Why I Train

Iron is in my blood. It's become part of me. I cannot imagine a day when I will not lift weights and train. I look forward to hitting the gym. Setting PRs drives me. There are several reasons why training has become part of my life. I want to share of few of those reasons.

My Family

I train for my family. As a husband and father, I am a protector. I will do anything in my power to prevent anyone from harming my wife or kids. Strength and size helps me to fulfill my role. My wife and kids know that I am strong. They feel safe when they are with me.

The other night I was reading a nighttime story to my two year old daughter. My daughter is my girl. She's my princess. When I started reading her the story, she wrapped her cute little arms around my arm and laid her head on my shoulder. My heart melted. As silly as it may sound, it meant something to me that I have a strong arm my girl (or any of my kids for that matter) can grab a hold of. With my strong arms I can shelter, protect, and support my wife and kids.

Also, my wife and kids have come to love fitness. Just last night, while I was training some guys, my five year old son came out to the gym and started "working out". My kids love to hang out with me when I train. They follow my example. Instead of sitting around playing X-Box, they are doing push-ups.

Service
I train to give service. I truly believe that one of the greatest things we can do is to give service. There have been several times when people have called me over to lift the "heavy" object, such as a tree stump, rock, flag pool, etc. Because of my level of fitness, I can do more work and work for longer periods of time. In short, I can help more people.

Myself
I train for myself. Let's be honest, who doesn't like to look good. Who doesn't like to feel strong. Training is good for my self-esteem. Growing up I really did not have a good self-esteem. I lacked confidence. In High School, I weighed 160 lbs (I'm 6'3") and had a mullet (yes, a mullet). Besides cutting my mullet off (thanks honey) lifting weights has been great for my confidence. In many ways, it has given me what I lacked growing up. I like how I look in the mirror. And I like that I still catch my wife's eye.

Training also relieves my stress. I have a stressful day job. I'm a lawyer. A lawyer's life is filled with contention and deadlines. This stress can get to you. Add on top of that the stress that comes from being a husband and father. Training is a way that I can relieve life's stresses. I feel great after a training session. I feel like I can conquer the world.

I hope I don't sound conceited or superficial. Instead, I hope you can relate to some of the things I've said. Training is part of me. It's become part of my family. I'm sure, many of you feel the same way.

Everything is Possible With Training

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Training Child Athletes

This is my first post. I've decided to start with one of my favorite subjects, training child-athletes. This subject is important to me not only because I'm a father of four kids, but also because the benefits kids receive from exercising can last throughout their lives.

Research clearly shows that exercise has numerous benefits for children. First, exercise has been shown to increase a child's strength, power, muscular endurance and flexibility. Second, children who exercise are less likely to be or become obese. Third, exercise has been shown helpful to treat such disorders as attention deficit disorder. Fourth, children who exercise are generally happier and optimistic. Finally, in a recent study, children who regularly exercise were shown to perform better in school. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26207599/.

What are some things to keep in mind when training children? First, remember that children are not adults. The exercise or program must be tailored to a child's abilities and strengths, while recognizing that children are physically less mature than adults. Children should not lift heavy weights or perform exercises that risk personal injury. A major concern when training children is injury to the epiphyseal plate or soft tissue injuries, particularly to the back and shoulders. These concerns must be kept in mind when training a child.

Second, any program you design for a child must be fun. I have seen from my own experience that exercise programs for children should contain a variety of exercises and lots of movement. Additionally, kids love to hear encouraging words. Do all you can to motivate the child to do his or her best.

Third, emphasis must be placed upon teaching the child the proper form for performing the exercise and the child should have ample recovery time.

My personal belief is that you do not need to incorporate weights into an exercise program for a child. Instead, I prefer to use objects such as tires, ropes and rocks to develop strength and muscle endurance. My personal favorites are tire flipping, tug-of-war, sled drags (forward and backward), and different movements with rocks (such as deadlifts, squats and presses). Children seem to love playing with tires and rocks.

I also like to implement sprints, body movements, and speed and agility work on the agility ladder or with the use of cones. A recommendation I have is to set up different drills for the child, time each drill, and encourage them to try to beat the time it took them to finish the previous drill.

I would encourage you also to check out what Joe DeFranco recommended as an exercise routine for children. You can find his recommendation at http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_03-10-24.htm.

The benefits of training children are great. Not only will it enhance the health of the child, encourage them to have a healthy lifestyle, but it will also increase the possibility that the child will be active for the remainder of his or her life.

My next posts will focus on another mentor of mine, Zach Even-Esh, as well as training programs that I have found to produce great results.