CrossFit Kids

"Mom, look what I can do!"

Drew has his legs perched up against a wall as he does lightning fast mini-push ups.

"Do you think Tony Horton can do that?"

At only six years old, our son has sit through hours of pre-screening workout videos, and even more hours of watching his parents jump, pull, push, and sweat through their workouts. He and his sister jump in sometimes for fun. They love Shaun T's Asylum Game Day moves, and will bust out the "surfer" at a moment's notice.

Our kids see that we have made fitness and healthy eating a priority in our lives. But it strikes me as odd that many times, (particularly on the weekends when we sleep in) we sit them in front of the television so we can get in a workout. I will be the first to admit that there is something wrong with that.

As a full-day Kindergartner, my son gets recess or P.E. class -- but not both. When I was a kid, I got two recesses at Kindergarten, and I was only there for a half day. Tight budgets and rigorous test preparation mean that there's no time to "play" -- even if you're only six. By the time he gets home, Drew is wound up tighter than a drum with energy bursting at the seams. It's tough for a kid to sit still for so long.

("Kindergarten's not going to be as fun as I thought," he told me on the third day. "It's just learning, learning, LEARNING!")

A few weeks ago we found something online called CrossFit Kids. It's a spin-off of the adult CrossFit program, which we've been using for some variety in our weekend workouts. Each day CrossFit kids posts a Workout of the Day (W.O.D.), accompanied with a video of kids demonstrating the moves.

We asked the kids if they'd like to do a special workout program just for kids, and they both enthusiastically agreed. We've done about five W.O.D.s with them, and it has been awesome to be able to include them in something that both Zach and I care about so much.

Drew has even started asking about it. "Are we going to do a workout today?" He loves standing on the big box so he can reach the pull up bar to do "Knees to Elbows."

CrossFit Kids W.O.D.s are an opportunity to encourage our kids, to challenge them, and to help them see improvement in themselves. In just a few short days Drew has mastered the sit up, something he flat out couldn't do on day one. The goal is not for them to "get ripped," but instead to improve their motor skills and introduce fitness concepts that they can build on for the future.

The workouts are short -- usually about 20 minutes, and generally rely only on body weight. Here's an average workout (my kids are young, so we use the "Pack" or "Puppies" variation. They have "Varsity" and "Junior Varsity" too).

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Pack and Puppies:
2 x
Partner hop around your partner 3 times
10 squats

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Puppies:
Three 2 minute rounds of:
3 Thrusters
5 Burpees
10 Squats
Rest exactly one minute between rounds

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3 x
Max L hang
3 Bear crawl L patterns
3 Forward rolls

Everyone:
Study or read for 15 minutes directly after the workout

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I love that each workout ends with studying or reading for 15 minutes. On rest days, the requirement is to read for 30 minutes, solve an equation (posted on the site), and to state the definition of a posted word.

The tagline for CrossFit Kids is: Forging the Future of Fitness, and I hope that's what we're doing for our kids. We don't want to push it on them, and we won't ever force them to participate. We want them to have fun, be challenged, be healthy, and realize the importance of exercise and fitness.

Now, if either of them get to the point where he can do more pull ups than me...then we'll have a problem.

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Workout of the Day

Warm up: Asylum, Vertical Plyo
Workout: AbRipperX2 - 42 minutes of core crushers