|
A Story I try to Keep in Mind...
Once upon a time, there was a farmer in the central region of China. He didn't have a lot of money and, instead of a tractor, he used an old horse to plow his field. One afternoon, while working in the field, the horse dropped dead. Everyone in the village said, "Oh, what a horrible thing to happen." The farmer said simply, "We'll see." He was so at peace and so calm, that everyone in the village got together and, admiring his attitude, gave him a new horse as a gift. Everyone's reaction now was, "What a lucky man." And the farmer said, "We'll see." A couple days later, the new horse jumped a fence and ran away. Everyone in the village shook their heads and said, "What a poor fellow!" The farmer smiled and said, "We'll see." Eventually, the horse found his way home, and everyone again said, "What a fortunate man." The Farmer said, "We'll see" Later in the year, the farmer's young boy went out riding on the horse and fell and broke his leg. Everyone in the village said, "What a shame for the poor boy." The farmer said, "We'll see." Two days later, the army came into the village to draft new recruits. When they saw that the farmer's son had a broken leg, they decided not to recruit him. Everyone said, "What a fortunate young man" The farmer smiled again and said, We'll see" Moral of the story: There's no use in overreacting to the events and circumstances of our everyday lives. Many times what looks like a setback, may actually be a gift in disguise. And when our hearts are in the right place, all events and circumstances are gifts that we can learn valuable lessons from. Fitness Tip of the Week Each summer, as the work schedule gets busier, I typically press pause on long workout sessions and try to sneak in a bunch of 20-40 minute kettlebell sessions. I grab a weight from the gym, park it on the porch, and whenever an opportunity presents itself, practice a few kettlebell movements. These sessions typically include exercises like swings, snatches, goblet squats, turkish getups, suitcase carries, and single arm clean & presses. I try to keep the heart rate in the 120 bpm and above for the entirety of the session. Like discussed previously, there is a season for everything. In my life, the summers mean kettlebell training and short, quick cardiovascular training in my backyard or on our road. Doing this allows me to prevent any barriers (driving somewhere to swim or run, removing myself from the house and going to the gym, etc.) from me training. Keep the workout short, sweet, and to the point. What you decide to do is not the important part. Find things that you can add to your day to day life without adding too much of a hassle. Then, follow through on what you set out to do and move your body in one way or another each and every day. What I've Been Watching... The Darkest Hour I like watching movies that may have some dark, heavy content. Marisa does not typically enjoy those and Emilia is definitely not ready for anything like that so when the girls travel, I watch those movies. The Darkest Hour is about a pivotal moment in history as the Nazi invasion of Great Britain appears imminent. The decision must be made: Do we negotiate a peace deal with a madman (Adolf Hitler) or do we stand our ground and fight? The final decision on this issue had to be made by one man, and one man only, Winston Churchill. After a long, controversial career, Churchill rose to prominence and found his time to shine. His country was reeling and they needed a strong figure that was for the people and for the country. He was the perfect man for the job as he rallied a nation and eventually, was able to keep the Nazi's from occupying their land. What I've Been Reading... Aspen Institutes State of Play 2021 The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy study organization that covers a variety of topics. Their mission is to foster leadership for dealing with critical issues in a nonpartisan way. They look at topics like business, education, environment, justice, and luckily for me, health & sport as they provide tons of resources on the topic. As I read their State of Play from 2021, a few things jumped out to my worried little mind. Twenty-two percent of children and teens have been classified as obese during the pandemic (an additional roughly 20% are overweight), a three percent increase from prior to the lockdowns. For severely obese kids, their expected annual weight gain increased from 8.8 pounds before the pandemic to 14.6 pounds. Moderately obese kids went from 6.5 pounds to 12 pounds. Even children who had a healthy weight prior to the pandemic saw their annual weight gain increase from 3.4 pounds to 5.4 pounds. In addition to the weight gain, doctors warn that some children may have increased long term adverse consequences on their mental health due to the pandemic lockdowns.This last statement was confirmed when I spoke with an emergency room doctor. He predicted that the issues associated with obesity are still down the road but his biggest concern at the moment was the mental health of young kids. He told us, "our emergency room is filled with suicidal teens". It was sad hearing that. Something is missing in society with our kids and the trends aren't going in the right direction. Quote of the Week "Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security" -- John F. Kennedy I hope you all have an awesome week! Chris Fluck
0 Comments
What I've Been Thinking About...
