improve the immediate performance of the athlete. These types of coaches are primarily concerned with the competency, skills, and techniques of the player, as they pertain to winning the game.

Transformational coaching strives to inspire and change (or transform) the whole athlete in order to improve not only the individual’s sports performance, but also to positively affect change in the athlete’s life. Taken further, by giving individual consideration to all aspects of an athlete’s performance – skills and techniques, motivation and behavior, work ethic and sportsmanship – the transformational coach has the ability to positively affect, and to positively produce, the optimal sports performance of the entire team.

What to Expect From a Transactional Coach

For the transactional coach, the bottom line is the win. All practices, drills, strategies, and techniques are focused on that end result. The means to achieve the win, however necessary, are secondary to winning.

A transactional coach manifests several basic characteristics:

• Relives glory days through youth practices and games, which highlight the coach’s achievements
• Participates in youth practices and drills as a means to show off, rather than playing to the skill level of the children
• Blatant or subtle disregard for organizational rules and/or the safety and health of athletes
• Shows disrespect to athletes, parents, other teams, other coaches, and officials
• Identifies the team’s wins or losses with his or her own self worth
• Punishes athletes when the team does not win or if the team makes mistakes
• Rewards good performance with playing time, keeping the win in mind. In other words, the best player plays, whether or not he or she is a good sport, attends practices, is a team player, has integrity, etc.
• Shows favoritism, while belittling other athletes
• Does not speak to parents, does not seek help from team parents, or refuses help from team parents

Do you find yourself thinking, “I can’t imagine a youth coach behaving like this”? Or are you thinking, “I know exactly what you are talking about”? In truth, the transactional coach usually leaves casualties behind, in the form of the youth athlete hating the sport, losing his or her confidence in the sport, or worse yet losing his or her self-esteem.

Let’s take, for example, the recent controversial decision of the Little League Baseball Organization to strip the U.S. championship title from Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West Little League team. The team received national recognition, but it also received notoriety.

After numerous complaints about the team’s championship title, the Little League organization held an investigation. The investigation discovered the Jackie Robinson West team had knowingly used a false boundary map from which to draw its players. Instead of drawing from their own district, they broke the rules and pulled athletes from neighboring Little League districts to create a super team.

“For the transactional coach, the bottom line is the win.”

As a result of the investigation findings, the coach, team manager, and district administrator were suspended. While the adults certainly had to pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions, they left a team of young athletes stripped of a title they worked hard for. Chances are the youth and parents had no idea they were involved in breaking Little League rules. The behavior on the part of the Jackie Robinson West coach, manager, and district administrator is absolutely indicative of transactional coaching. The end result is the win. The means to achieve the win is secondary.

What to Expect From a Transformational Coach

For the transformational coach, individual consideration is given to developing athletes, as a whole, while understanding that the team is only as strong as its weakest athlete.

A transformational coach manifests these basic characteristics:

• Builds athletes through teamwork, pride, responsibility, hard work, respect, and sportsmanship
• Teaches athletes sports and life lessons in wins and losses, as well as how to handle wins and losses with dignity and good sportsmanship
• Builds individual and team skills to make the team stronger
• Positive role model, with constructive corrections
• Holds athletes accountable for actions and gives athletes appropriate responsibilities
• Welcomes interactions with parents, as appropriate to situation
• Understands, appreciates, and accepts the coaching responsibility in regard to shaping a young athlete’s athletic career, as well as his or her life

While living in Japan, I had an opportunity to meet the most transformational coach I have ever come across. My son was fortunate to play baseball on a Japanese team under the mentorship and coaching of the Okinawan legend Kishabasan.

I was witness to Kishabasan driving around, finding young male teens cutting school and “hanging out.” He would hand them a mitt and tell them to meet him at the baseball field. Generally, the boys were intrigued enough to come. Some stayed to play ball and some didn’t. But that never stopped Kishabasan from trying to positively affect change in kids’ lives.

“The transformational coach has the ability to positively affect, and to positively produce, the optimal sports performance of the entire team.”

Under his coaching, the individual consideration he gave to each boy, his belief in each boy (often bigger than their belief in themselves), and his ability to have the kids reach their potential led to many championships in his over-thirty-year coaching career. More importantly, the lessons he taught the boys carried over to their personal and professional lives, some of which included professional baseball careers.

At Kishabasan’s funeral, over 500 young men from all over Asia attended. Many shared stories about how his coaching, mentorship, and interest in them as a person transformed their personal lives so they could become the men they are today. What an incredible legacy, and what a tribute to a transformational coach.

