It's been a challenge for me to learn how to help my children stay physically fit. I have struggled with my weight all of my adult life and found it difficult to keep an exercise commitment. So one year ago, at the ripe age of 43, in fear and trepidation, I joined a gym. I was inspired by hearing about the success of a man my age who had dropped 40 lbs in about six months. I worked out at the gym faithfully for nearly a year then I quit. Because I found something which is working better for my family and me.
First of all the trips to the gym took precious time away from my family on a regular basis. Also, I don't really like exercising with all of those other people particularly women. I wanted to do something different.
Whenever I embark on a project like this I usually do a lot of research. The whole area of health is difficult to research because everyone is selling something, so you have to weed through a lot of stuff to get to what works. I read several books, did hours and hours of online research, I even fell for some faddish stuff, but finally have settled on a combination of things that work very well for my family.
The first part of the combination is a book called The Navy SEAL Workout by Mark De Lisle. This book's apparent goal is to give a set of exercises which done over time, trains the individual to get fit enough to join the Navy SEALs. One reason I liked this idea is that the Navy SEALs have a reputation for building very strong men without a lot of expensive equipment. I bought the book and started using these exercises and quickly realized that I was getting a better workout doing these body weight exercises than from all of the expensive equipment at the gym. The only equipment piece needed for this workout is a place to do pullups. Now in terms of getting a person ready for the SEALs, I cannot vouch, but my fitness is definetly improving. On a side note, I think there are better Navy Seal Workout books on the market, but this one has a workout plan that we can actually do. I think The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness by Stewart Smith is great, but it is too intense for us at this point.
The key thing is I can do these exercises with my children. My seven through thirteen year old all join in on the "torture." I am seeing strength and physique gains in my children.
Another piece is a system of working out that I found at the suggestion of a church member. The system is called crossFit. Though I don't approve of everything that Crossfit posts on their website, over all I find that I like their concept of fitness. Anything they do, I need to scale back considerably to make it doable for me. Still, I have gained, particularly from their work out of the day or WOD. They post them five days a week. I don't often do the WOD, but I learn from it. I have learned a lot of new exercises which are all very intense. Most of these I don't do with my children, but as they get older, I expect to start springing it on them.
I am curious what you have done to help keep your family fit. What has worked for you?
