Alex spent a couple months training with us in our Athlete Academy program. During those months, he made tremendous strides in his strength, mobility, and flexibility. He went from deadlifting barely the bar, to being able to lift over 150 lbs in his deadlift from the floor, an amount of weight that is well above his bodyweight. Alex worked extremely hard and it showed in the incredible progress he made. I asked him a few questions about his experience and he provided me some short sweet answers about his time in our Athlete Academy program.

"What changes have you noticed since starting Athlete Academy?

Not only am I becoming more physically enabled, I'm also progressing on pushing myself and being responsible.

What outside of Academy has gotten easier?

Playing sports and doing other competitive activities.

What have you accomplished since joining Athlete Academy?

I'm able to lift weights that I never thought I could and do things I never though I would be able to do. And I'm also learning new things.

What is your favorite part of Athlete Academy?

Going in and becoming familiar with routine and then I am able to push myself in a environment where I know I can.

How has Athlete Academy affected your performance?

I feel a lot stronger and more solid and have an easier time keeping up."

Great job, Alex! Keep up the hard work and you will keep on getting stronger!

-Coach Adam

As my knowledge base has grown when it comes to human physical development over the years, I always realized how important physical activity was. However, only in the last little while, especially while preparing for our Athlete Academy for ages 9-12 this summer, have I realized just how important it is to kids. As I coach more and more kids and visit schools, I see things I honestly cannot remember from when I was younger. Kids don’t seem to know how to “play” and, consequently, they don’t seem to move well.

All those things we did as kids, without even thinking about it, are the things that helped teach us how to move well and be active. How many of you reading this remember there being as many kids as there are that don’t like being active? Kids that hate gym, that take no joy in it whatsoever? I understand that some of us liked it more than others, that some were better at certain sports or games than others. Maybe instead you enjoyed hiking, climbing trees, or riding bikes. Either way, you were active. How many kids do we see today that enjoy none of those things? I would wager a pretty healthy amount.

I believe this problem comes from a lack of confidence or enjoyment from doing active activities. A kid that hasn’t played and hasn’t developed some semblance of coordination or physical ability will have more trouble in physical settings and be prone to being embarrassed and not want to do it at all.

The flip side comes from the development side. I want you to think about something before you continue - which was more challenging, your 1st squat thrust or burpee? Or your 100th? (Not in a row, but over time). It is the 1st, right? Your body wants to work as easily and efficiently as possible, but it has to learn how first. This is why the first time you do an exercise it may feel impossible, but in repetition it begins to be less challenging. If children don’t move, play and experience different movements, even hiking or bike riding will be pushed away because they require so much more effort than they would for you or I who have experienced it over and over again.

If you live in a town or area that your kids can’t really get out and play, help them out - do fun things outside in the summer. Go hiking, run along the beach, go out back and play catch with different balls. Just help your child get moving in different ways. Whether they realize it or not, you will be helping them out for years to come.

-Coach Adam

For those of you who have or are athletes in the 13-18 year old range, this event is for you! The combine will be comprised of 5 events that kids all over the country are also doing in order to test their power, quickness, and speed.

The best part is this event is completely FREE!!! I want to get as many kids as possible in here to pack the building and test their skills. 

If you have any questions about the event or any other part of the Athlete Academy program, please contact me (Coach Adam) or just come down on July 22nd and participate. See you all then!

-Coach Adam
adam@getfitnh.com

Athlete Academy Summer Combine for Ages 13-18

Date: Saturday, July 22nd

Time: 12:00pm

Location: Get Fit NH Concord

When I first began running Athlete Academy a little over a year ago now, I wanted to highlight a student who had been in the Academy and liked it. However, now that Sam is a year removed from his start, I have seen how much he has grown and how hard he has worked. I wanted to get an update from Sam after seeing him accomplish more and more.

What changes have you noticed since starting Athlete Academy?

Ever since starting athlete academy last summer, it would seem fitting that I have become more overall athletic. I have noticed clear improvements in multiple physics traits such as speed, strength and agility. I've begun focusing more on how to do physical activities correctly and with proper form to increase efficiently.

​What outside of Athlete Academy has become easier since joining?

Since starting academy, my strength and speed have both improved significantly which is just generally useful for most physical sports and activities and just being active.

What have you accomplished since joining?

Since joining academy I have passed landmarks and records that I never would've thought possible. I've been lifting amounts of weight that over a year ago I would've thought would be way out of my realm of possibility and have seen improvements in speed. I was able to make it on my track 4x100 team that got 4th at states.

What is your favorite part of Athlete Academy?