Putting It All Together

The difference between the transactional and transformational coaching styles is certainly drastic. But in reality, the distinction is not always so clear. Some coaches will utilize characteristics from both types of coaching as situations dictate.

Ultimately though, coaches tend to favor one type of coaching style over the other. We all want to win and so does our child. But before choosing your child’s coach and team, consider what you really want your child to learn.

More on youth sports:

• 5 Ways to Develop the Fighting Spirit in Youth Athletes
• 3 Steps to Nip Youth Performance Anxiety in the Bud
• Stop Playing Through the Pain: How to Safeguard Youth Athletes
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. ESPN.com news. Feb 12, 2105. Accessed March 9, 2015. http://espn.go.com/chicago/story/_/id/12308988/little-league-strips-chicago-team-us-championship-suspends-coach.

2. Fielden, Sandra Dr. “Literature Review: coaching effectiveness: a summary”. March 2005.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170624191144/http://literacy.kent.edu/coaching/information/Research/NHS_CDWPCoachingEffectiveness.pdf.

3. Giandonato, Joe, MS CSCS. “Leadership Style Discovery in Performance Coaching, Guest Blog”. Posted by Chris Merritt on April 29, 2011. http://www.beyondstrengthperformance.com/leadership-style-discovery-in-performance-coaching-guest-blog-by-joe-giandonato-ms-csc.

4. Hamilton, Molly. Online Journal of Workforce Education and Development Volume III, Issue 3 – Spring, 2010. The Interaction of Transactional and Transformational Leadership, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Accessed March 9, 2015. http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ojwed/vol3/iss¾.

5. Tearse, Hal. “Your Child’s Coach: Transactional or Transformational?”. Nov 5, 2015. https://www.momsteam.com/blog/htearse/your-childs-coach-transactional-transformational. Accessed 8 March 2015.

6. Wallace, Vernon. “Transformational Coaches vs. Transactional Coaches”. iQathletes, Inc. March 10, 2014.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transformational-coaches-vs-transactional-vernon-wallace. Accessed March 9, 2015.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The 2 Coaching Styles: Choose What’s Best For Your Kid appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This week’s editor’s picks take a look at culture, community, and kids – and the unexpected ways they can impact our fitness and health.

Editor’s Picks

Giving Back: 12 Ways to Pay It Forward in Fitness

Exercise is a great gift to yourself, but it doesn’t have to be all about you. It can be about giving back to teammates, the community, and the world. Coach Amy D. Hester explains twelve simple ways you can use your workout to better the world around you.

Why Your CrossFit Gym Needs an On-Ramp Program

Becoming part of a CrossFit gym isn’t just about learning the movements. It’s also about meeting the people and getting to know the culture. Feeling like you’re part of something. Coach Amber Larsen details how an on-ramp system solves all these problems.

Follow the Client: Applying Montessori Principles in the Gym

I’ve written before about how teaching children and teaching adults doesn’t end up being all that different. Coach and teacher David Varnes addresses this same topic, but this time examining how the Montessori philosophy can make you a better trainer/coach.

Fight for the Right to Recess: 3 Reasons Kids Need Break Time

You remember how awesome recess was when you were a kid, right? Did you know fewer kids are getting recess these days? And it’s not just about them losing out on play time, it’s about the social, cultural, and emotional impact that losing recess has, too. Coach, doula, and mom Nicole Crawford explains.

Why All Swim Coaches Should Coach a Kids Camp

You see a theme here? What we can learn about coaching adults by coaching kids? This time it’s swim coach Alan Kipping-Ruane who learned a thing or two while coaching a summer camp. And while this does talk about swimming specifically, it really could be about any sport or training method.

Coaching Kids Will Brighten Up Your Week (Athlete Journal 47)

Brazilian jiu jitsu coach and competitor Jess Papi reminded herself about the joy of competition, win or lose, by helping coach the kids from her academy recently. Sometimes when things get serious, it’s good to think about how a child would approach it.

Photo 1 courtesy of Amy D. Hester.

Photo 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Culture, Community, and Kids: 3 Often Missed Elements of Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Value of the Presidential Physical Fitness Test

As the son of a dancer, I was naturally flexible and nailed the sit-and-reach test, but I failed the grade on the rest. I couldn’t do a pull up to save my life. But the event that really struck the fear of God in me was the granddaddy test of them all – the mile run. Talk about the ultimate nightmare for a chubby kid.

