With school time back in rhythm and after school and evening activities picking up for the season, here are two quick things to consider for the mental and physical well-being of your little ones.
Remember that unstructured play time is just as important as structured training.
"Don’t ever say a child is “just” playing. That's like saying a surgeon is “just” operating or a pilot is “just” flying an airplane. Play is the essence of being a child." - John Rosemond
Sometimes parents are flummoxed when we don't have a strict plan laid out for our PA days, camps or our after school program. "So you don't know what you're doing this week?" they say.
The truth is that the structure is loose. It's usually based around a theme, and at the end of our programs the children have time to get curious and explore what they've just learned or get better at the things that interest them.
They can use their imagination, spontaneity and find self-motivation.
As kids get older and become more socially trained to be another cog-in-the-wheel, unstructured free time becomes just as important as structured hockey practice and fills a hole that a strict school timetable may not be able to provide.
Stop thinking weight training will stunt your kid's growth
Strength and conditioning specialist Eric Cressey explains this better than we could...
"When your kid sprints, she encounters ground reaction forces several times greater than her body weight.
When he jumps out of trees, those numbers are even higher – and he’s probably landing on a more unpredictable environment.
When she wears a big backpack full of books, she’s actually lifting weights without any coaching whatsoever.
Doing a goblet squat with a 20-pound dumbbell isn’t going to stunt your 9-year-old’s growth. And it isn’t going to turn him into a meathead steroid abuser.
What it will probably do is teach them a lot about the value of hard work. It’ll demonstrate that consistently showing up and putting effort into something can lead to specific quantifiable improvements.
It’ll make them more durable to participate in and enjoy sports – and do so at a higher level than they otherwise would have experienced."
You can read the whole post here.
We would add that most athletes, like wrestlers, tennis players or kick-boxers would rather face someone with slightly more talent than them but who's not as conditioned.
So strength-and-conditioning programs really matter, and yes, they should include lifting weights and unstructured play.
P.S. We have some after school Fit Kids programs across all three locations. You can check them out here.
A Quick Fix Became the New Norm
Sometimes people come to us for a specific reason - in this case to get in shape for a wedding.
But sometimes they find much, much more... and then leave anyway!!!
Thanks Tom & Claire, maybe Ottawa will hate your guts and kick you back over to us 😊
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We can't thank you both and the entire Bomb training staff for everything.
Collectively we lost over 20lbs and looked absolutely fantastic at our wedding (If I do say so myself). As we said our goodbyes we have told our trainers that Bomb has been life changing. This couldn't be more true.
We were on a path of junk food and sitting on the couch. I could see the waist line growing bit by bit every year. We had little motivation and even less energy. Then Bomb opened up just down the street (at Broadview).
What we thought would be a quick fix / weight loss before the wedding became the new normal for us. We absolutely fell in love with the gym, being much more active and having more energy throughout the day.
Bomb is truly a one of a kind gym. We made new friends along the way and each and every trainer we met became a friend and someone who we would look forward to seeing each week.
Except Kerry and her evil laugh as we did Cardio Conditioning... it never seemed to get easier over our time with her 😉
Again, thank you so much for everything. We will keep up the fitness routine in Ottawa and that is something that wouldn't have happened without Bomb.
Love Tom and Claire
P.S. If you're looking to get fit for a specific goal - you may need a specific program. Check out our semi-private training page to find out how we can specialize your health and fitness needs - along with a very special offer.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Since it's Halloween we thought we'd scare the sh*t out of ourselves and go listen to the most frightening podcast we've ever heard.
Studies on the effect of lack of sleep have blown up the health industry over the last year or two and so sleep expert and neuroscientist, Dr. Matthew Walker, decided to watch the world burn as he unleashed the hell that lack of sleep causes.
If you're already depressed by the thought of Monday morning, this will cheer you up no end! Here are the cliff-notes...
* If you’re getting 6 hours of sleep or less, your time to physical exhaustion drops by up to 30%.
* If a surgeon is doing an important surgery on you and they had less than 6 hours sleep - the chances that they make a critical mistake, including death, goes up by 170%.
* The shorter your sleep on average, the shorter your life. Short sleep predicts all cause mortality!! Quote that to the "I'll sleep when I'm dead" person - because it will likely be next week.
* Insufficient sleep is the most significant lifestyle factor for determining whether or not you’ll develop Alzheimer’s Disease and is linked to bowel, prostate and breast cancer.
* Shift workers have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and cancer due to lack of sleep and consistent sleep patterns.
* Lack of sleep is a critical factor of the obesity epidemic.
* People sleeping 4-5 hours a night will on average eat 200-300 extra calories each day, which can lead to adding 10-15lbs on to your weight in just 12 months.
Have we scared you yet? No!? Okay, we'll carry on...
* Men who sleep 5-6 hours a night will have a level of testosterone 6-10 years their senior.
* Every 30 seconds, there is a car accident linked to lack of sleep. Drowsy driving kills more people on the roads than alcohol or drugs combined.
* Many children diagnosed with ADHD are just under slept.
* If you’re dieting, but not getting sufficient sleep, 70% of all the weight you lose will come from lean muscle, not fat.
* 1 in 20 medical residents will kill a patient due to a fatigue related error.
* After 20 hours of being awake, you are as physically and cognitively impaired as you would be if you were legally drunk.
We don't wish to end it on a Debbie-downer so here are some tips to help you sleep better at night.
How to create conditions where you can sleep better
* 7-9 hours is ideal.
* Dim the lights in your house 2-3 hours before bed.
* Black out light completely from your bedroom.
* Make sure the room is cool - your brain needs to drop its temperature 2-3 °F in order to sleep.
* Warm your hands and your feet to move the blood away from your core out to the surface or have a hot bath before bed.
* Don’t go to bed too full, and don’t go to bed too hungry.
* Don't look at a screen before bed, read a book.
We used to think that to live a healthy life it was all about diet then exercise, but study after study shows that sleep could now be the number one thing you should fix above all else.
You can watch the podcast here and it's on iTunes etc... Shout out to Podcast Notes for the show notes.