What makes athlete academy so great for me and what motivates me to get out of my bed on Saturday mornings is just how it makes lifting weights and working out fun. Working out with a group of people can be great for motivation and pushing you. When you are close with those people and they're your friends and you just enjoy being with them, it makes working out seem less like a struggle and pain, and more of just an activity that we can all share and do together and allows us to push each other and strive for much greater heights than if we were alone.

How has Athlete Academy affected your performance?​

Since joining academy, I have noticed I have become both stronger and faster, but one of the biggest things is that I haven't gotten injured. In academy, we work on getting stronger, but also keeping our bodies healthy. Last track season, before I was in academy, I had a hip injury that resulted in me missing a good portion of the track season and missing out on being on a relay team. Well, this season I didn't get injured at all and was able to perform to my peak ability.

Great job, Sam, keep working hard!
-Coach Adam

I felt the need to write this blog after a conversation that I had with a couple parents recently. As a kid that was overweight much of my childhood life and into my adolescent and college years, I know how it feels to have those “scared straight” doctors’ appointments. I’m here to tell you that its not what the frightened kid needs to hear to help them out. I am not here to put down doctors or medical professionals, I am just here to say that as a young kid all that talk did was bury me further in the hole.

As adults, we understand that something needs to change. We understand that we have the power to make a change and that the only thing stopping us is us. We understand what effects being obese have on an aging body. We understand that having Type 2 Diabetes is going to make life very challenging. Also, as educated individuals many of you have come to learn that through a healthy lifestyle Type 2 Diabetes can be mitigated if not negated almost entirely.

A child coming in to a doctor’s office hearing that they are obese, at serious risk for diabetes, or if they continue along a current trend will end up at weight “x” is debilitating. Most kids at that age cannot separate that, and they feel it is a judgment on them as a person and are more likely to be depressed and run into even more trouble down the road. Or in certain cases (mine in particular) they might get even bigger because they don’t understand that there is a way out.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not understating the seriousness here - childhood obesity is an epidemic in this country as is Type 2 Diabetes. Both of which are extremely serious and steps need to be taken to correct it. The problem I see is the scared straight tactic I see being used on kids, and was used on me. To this day, I am slightly phobic of the doctor’s office because of it. So the message is this, your kid is not a bad kid because he/she is overweight. Yes, they may be in danger, but a 7 to 16 year old child is not going change out of fear, they are going to change out of understanding, patience, and guidance. Trust me, this is coming from a kid who lived it.

-Coach Adam

You may have noticed a theme with these posts, they all center on kids not being able to get out and play the way they used to. The next step in our Athlete Academy program for ages 9-12 over the summer will be to work on some proactive flexibility.

You may be wondering why I am prefacing that with the word “proactive”. Here is why - as kids get older, their time sitting in class and sitting on the couch increases. Ever notice that a toddler walks around endlessly, can squat down perfectly to pick something up, but a 15 or 16 year old has to kneel down or bend over at the waist to do so? Its because of two things: growth and lack of movement in functional patterns.

That’s why in this 6-week summer program we are looking to offset that. Kids sit at desks all day which shortens their hip flexors and stiffens up their upper backs. Combine that with growth spurts that make connective tissue suddenly inflexible and you have a recipe for a child lacking in mobility. Those who are in athletics will notice declines in performance, and those who are not will notice compounding problems that will make any active activity much more difficult.

That’s why our goal is to correct the problem this summer before it even becomes a problem. We have kids in our high school program now that are seeing just how major the benefits are of increased flexibility and mobility. Imagine if they didn’t have those restraints in the first place?

-Coach Adam

In order to build on my last piece about coordination, the next step is putting those into action. Reflexes and reaction can be greatly influenced at this age. You may see it in your kids now as this is normally when we start to see growth spurts and physical changes to some degree. You may see your child was one of the fastest, then he grew 4 inches and all of the sudden they are slower and look like they can’t control their body.

When that growth occurs, the body has to learn to adapt to the new changes - that’s where coordination, reflexes and reaction come into play. It's about teaching the body to move in space. I have seen it myself in doing things with kids within the last year or two. Think back to when you were in school playing tag, or capture the flag (or steal the bacon, whichever name you used). Now with that knowledge, go get a group of kids together and try to play the same game. You see kids running into each other, major collisions, one child runs with the flag, sees two other children and has plenty of time (in your mind) to react and change directions but they don’t and end up running straight into them.

Why? Why does it look so chaotic? So unbalanced? Why does your child, who used to be the fastest in their class, seem slower and more uncoordinated? Without the proper movements, these traits don’t develop. That’s why the next step in our 9-12 year old program is working on reflexes and reaction.