With the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, not every kid got a trophy. In fact, there were no trophies given period. Just pass or fail. Despite failing most of the standards, I shrugged it off as I was taught early on that self-confidence meant battling adversity and working hard no matter what the circumstances. As a result, I didn’t end up in therapy and I wasn’t scarred for life from such “trauma.”

Furthermore, failing the tests and being a chubby kid propelled me to develop one of life’s most valuable attributes – motivation. As I grew up and leaned out, I also grew more motivated as a result of the challenges I faced in childhood. Ask any athlete or any fit person anywhere and he or she will tell you similarly that we learn from our failures and our insecurities can drive us to great heights if we use them properly.

The Everybody-Gets-a-Trophy Mantra

Those fitness tests are now a thing of the past having been replaced by the less daunting Presidential Youth Fitness Program. The thought process in replacing the old tests was to move away from measuring performance and move toward assessing health. I can’t fault the federal government for switching gears, as the epidemic of childhood obesity is as big of a threat to our nation’s future as any. When I was a kid in the 1970s, 5% of children were considered obese. By 2010 this rate more than tripled to approximately 17% of two- to nineteen-year-olds.

By now, we all know that there are myriad factors that contribute to obesity: a processed food supply, added sugar in foods and beverages, and the inactive nature of our modern lifestyle. It is my contention that behind these factors is a more dangerous culprit – our attitude. Namely our attitude that no matter what we’re good enough and everyone is a winner. Our culture has embraced this all-inclusive everyone-gets-a-trophy mantra for the better part of three decades and we are now seeing the unintended consequences – among them, obesity and a populace that is largely unfit and unhealthy.

Obesity Is a Competitive Disadvantage

While education, corporate responsibility, and political policy are important contributing factors, I believe the issue starts with parenting. Instead of parents telling children that trophies have to be earned, many tell kids that they can literally have that cake and eat it, too. You don’t have to look much further than the findings of a recent study on parents of obese kids. According to the study done by the University of California, San Diego, parents of obese kids often rate their kids as “very healthy” and downplay the importance of activity and exercise in the health of their kids.

It’s understandable to provide encouragement to a child who needs positive reinforcement. But an important distinction is in determining what constitutes encouragement. Encouragement is not telling kids that obesity is natural or healthy or helping them get that way. Rather, kids need to be taught that obesity is a serious health risk and will hinder their ability to compete.

To that end, whether we like it not and whether we seek it or not, life is competitive. In the real world, from outsourcing to athletics, someone is always trying to take your spot. Kids need to learn that obesity is a competitive disadvantage, from health to athleticism.

How We Can Help Kids

To combat these disadvantages of childhood obesity, kids need support. Our children need more active avenues available to them, certainly they need better quality food, and of course, they need education. More than anything, though, kids (and their parents) need a change in attitude. Kids need to learn that life is far from fair, life is full of failures, and those with the resolve to fight through failure are the real winners.

Part of failing is being measured. While kids are perhaps unlikely to learn these lessons in school these days, there are still plenty of environments where kids can learn to fail, face adversity, and get physically active in the process:

• Competitive Sports – Sports are a huge part of our culture as well as a wonderful venue to learn confidence, sportsmanship, and how to fail. But not every kid is an athlete, and youth sports have become so specialized that unless your kid is a child prodigy, they are washed out of athletics by the time they are ten. For those kids who are natural athletes, great coaching and plenty of competitions are available.
• Martial Arts – As someone who spent years in and around the martial arts as both student and teacher, I can attest to the many lessons to be learned for both adults and kids. I wrote recently about what kids can learn from the martial arts and the list is a long and impressive one. Your kid does not need to be Joe Athlete to thrive in martial arts, but your child will be pushed, tested, and learn to take hits, both literally and figuratively speaking.
• Performing Arts – One of the most rigorous things I did as a kid was the spring musical in high school. I kid you not! Long after the sports teams had ended their practices and gone home, our rehearsals went late into the night. Failure was a big part of the process as auditions, rehearsals, and performances were filled with pressure, competition, and letdowns. Musical theater was even physically demanding with dance as a key component. It might sound funny, but theater taught me much about discipline and failure.

These days, kids are told almost universally that they are good enough no matter what. But they aren’t. Our kids are failing at school and failing at health and wellness. These problems will not be solved with money, government programs, or corporate responsibility. They will be solved with a collective change in attitude.

Kids need our support in learning to face adversity. Kids need to be taught to find the resolve to fight no matter what hand they’ve been dealt. Kids need to learn to fail again in order to learn they can succeed.

