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Should Children Lift Weights?

Last year about this time I attended my first preseason football meeting for my son who was going into 6th grade at the time. I had no idea what to expect and how much work it would be for him. The meeting covered more than just practice times and how to get your uniform. It also included information on the importance of nutrition and what the boys should be eating. They also talked about exercise and stressed that the middle school students would not be utilizing the workout room, which was reserved for high school football players. One of the … Continue reading →

The 10-Year-Old with Six-Pack Abs

Have you heard about the 10-year-old boy with six-pack abs? You can see his picture and read more about him at ABC News. Personally, I’m not impressed. In fact, I am a little put off by the whole thing. First of all, does a 10-year-old really need to have six-pack abs? Can we just be a normal, healthy 10-year-old? Second, isn’t it sort of exploiting him with producing workout DVD’s? I mean, I totally understand the intent is probably to motivate other children to get healthy but this seems a bit extreme to me. I also find it odd that … Continue reading →

Family Fitness with Your Preteens and Teens

In this blog I am going to be talking about family fitness with your preteens and teens. This is definitely a whole new ball game, since engaging with this age group can be more of a challenge. The reality is that preteens and teens would rather be hanging out with their friends, but don’t take it personally. We just have to really instill in our children the importance of maintaining good family relations and spending time together. What better way to do this than bringing in some type of exercise? You don’t even have to tell your children that this … Continue reading →

Fitness in Your 30’s

So in my last blog we talked about fitness in your 20’s and how these are the prime years to start off with healthy habits. So now we are going to look at fitness in your 30’s. The 30’s tend to be the time when many of us have started or are well into raising families. The 30’s are a busy decade. In many cases we are married, have children and are working. The idea of finding time to squeeze in some exercise may sound impossible. But it is during this period that it is most crucial you find the … Continue reading →

Where Were His Parents?

By now I’m sure you’ve heard the devastating news out of Florida about the college student who committed suicide in front of a live web cam. His death by drug overdose was watched by thousands of Internet subscribers, and that’s not the most disturbing part of the horrific ordeal. According to news reports, the teenage boy was actually egged on by some computer users to end his life while he sat in his father’s home. By the time someone notified authorities of what was going on it was too late. By the way, that someone was not 19-year-old Abraham Biggs’ … Continue reading →

Fitness Can Be Fun

Not only can it be fun, it should be fun, especially for children. These days when most kids would rather be sitting in front of the TV, the computer or spending time playing handheld video games it is harder to get them motivated to exercise. When parents hear the word exercise, most think of working out in the gym on a treadmill or lifting weights. But for kids, exercise should be any activity where they are physically active. That means playing soccer, basketball, and football, attending dance class, riding bikes or simply participating in a game of tag. Fitness is … Continue reading →

Answers to Fitness Myths

I asked you yesterday about some of my favorite fitness myths and gave you a list of some common urban advice I’ve seen bantered about with regards to fitness and getting in shape. I asked you which ones were true and which ones were false. Here’s a refresher for those of you may have missed the original blog on this topic: True or False: If you want to lose belly fat, then you need to do sit ups and crunches to make that happen. There’s an easy way for everyone to lose weight, you just have to find the one … Continue reading →

Family Fitness: Get Back Up

We have special exercise needs. Our families and our children have special exercise needs. Our teenagers have very specific exercise needs and we need to keep this in mind as they develop. They can be far more susceptible to damage from overuse of their joints, bones and muscles during exercise. How many of us have injuries relating back to our teenage years? (I do! I have a bad knee.) Too many of our kids are spending way too much time in front of the television or playing video games online or off. They are not getting the time to run, … Continue reading →