I had a funny moment this week working with our Jump Start program which is designed for kids between the ages of 4 and 6. During this class, I set up all kinds of things to balance on, crawl on, hang on, jump over etc. At one point in the session, I told the kids to go jump on a box. In my mind, a box jump is pretty self explanatory. You stand on the ground and from there, jump up and land on top. I had three different heights set up and I allowed them to choose whatever box they wanted. After a minute or two I looked over and saw a few kids doing something that made me scratch my head. These youngsters were standing on top of the box and jumping up and down on it with a big smile on their face. They basically looked as if they were on a pogo stick. This is not what I had in mind when I said "go jump on the box" I thought about the words I used and realized I did not speak as clearly and concisely as I should have. They took my words and followed the instructions literally. To them, "go jump on the box" means to go jump up and down on the top of box. Lesson learned young ones and I don't plan on making that mistake again! Fitness Tip of the Week There was a day this week that I woke up with absolutely zero energy. I don't know what was going on but I had very little motivation. I ended up looking at my Fitbit and my resting heart rate was 4 beats per minute higher than usual. In the past, when this has occurred I had an illness but this time I felt alright other than just feeling really fatigued. Maybe it was stress from planning the summer camps, poor sleep, or a random occurrence but either way, I was cooked. This lazy feeling of mine also happened to be the day that I planned on doing heavy strength training. One day per week I use the barbell and try to do as much work as possible over the course of 45-60 minutes. After moping around a bit I decided to get into the gym and see how it went. After a few warmup sets things didn't really improve so I figured I will try one more thing before shutting it down. I picked up my phone and went to my hip hop play list and started listening to songs I used to love back in the day aka the early 2000's. The weights started moving easier and I started to feel a little better. After each set, I asked, "Should I add some weight and do another?" I did this multiple times until I got to a challenging weight and ended up doing a weight I have never done before. Some days, we all need a little jolt of energy. For me, music has the power to change a sour mood into a good mood. It is nice to be able to tap into something that not only brings joy to your ears but also big weights on the barbell! Side note, after the workout I got into our sauna blanket and put on an audiobook. After about 5 minutes of listening I was out cold. 30 minutes later I woke up in a pool of sweat and felt energized. Who knows what was going on that morning but music, training, rest and maybe a little sweat got me out of that funk! What I've Been Watching... JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass by Oliver Stone I am a fan of Oliver Stone. He has this unique, albeit controversial at times, outlook on things that I really value. Every time I hear him speak or watch one of his films or documentaries it makes me think and this one is no different. Apparently this JFK stuff is a rabbit hole that doesn't have an end but as I watch this I ask myself, how could there be so many inconsistencies? Official documents contradicting one another, altered photographs, deleted documents, questionable evidence, questionable suspect, questionable everything! I am just happy there are people like Oliver Stone (and the author of the book described below) that aren't afraid to dive into tough topics and attempt to shed light on the darker side of history. What I've Been Reading... Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi This book is a strong indictment of American media, the so called journalists covering most news stories, and the divisiveness that it creates in our society. Sometime over the last few decades news reporting became something different. A certain "us versus them" mentality took over as rival news companies began chasing ratings and clicks rather than chasing real stories. The publisher sums up this book with the following: "Part tirade, part confessional, it reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business." Quote of the Week "Success in not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." -- Winston Churchill I hope you all have an awesome week! Chris Fluck What I've Been Thinking About...
Upon his death, poet John Keats said to a friend, "If I had had time". In his case, he was concerned that he did not do enough for the world, that there was still work to be done, and because of it, was disappointed that he would not be able to fulfill his plans. This is the tragedy of all great men and women. At one point or another, they run out of time. I heard a story recently about a young lady losing her father unexpectedly. Just one day, out of the blue, he collapses and dies. This story was told to me from a high school student who knew the family. As we discussed what happened, I shared the ancient stoic philosophy of Memento Mori, which is a reminder that all life has an end. It is not something I typically talk to 17 year olds about but it came up that day. Did the lesson hit home? I don't know. She rolled her eyes and said in a sarcastic tone "of course you would know that". I guess this wasn't the first time I shared some sort of ancient wisdom with them but hey, it is not my fault the ancient Greeks understood life better thousands of years ago than we do today. In concluding the talk, I just said to her that death is inevitable. Because of that, it is important that we make every moment count. It is important that we pursue the things that bring us joy and do the things that we want to do with our lives. We can not waste a moment because in any moment, our time can be up. Fitness Tip of the Week In the Bible there is a passage that reads, "for everything there is a season". I don't think they were discussing physical fitness at this time but we can steal this concept and apply it to our training program. Living in Pennsylvania we have four distinct seasons. Each season provides an opportunity to do something different outside in nature. The winter offers cold weather sports like skiing, snowboarding, and snow shoeing, whereas the spring and fall offer a great opportunity for hiking and walking and the summer time gives you the sun and water where activities like swimming or stand up paddle boarding can be used. The brain and body crave new challenges and the season change provides us with an opportunity to do something new. Earlier in the week, Marisa signed us both up for a Stand Up Paddle Board Yoga class at Lake Nockamixon with Miss Melanie Yoga. It