References:

1. Kyung E. Rhee, Rebecca McEachern, Elissa Jelalian. “Parent Readiness to Change Differs for Overweight Child Dietary and Physical Activity Behaviors.” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2014; DOI:

2. “Childhood Obesity Facts,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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– Bruce Lee

“The martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of your ego, your fear, or your hang-ups.”

– Bruce Lee

Recently on a visit back home, I met my one of my close friends at his son’s martial arts studio so I could drop in and see what young Ethan was up to. Ethan was one step away from getting his white sash in Poekoelan, an Indonesian martial art. He beamed with pride as we watched him do various forms and drills. Shortly after I left town, Ethan earned his white sash, upon which he got to join the big kids in the adjacent room. There the big kids practice more advanced forms, techniques, and even some sparring. He was thrilled.

Ethan’s always been a good kid, but from what I observed the martial arts gave him quite a healthy dose of self esteem and self respect – two of the many benefits one gains with participation in them. Whether your kid is too bossy, too shy, or perhaps just a little hyper, the martial arts can help your child learn many important life lessons. (And, of course, those same lessons apply for all of us, not just kids.)

Here are seven reasons why your child should practice martial arts:

Reason #1: They (and You) Will Get More Active

This is the obvious reason kids should do martial arts in this day and age – to get active and moving. In case you haven’t noticed, we have an epidemic when it comes to our nation’s obesity problem. We’re also increasingly unfit in addition to being overweight. The problem is particularly alarming as it relates to our kids. Youth sports and physical education programs are great, but not every kid is an athlete and many schools no longer offer PE. The martial arts offer many benefits, but when it comes to fitness, becoming a true martial artist means becoming a supremely fit person. When I was practicing boxing or muay Thai kickboxing on a daily basis, I was in the best shape of my life by a long shot. Martial arts can help your child get fit and healthy.

Reason #2: They’ll Learn to Find Focus and Stillness

Of the many challenges that parents face today, one is that we are constantly plugged in. While there are a great many benefits to the Internet, there are many more benefits in stillness and silence. Unfortunately stillness and silence seem to be rare to find. At some juncture in life, every one of us comes to learn that the greatest obstacle we face in this lifetime is ourselves. That battle is fought in the stillness of our hearts and the willingness to confront ourselves. As Bruce Lee pointed out, behind the punches, kicks, and knees, a true martial artist learns to sit with himself and see where his weaknesses are. In years of martial arts classes, I remember many challenges, breakthroughs, and setbacks. What I do not remember are distractions or gimmicks like you often see at your local health club. At the martial arts studios and boxing gyms where I trained, there was no loud music or flat screen TVs, just hard work and sweat equity. As a martial artist, your child will learn what it is to be still, challenged, and focused.

Reason #3: They’ll Learn to Take Hits

In the martial arts, your child will learn what it is to take a hit, whether that hit is a literal blow or a disappointment like failing a test.

Part of life is learning that we all take hits. The key is in learning how best to take that hit and get back up. Unfortunately, this lesson seems to be lost on many in our every-kid-gets-a-trophy culture. In the martial arts, your kid will learn to fail – a lot. Half of martial arts is hitting, but half is also getting hit.

When people hire me to teach them boxing, they can’t wait to lace up the gloves and start hitting things. Seldom does someone mention how enjoyable it is when I tap him or her upside the head with a focus mitt for dropping their hands.

The first time I got struck in the head sparring in kung fu, I immediately rushed to the mirror to see if there was a mark on my face. The students in class laughed about it for months. While I didn’t find it too funny at the time, I came to learn that accepting I would get hit enabled me to relax and better protect myself. That acceptance led me to be able to better respond, maneuver, and anticipate. Ironically, learning how to take a hit is perhaps the best way for your kid to learn how to avoid it.

Reason #4: They’ll Gain Self Confidence and Self Respect

As noted in talking about my friend’s son Ethan, I was able to witness firsthand the confidence he gained by participating in the martial arts. Being able to advance and play with the big kids gave Ethan a tremendous amount of confidence.

Of course, playing with the big kids also gives all of us a little reminder of humility – someone is always bigger and stronger. I remember Sifu gently threatening the two young boys in our kung fu class that if they ever used their kung fu training in the wrong way or to show off he would have their hide.

The right martial arts school will teach your child that there are no tough guys. Every martial artist ultimately learns this sense of respect and true confidence. Your child will learn that confidence and respect for others comes from a deep sense of self-knowledge.

