My Five Year Old is Stronger Than You

I have been doing prochnost' strength training for a while and have been getting a lot stronger.  Prochnost training is a great training system for skinny people (who lack the genetic ability to bulk up significantly) who want to get strong and be more capable.  Western training focusses on aesthetics, while prochnost' training focusses on building functional strength.

My kids have seen me training, and they often join in.  My kids are very strong, and are able to do many impressive feats of strength.  I love how humble they are.  They think everyone can do the things they can do, but very few other kids or even adults are as strong as my kids.

My five year old often feels like he is missing out when he watches his siblings do incredible things.  I didn't want him to feel bad so let him do some balancing on my push up bars.  

This is probably the skinniest five year old you will ever see, yet he can lift himself up and hold in this L-sit for an extraordinary amount of time.  This is great exercise for strengthening his shoulders as well as building his core strength.  He is doing this for fun and he is gaining great benefits.

I am a little jealous because he can hold this for longer than I can!  I don't know a lot of adults who can do 'L Sit' at all, let alone hold it longer than my five year old.  I am jealous of him, but also very proud.

Five year old doing 'L-sit' 

He giggles when he starts to wobble

As well as that he is trying to copy his siblings by doing various other holds and things.  He can't quite do what they can do, but he is only five and he is getting stronger every day.  

I am really proud of what he can do.  I sure wasn't doing this at his age!

Strength training for a five year old should be fun

My five year old is still a bit young to do any push ups, or at least I don't want him to do very many push ups yet.  I don't want him to do them and get injured, or not be able to do them and feel like he is worthless.

He watches me and his siblings do push ups and wants to join in.  He also watches us train to do elbow lever, and straight arm planch, and he feels left out.  I don't want him to feel left out just because he is still little so I try to find ways that he can feel included.

To help him feel included he holds onto push up bars with straight arms and someone holding his feet.  This is not push ups, it is a static hold.  For a skinny five year old this is pretty impressive.

Five year old building strength and having fun

  

This is helping him feel included, but it is also building strength and paving the way for him to do some of the more impressive exercises once he is ready.  I don't see any point in pushing things when he isn't ready.  At the moment he just needs to feel confident and important, he is also developing an enjoyment of strength exercises.  Exercise has been normalised for my kids, they find exercise fun. 

Do you train with your kids?  If you do you should be very careful not to over do it physically or you risk injuring the growth plates in their bones.  If you are not careful in the way you word things you may body shame them or make them feel inferior, which is the last thing you want as it will stop them from wanting to exercise.  Training for kids should be fun, they should be set up to succeed, and they should always have the option to stop when they have had enough.  

In this way they tend to reach their potential a lot faster because they enjoy this and actually want to train.  As they get older they should see exercise as normal and fun, and should never join the hoards of overweight and obese people that are so common in our country.  As they get older they will always be healthy and strong.

I hope that seeing a skinny five year old who can do this will help inspire someone to do some strength training.  Don't aim to be the strongest person in the world, because you will fail at that.  Don't aim to get shredded, because most people who aim for that fail due to lack of time and motivation.  Train to get stronger than you currently are.  Strength has a purpose, aesthetics does not.

Aim to be stronger than you currently are, be more!  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным)!