Is it Unsafe for Children to Work Out?

I started lifting weights when I was 11 years old so guess what I think?

When I began lifting weights, (back in the day; 1970s) researchers in Japan studied child laborers and discovered the juvenile workers tended to be abnormally short.  It seemed amongst their many afflictions, the excessive amount of physical labor, with its hours of lifting and moving heavy weights, had stunted the children’s growth. This study permeated throughout our culture and became the norm leading many people to believe “that children and adolescents should not practice weight training.” Many parents, coaches and pediatricians remain convinced that weight training by children will “result in short stature, epiphyseal plate” — or growth plate — “damage, lack of strength increases due to a lack of testosterone and a variety of safety issues.”
    

The other day I was driving to work and heard Dr. Oz on the radio. He stated that fasting was not a good idea because it caused your body to decrease its metabolism and that you would burn lean tissue. Blanket statements like this always bug me. What if the person is really obese? What if they’re 3.5% body fat?

·       Tired of your exercise routine? Bored with lifting weights?

Then Try All Alternative Training by John Platero

   A warm up is an essential precursor to any workout. Most people use a treadmill, stair-climber or a stationary bicycle to get their body ready for whatever activity they’re about to perform. The problem with these activities is they’re all uniplanar. You’re only moving in one plane of motion. In firefighting however, activities such as advancing a hoseline, throwing a ladder or just getting in and out of the rig require multi-planar movement. When performing these activities, your joints must adjust through these different planes, while the body’s “active” system (muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia) help stabilize and navigate the body to prevent an injury.

   Often, people hurt their back turning in the shower or bending over to pick something off the floor. It’s not necessarily caused by lifting a heavy weight; they prepare themselves, and therefore, no injury.  We have what is referred to as the “inner system.” 

I’ve seen this many times. Don’t ever be like this. You may reverse the words, “boyfriend and girlfriend” if you want. Don’t want you to think I’m a misogynist.

If you read this without laughing out loud, there is something wrong with you. This is dedicated to everyone who ever attempted to get into a regular workout routine .

We all have fears. It’s part of our make-up. Years ago I read a book called “Dune” and there was a litany that I always remembered which has helped me to face certain fears.

Is your client base like the tides of the ocean? Constantly in a state of flux...kinda busy this month, not so busy the next? If you’re reaching for the top percentile among fitness professionals you’ll have the courage and humility to admit that MOST of the time your clients leave, it’s due to something you did or failed to do.

Exercise equipment might fall under three broad categories: • Constant resistance • Accommodating resistance • Variable resistance Most professionals consider free weight training as constant resistance, however, if you know anything about biomechanics, there is nothing constant about it, unless of course we don’t move the weight. As we push or pull, the muscles are changing length, the relationship of the resistance to the axis of motion is changing and of course acceleration, inertia, momentum and all of those other words of physics we love (or hate) come into play.