Reason #5: They’ll Connect Their Mind and Body

What they don’t teach you at your local health club is how to really listen to your body. To listen to your body is to also see your thoughts and have heightened awareness of your emotional construct.

A martial artist is taught to see, feel, and listen – both internally and externally. Tapping into intuition, fear, and courage are examples of being able to put the physical together with the mental. How often have we heard the phrase “being paralyzed with fear”? Being able to combat such a thing is what you learn in the martial arts.

Reason #6: They’ll Learn Conflict Resolution

People often ask me whether I have ever used my martial arts and boxing training in a fight. Indeed I have used the skills learned from martial arts many times to resolve conflict, but thankfully, never in a physical altercation outside the ring.

One of the first lessons Sifu taught us in kung fu was that words were never grounds for a fight. That advice right there has saved me many times. In the martial arts, you learn that there is no such thing as “fighting” words. Instead, you learn to respond without reacting in the martial arts.

Reason #7: They’ll Learn to Breathe

Of the many things I have learned in the martial arts and boxing, breathing is near the top. Back in my kung fu days, Sifu told me that he could tell how someone fights just by observing how he or she breathes.

Indeed, nothing is more essential to the success of how we move our body than tapping into the life force of our essence – our breath. Ask a professional athlete, or an actor, dancer, or signer, and they will tell you that to succeed in any physical craft is to access your breath correctly.

I am shocked at times working with adults who never learned to breathe properly when under physical exertion. This skill can literally save your life. In the martial arts your kid will learn the essence of how to breathe and even relax under pressure.

The Take Home – How to Proceed

The bottom line is that almost any child can and will benefit from participation in the martial arts. As to what martial art, it’s honestly not very important. For a typical six or eight year old the point is to just get them moving and focused. The key in choosing a teacher or school is to do your due diligence when it comes to evaluating the integrity of the program. As a starting place, I would choose a prospective instructor or coach who talks more about the needs of your child than his or her program.

For more great content on martial arts, kid’s fitness, and all things health and wellness, check out what’s new on Breaking Muscle today.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Aerobic fitness is one of the most fundamental aspects of fitness. It is a good guess as a major factor in cognitive ability, since exercise improves memory in humans and rodents of all ages. For example, in mice, wheel running produces an impressive list of benefits including:

• Neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons)
• Brain levels of IGF
• Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (which supports the growth of nerves)
• Potential angiogenesis (the creation of new blood vessels)
• Survival of nerves
• Development of the connections between nerves
• Learning
• Memory

This all points to the idea that the enhanced ability to utilize aerobic fuel sources would favorably assist the neurons in doing their thing. A recent study in PLoS ONE dealt with cognitive performance in the face of varying levels of aerobic fitness.

The kids in the study averaged ten years old and were matched for possible confounding factors. What that means is that the researchers chose kids who were similar to each other in important ways (e.g. ages, economic status, and IQs) except for their aerobic fitness. In this way, their aerobic fitness would be the only variable affecting the outcome.

The difference between the children was measured as relative VO2max – the oxygen uptake by the kids was compared to how much they weighed. This meant that it was likely the kids with lower fitness also had higher body fat percentages. Each kid in the two groups went through a study period, and then they were tested on what they recalled.

Indeed, the kids with better aerobic fitness performed better at retention. Interestingly, in the initial tests, the two groups of kids performed about evenly, indicating that immediate cognitive abilities are not impacted by aerobic fitness. However, recall three days afterward was significantly better in the children who were aerobically healthy.

In one of the utilized protocols, the study period itself included a memory test. The kids with better aerobic fitness performed even better when there was a test in the study period and again days later. This could possibly be due to the mitigating effect that aerobic ability has on stress. In other words, repeated memory tests are stressful for anyone, but aerobic fitness helps to tolerate the stress better.

It should be noted that this test separated out already fit kids from unfit kids. The results do not necessarily indicate that further aerobic work would improve cognitive performance even more, as there might be a point of diminishing returns. Rather, the results suggest that there is a cognitive benefit to at least a base level of fitness.

Getting regular exercise keeps kids healthy, and boosts their brain power, especially in the long term. Not only that, but it can teach discipline and fortitude, which can help in many of life’s tasks. If it wasn’t obvious already, the aerobic fitness of your kids should be a major focus as a parent or teacher.