It isn’t so much to teach a child how to be the fastest or to cut to avoid a defender, although that may be a positive side effect. It is teaching the brain how to communicate more effective with the legs that are now longer and the muscle, which is now larger and more developed.

-Coach Adam

Imagine you're in gym class playing dodgeball and someone on the other team isn't looking. Now is your chance, wide-open target 10 feet away. You go to throw the ball, release; the ball goes 5 feet before hitting the ground and slowly rolls to their feet. What happened? Why is it that nowadays we see less and less ability of kids to be able to do something like throw a ball? It stems from a lack of coordination. Yes, all kids struggle with coordination to some degree, but why do we see it in such a sweeping percentage? Lack of play and lack of movement are normally to blame.

Many of us as kids grew up playing outdoors, climbing trees, jumping fences, walking on logs (or in my case stone walls with loose rocks). We don't think about how much those simple skills translate into our coordination as we get older. Climbing trees and fences teaches your body how to coordinate a foot and a hand at the same time in some cases. It all revolves around learning how to move more than one body part at the same time. Things that kids seldom experience anymore until they are old enough to join organized sports, that is assuming that they want to do so.

This is an important skill that has been lost often due to the modern practices. That is why such a big emphasis will be put on such movements in this summer's Athlete Academy for ages 9-12, to help teach them the movements necessary to increase their coordination.

-Coach Adam

We have been training athletes ages 13+ for years, both in our Summer Academies and our year round Long Term Youth Development training programs. 

For about the same length of time parents of younger kids have been whining "But what about uuuuuuussss?" 🙂

​And while we have been listening, we just didn't have the capacity to do anything about it.

Until Now!​

We are pumped about introducing our Summer Youth Academy, and it's right up your alley if you have kids ages 9 to 12!

It's no secret. Our kids are just not as active as we were at the same age. There are so many more distractions - 500 channels on TV, Xbox and Playstation, Facebook, iPhones and Android - you get the picture. None of these are harmful in and of themselves, but add them all up and you have a whole lot of sitting and not much movement. Add into that the fact that PE is limited in our schools, and we have kind of a "movement mess" on our hands when it comes to our kids.

Where is your child on the "get out and move spectrum"? You see, moving well is the foundation for a lifetime of activity and enjoyment. And while we all want to think our kids is going to "go pro", the fact of the matter is that ALL our kids need to learn that activity and exercise can be fun. For some that means winning on the playing field, for others that means going to the skate park, and for others keeping up in gym class would be really cool. No matter the ultimate goal, kids need a foundation on which to build.

A foundation which includes:

• Coordination
• Reflexes and reaction
• Proactive flexibility training
• Strength training basics
• Power developlment
• And of course tying it all together with game plan and fun!

Get Fit NH's Summer Youth Academy is for girls and boys ages 9 to 12, and will run six weeks, from July 10th to August 17th, on Monday and Friday's from 11:30am to 12:30pm.

It's a great chance to get the kids out of the house a few hours a week and into a environment where they can learn, laugh, build confidence and have a great time.

Tuition is only $199 for the six-week summer session, and we are capping the class at 12 students, so don't sleep on this one.

All you have to do is click the "Enroll Now" button below to send in your payment and reserve your spot. As soon as we receive your enrollment, we will contact you with our registration and health history forms for you to fill out with your child, and set your first coaching appointment. It's that easy!

Questions? Contact us here, or give Coach Adam a call at (603) 340-7281

See you (and your kids) there!

The last few weeks I’ve written about two reasons that over specialization can harm kids: it can hamper your child's performance, and it can lead to burning out. The third and final reason over specialization can be detrimental to a child is the damage it could potentially cause to them as an adult. I talked in my last article about the mental aspect of overspecialization and the effects it can have if the child has bad experiences or experiences serious disappointment to the point of wanting to quit. The even more dangerous possibility is a mental block causing kids to dislike exercise, or at the very least, to equate exercise to disappointment and anxiety and want avoid it entirely.

This is assuming that kids only experience the general types of issues. They’re parents are not forcing them to do something they no longer enjoy, they aren’t trying to live through them, or even worse, berating their own kids or other kids for not playing well or living up to the ridiculous standard they have set. I have witnessed this in the past and it is a very frightening and distressing sight to see. One surefire way to turn a child off from exercise is to have them experience it in a negative light. Most kids are resilient and often aren’t pushed to that extreme, but ones that are and start to see exercise as nothing but stress, anger, and disappointment will become adults that hate exercise. 

We all know that diet is important for body composition and overall health. But an adult that hates exercise because it has had nothing but negative impact as a child, will never be as healthy or live as full a life as they could otherwise because they will be missing the exercise piece of the health puzzle.

-Coach Adam