I've been thinking a lot about parenting lately and how to bring your kids up in the physical culture and teach them exercise as a way of life. We all know how important it is to keep kids active but it can be difficult with modern gadgetry competing for kids attention. I'm certainly not knocking technology, it's here to stay and better that our kids learn how to use it now rather than later but how do you temper it with other more physical things?
Looking back on my own childhood I realize I was fortunate to be raised in a house that had a gym. I don't always remember having weights per se, but dad was always working out. He is first and foremost a martial artist but there was also basketball, swimming, running and biking as well. I have fond memories of doing each of those with him and I believe that is in part what got me to where I am today.
Public Displays of Exercise
I'm not talking about jogging around the neighborhood - I'm talking about the weird stuff. Like nunchakka. Imagine you're 11, at lacrosse practice, and your dad is on the sidelines practicing with Filipino fighting sticks. I got more than a few comments but most kids thought it was pretty cool. I didn't think much of it then, and I guess I don't now, as it's no big deal for me to lift kettlebells on a crowded beach, pull over on the side of a busy road to try to lift a rock or bend steel in front of an audience. I think the public displays of exercise I witnessed as a kid made it natural for me to workout wherever, whenever and regardless who was around to witness.
I see a lot of people who are intimidated or feel out of place at a gym. I suppose that's natural for them, but I say if they saw their parents work out, or even better if they worked out with their parents, they wouldn't be so reluctant.
As parents we obviously set the example for how our children live. When they are young like mine are, you actually decide how they live (what they eat, what time they go to bed, how much TV they watch, etc). While I think it is good to set good habits for them while they are young, I think its even more important to be good examples for them when they are older when you don't have as much control over them.
This means you have to workout. And your children should see you doing it. And if they can experience it with you, all the better.
Although we play and wrestle, my kids are too young to workout with me. They sometimes imitate or lift little weights and say "look at me daddy, I'm strong" (which always makes me happy) but I'm not foolish enough to think that I could get them on some kind of training routine. I do however allow them to experience mine.
Just this week, and this is what got me thinking about all this, I was laying on the floor getting ready to do kettlebell pullovers with my 3 year old son in the room. Normally anytime I am on the floor its expected that he is going to jump on me. After a flying double knee to my stomach and some WWE-esque acting, I asked him to stop for a minute so I could do my next set. He laid there on my chest with his face inches away from mine and just stared at me with a grin while I did my set. He got to experience the exercise; the effort, the enjoyment and all of the physical things associated. He waited patiently until I was done... and then he jumped on my solar-plexus.
This brought back a memory from when I was a kid and my dad doing the butterfly stroke with me on his back. I was probably too young to swim at the time but I got to experience the exercise and to this day swimming with my father is one of the fondest memories I have with him.
I don't know if my boy will remember this particular instance but I do know that there will be many more like it and that none of my kids will be unfamiliar with exercise. [Funny side note, my daughters kindergartner teacher asked her what I do for a living and she said, "He bends steel and trains clients to be strong." as if it was as normal as saying, "He's a mailman."]
So my plea to parents is to find ways to include your kids into your workout. If they are too big to do pushups with them on your back, see if you can get them to do push ups with you. Bring them to the gym, to kettlebell class or to the Open House on New Years Eve. Expose them to the physical culture in every way you can. They will thank you for it later.