References:

1. Lauren B. Raine, et. al., “The Influence of Childhood Aerobic Fitness on Learning and Memory,” PLoS ONE 8(9): e72666, 2013

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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It would be a gross understatement to say that childhood obesity has become a serious problem in America over the last several years. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated childhood obesity is the fastest growing health crisis in the United States. Over the past thirty years, the rate of obesity has more than tripled for children aged 6 to 11 and more than doubled for adolescents aged 12 to 19. It’s been approximated that more than 33% of youths aged 2 to 19 (that’s more than 25 million kids) are overweight or obese.

Health Implications of Child Obesity

Being an overweight/obese child has an enormous impact on physical, mental, and emotional health along with social and overall development. Research has shown overweight/obese youths have a higher risk of chronic conditions such as asthma, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, bone/joint problems, sleep apnea, and even certain types of cancer. Equally important is the emerging health concern of metabolic syndrome among American youths, which is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

In addition, kids who are overweight/obese have a poor self-image, low self-esteem, and a tendency to withdraw from others. They experience increased loneliness, sadness, nervousness, and depression. Youths can also be subjected to social stigmatization and discrimination, they can be teased and/or bullied by other kids, which can create social and emotional problems or intensify existing ones. Kids who gain weight are also more easily fatigued and tend to become less active, and a less active kid is subject to gaining more weight. Obviously this can lend itself to becoming a vicious cycle.

What Can We Do?

The recipe for success is no different for kids as it is for adults – implementing a sound health and fitness regimen. We as adults have a responsibility in helping keep today’s youth (and ourselves) healthy and fit so we need to step up and take charge. Here are some tips that may help:

#1: Lead By Example

Asking a child to do something you are unwilling to do yourself will usually yield poor results for both parties. “Practice what you preach” is the motto for encouraging kids to get moving and taking on a healthier direction. Adults need to take the reins and lead by example. It’s very simple. We do this by staying active, eating healthy and encouraging kids to do the same. It’s also important to educate kids on proper nutrition and safe exercise and activities so they are informed and can make intelligent choices for when adults are not around to guide them.

#2: Strength Training and Cardiovascular Training

Like all types of physical activity, strength training and aerobic training use calories. Strength training is unique, though, in that it can decrease body fat and increase muscle mass, thereby improving body composition and enhancing appearance and performance. Muscle tissue requires more calories to function than fat and as a result, kids with more muscle are more efficient at using calories. Aerobic training is also important since it can produce a sustained and significant use of calories and improves overall health and energy (both physically and mentally).

Keep in mind that kids don’t always need to implement a formal approach to training, as most adults tend to use. If an exercise program is too regimented, kids can and will lose interest quickly. Make training safe, fun, and in line with the child’s interests and ability to stay focused. And remember, a qualified instructor should be present to teach and monitor the child for his or her safety.

#3: Proper Nutrition

It’s typical that a parent will do the food shopping for the home so it’s imperative to make healthy, wholesome selections when food shopping. It’s also typical for the parent to be the one to take the kids through the drive-thru window, buy them sugary snacks at the store, and super size their meals. It’s obvious, then, that the home environment is the first place to set the foundation for proper nutrition.

Generally, schools, recreational events, and social activities don’t provide a great selection of healthy foods as they tend to lean more towards the sugary snacks, but with some proper planning, a child can have a very good day of eating healthy. Providing a child with easy-to-access foods can make all the difference in the world. Having cut up vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds available can fill in for great snacks while breakfast, lunch, and dinner can supply them with the majority of their body and mind building nutrients.

Inherently, kids will want some junk food and there’s nothing overtly wrong with a “cheat” here and there, but kids (like adults) left up to their own devices will eat as much junk food as they can, so limit the empty calories and feed the kids what they really need – healthy, fresh, wholesome foods.

#4: Encourage Kids to Be Kids and Let Them Play

Today’s youth is way too sedentary, with the technological era making it much too easy to just sit around and be occupied. Try to encourage kids to put down their indoor electronics and go for a walk, ride their bike, hit the playground, play recreational sports, and engage in all types of physical activities – especially with other friends. Kids tend to play more often and longer when they are with other kids so this is a great way to get them moving.

Some ways to assist with their activity can be as simple as having them do some calisthenics. Set up a small (yet safe) obstacle course for the kids to race each other through. Supply them with a large tug-of-war rope. Teach them some of the old-time favorite games such as running bases, capture the flag, tag, jump rope, etc. These games may appear silly at first glance but are great ways for kids to work on many skill sets such as their running, agility, conditioning, strength, competitive nature, and strategic thinking.

#5: Support P.E. and Organized Recreation

With more and more research pointing to activity increasing a child’s potential for learning, it behooves us to support and encourage organized physical activity in and out of the schools. Interestingly enough, statistics show that getting students to workout greatly improves their classroom performance.

One study found that 15 to 45 minutes of exercise before class reduced fidgeting among children by half and in another study that looked at three groups of students with different physical education routines, the group that exercised the most did the best on tests, even though they spent the least amount of time in class. For some reason (budgeting issues more than likely), P.E. classes and pre/post school activities are being cut off, viewed as being unimportant to the learning of a child while in reality physical activity is probably one of the most important aspects to the learning ability of a child.

Bottom Line

The vast majority of overweight kids ultimately become overweight or obese adults. This may never be eradicated, but we can certainly make an effort to help control this current epidemic using some of the ideas recommended above.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Before we dive into the results, let’s discuss the way the children were assessed. The assessment measured two criteria: movement abilities and object control abilities. Movement abilities are things like running, skipping, and jumping. Object control abilities are things like throwing a baseball, striking a soccer ball, and dribbling a basketball.

After the fitness program ended, students who participated showed a definite advantage over those who did not participate. This held true for both boys and girls, and both movement and object control skills. But at eight years-old, about three years after the physical fitness program ended, a different picture emerged. In movement skills, both groups of boys and girls had caught up to each other. The group that participated in the physical fitness program no longer held an advantage. The same was true of boys with object control skills. By age eight all of the boys were throwing, kicking, and striking with about the same prowess. But while the girls who participated in the physical fitness program still held an advantage in object control skills over the girls who did not, somehow all the boys had caught up in object control skills.

What’s the explanation? Environmental factors. All the boys managed to learn object control skills during the ensuing three years between the physical fitness program and the follow-up tests. But very few girls learned object control skills during that time, unless they were taught during the physical fitness program. In simple terms, boys were taught how to throw as part of everyday life, while girls were not.

My opinion: We must stop sabotaging the athletic development of young women. Even unknowingly, parents often adhere to historical norms that treated women as fragile and weak rather than capable human beings. In short, get your daughters out onto a field. Spend equal time teaching them how to throw a ball as you do teaching them how to dress a doll. The following eighty years of her life will be determined by what you teach her in the first fifteen years. So teach her how to really live.

References:

1. Zask, Avigdor, et al. “Three year follow-up of an early childhood intervention: is movement skill sustained?” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 9:127, 2012.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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The three components of body build are type, size, and composition. A system developed by W.H. Sheldon uses the terms ectomorph, endomorph, or mesomorph to describe the body build of an individual. An endomorph is usually classified by someone who has short arms and legs and a large amount of mass on their frame. They tend to have a lot of fat on their body. A mesomorph excels in strength, agility, and speed. They are medium to large structure and height, and they gain muscle easily. Mesomorphs also sustain low body fat levels and gain or lose weight easily. Ectomorphs are usually long, thin, and lack muscle. Ectomorphs have a hard time gaining muscle, and usually excel at endurance type sports.²

This newest study consisted of 312 prepubescent children (160 girls, 152 boys). There were tests performed to determine aerobic capacity (20 meter shuttle run), flexibility of the lower back and hamstrings (left and right sit reach), agility and coordination (9-14 meter shuttle run), general stability (flamingo balance), muscle strength and endurance (pull ups and pushups), explosive strength (standing broad jump and medicine ball throws), max isometric strength (handgrip strength), and anaerobic muscular power (performed on stairs).³

The results of the study showed that girls displayed higher average values of body fat percentage, and a higher occurrence of an endomorphic or ectomorph body type than the boys. Contrarily, the boys showed higher values in the mesomorph component and in all most levels of physical activity. The boys presented higher values in all selected tests except tests of balance and flexibility, where the girls scored better. Gender differences in the physical fitness were greatest in the explosive strength of upper and lower limbs, and smaller in the abdominal and upper limbs muscular endurance, and trunk extensor strength and flexibility, followed by speed and balance. This data suggests that body type has a significant influence on physical activity.⁴

Physical fitness programs can benefit from these findings in that it could help educators plan activities appropriate for each gender. Perhaps in schools where phsyical education has been severly cut back, teachers can still have an impact in the time they have and keep our next generation healthy and active.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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As the economy dips and schedules are busier than ever, making it to the gym regularly can be a tall order for many people, and more often, lack of time or energy is an excuse not to make it to the gym at all.

In a time when many are plagued by obesity and related disorders, it is no secret that we all should be getting exercise. For some, exercise means a regimented gym schedule, for others a daily jog or martial arts classes.

As the economy dips and schedules are busier than ever, making it to the gym regularly can be a tall order for many people, and more often, lack of time or energy is an excuse not to make it to the gym at all.

For me, with four small children, it is extremely difficult to leave for an hour or more each day to drive to a gym, work out, shower, and get home without taking a lot of time away from the family. At the same time, fitness is more important to me than ever, since now it is not only something important for my health, but as an example for my children.

I’ve heard it said that “if it’s important, you’ll find a way; if not, you’ll find an excuse,” and I think finding an excuse is easy for many people to do. When life gets crazy, fitness can become a last priority, even though these times are when your body needs it the most.

Over the last five years of being a work-from-home mom, I’ve found some simple strategies to keep fitness a priority without taking time away from my family or my work commitments. What I didn’t expect was that some of my simple strategies I designed to just maintain fitness would actually help improve my fitness level more than my intensive training programs I used before I had kids.

In my work with clients, I’ve found this type of program is helpful not just for those who work from home, but for people who travel and can’t regularly visit a gym, those in climates that don’t always allow outside activity, and those who just don’t have time to squeeze in a gym commitment.

To qualify for my at-home training regimen, an activity had to meet the following criteria:

• It must require minimal equipment and space
• It must be doable without leaving the home
• It couldn’t require a partner
• It couldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes a day.
• There most be some version of it that my kids could do also (this part was semi-optional, but still important)

From this list, I developed a list of possible activities and have refined them to meet my needs. My favorite fitness activities based on those criteria are:

1. Kettlebells– meet all the criteria perfectly. They take up very little space (under my bed), I can do a workout quickly at home, and the kids can dead-lift the smaller size kettlebells.
2. Pushups, pull-ups, chinups, planks, burpees, goblet squats and other body-related exercises.
3. Occasional high intensity sprints – when weather allows and I have the time. I use a jogging stroller for this one.

My at home “gym” consists of various size kettlebells, a door mount pull-up bar, 25 and 35 pound dumbbells for squats and lunges, and various children (weighing 20-45 pounds) who are happy to assist in weighted pullups and pushups!

An average workout program with these elements would consist of two days of high intensity kettlebell training per week, two to three days of weight related exercises, and one day of high intensity sprints if weather allowed.

I’ve recently added deadlifts at a neighbor’s home gym, though I only do these once a week.

A weekly workout schedule would look like this:

Monday:

• Deadlifts: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps
• Chin-ups: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps (started these with assisted or negatives to work up and now working up to weighted)
• Turkish Get Ups with kettlebells: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps

Tuesday:

• Kettlebell swings 75-200 swings without rest using maximum weight kettlebell that allows maintained form.

Wednesday:

• Pushups: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps (starting with wall pushups if needed and working up to handstand or negative incline)
• Dumbbell press: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps
• Burpees: 20-50

Thursday:

• Kettlebell swings 75-200 swings without rest using maximum weight kettlebell that allows maintained form.

Friday:

• Goblet Squats: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps of maximum weight with maintained form
• Weighted lunges: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps with maximum weight with maintained form
• Pull-ups: 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps (starting with negatives or assisted and working up to body weight or weighted pullups)

Saturday:

• Hike with family or high intensity sprints if weather allows, or rest day if needed.

Sunday:

• Rest day

I should also note that for the past few months I have incorporated intermittent fasting and very heavy lifting as a fitness experiment, and I’ve been very impressed with my results. The only aspect of this I couldn’t do at home was deadlifts, and that was only a 15 minute commitment once a week. In three months of this program, I’ve taken my deadlift from 115 pounds to 205 pounds, and have seen parallel improvements in other weight activities.

I do most of my workouts in a fasted state, and have been able to increase strength pretty rapidly by doing this.

The Bottom Line:

In a world where gym memberships and fitness equipment are booming industries, fitness can still be simple and effective from home.

Even a simple program, done consistently, can make a big impact on health in the long run, and anyone can make the time for 15-20 minutes of exercise from home each day.

If not having time, money, or energy to make it to the gym has been your excuse, make a commitment to your health by incorporating regular fitness from home. For less than the price of a gym membership, you can get weights, kettlebells, and a pull-up bar to begin a from-home routine.

What is your favorite at-home fitness routine? Do you have any tips or tricks? Please share in the comments below!

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