was a great challenge, one in which that needed full focus and attention. The structure of this class is nice. You meet up with the group and get your board, then you paddle out to where the yoga session occurs and do the class, then you paddle back to shore. All of this took place as the sun went down on the lake which provided a very nice backdrop. In case you are wondering, nobody fell in the lake and you stay relatively dry while doing it! Thoughts from a Parent In a previous edition of this newsletter I wrote about self-fulfilling prophecies. This is defined as someone making a false definition in the beginning, which then evokes a new behavior based off that misconception, which inevitably makes the original definition come true. That was a tricky thing to write so let me use an example to help. Lets say there is a child who is still learning the ways of the world. He or she goes to a social gathering and there, they are introduced to people he or she doesn't really know well. It may be a lot for a young mind so they don't say much and stay quiet. At this point, an adult appears and starts saying things like, "Oh, they are just shy". Now, in this case, the shyness is the false definition. They are not shy, they are just in a new environment that they are unsure of. They need some time to get comfortable and feel out the crowd so to speak. If they don't get the time to do that and parents/adults start advocating for them, then they won't get practice at advocating for themselves. The child may accept the "shy role" giving to them by an adult and carry out that behavior in future interactions. Let me make something clear: shyness is not an evil trait. It is common and quite normal. I, myself, have a tendency towards shyness so I consider myself an expert on the desire to avoid large social gatherings and/or public speaking. If you don't want your child to end up like me, there is something you can do. Research by professor Thalia Eley found that roughly 30% of shyness is genetic, the remaining 70% comes from our environment. Like most things, it is both nature and nurture. The more you involve your children in social situations, allowing them to speak for themselves, the more confident they are going to become. These are good things. It won't turn an introvert to an extrovert but it can turn a normally anxiety ridden trip to the store into something less harrowing! What I've Been Reading... The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time by Will Durant It seems that the author may be one of the greatest historians of our time. Durant alongside his his wife published 11 volumes titled The Story of Civilization. In addition to those works, he has dozens of other books published, one of which is the title mentioned above. I believe the publisher does a better job summing up this book so I will share their words... From the “Hundred Best Books” to the “Ten Greatest Thinkers” to the “Ten Greatest Poets,” here is a concise collection of the world’s most significant knowledge. For the better part of a century, Will Durant dwelled upon—and wrote about—the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. His selections have finally been brought together in a single, compact volume. Durant eloquently defends his choices of the greatest minds and ideas, but he also stimulates readers into forming their own opinions, encouraging them to shed their surroundings and biases and enter “The Country of the Mind,” a timeless realm where the heroes of our species dwell. Quote of the Week "But which of us is original except in form? What idea can we conceive today that has not enjoyed, in one garb or another, a hoary antiquity of time? It is easier to be original in error than in truth, for every truth displaces a thousand falsehoods" -- Will Durant I hope you all have an awesome week! Chris Fluck Gym News & Notes
Well, judging by the pictures I see online of high school graduations, it appears the school year has just about come to an end. Time surely does move fast and the summer months prove to be busy ones here at the gym. Starting June 13th, we will be hosting six weeks of Youth Fitness Camps for kids aged 7-11. These camps run from 9-11 am Monday thru Thursday. Our mission with these camps is to teach kids the importance of physical training in a fun and challenging environment. It is our hope that the lessons learned are ones in which can last a lifetime! If you have a child or may know someone looking for things for their children this summer, all of the information can be found here: Youth Fitness Camps. In addition, this will be the first year I offer a Jump Start Program for kids ages 4-6. The goal of the gym is to create an environment for the entire family to explore and challenge themselves physically and mentally. Through play and movement, we want to encourage these youngsters to explore risk/challenges in a safe environment and get comfortable learning new activities and games. The end result will be a child who feels more competent in all walks of life. More information on this program can be found here: Jump Start. What I've Been Thinking About... Prior to Covid-19 shutting the world down I used to run speed & agility programs designed for female athletes. I did this for a few reasons. The first is that I felt girls just didn't have the same opportunities to train or, maybe more importantly, were not encouraged by parents or coaches to partake in fitness training. The second is that as I was coaching high school football, I would see multiple girls in the trainers room with devastating lower body injuries (ie ACL tears). These injuries have life long ramifications and they hit the female community much harder than their male counterparts. Some research even indicates that it is 7-9 times more likely! Last week we were at a Farmers Market and the former idea played out right in front of our eyes. There were girls interested in using some of the equipment we took down there (medicine balls, box jumps, agility ladder, etc.) but they were discouraged from even trying anything. These actions at a young age plant the seed for inactivity later in life. I shared with Marisa how unfortunate it was because sometimes, all it takes is that one time trying something to light a fire in someone to get moving. With all that being said, I decided to bring the girls camp back to life and will be offering it over two weeks this summer. The first session is June 20 - June 23 and the second session is July 18 - July 21. If you have a daughter or know someone who may be interested, please feel free to share these events with them! Fitness Tip of the Week A salad a day keeps the belly fat away...I think! The more I learn, the more I think diet is the determining factor in regards to body fat, not exercise. It doesn't seem to matter how hard I work or what I do in the gym, on the road, or in the pool. If my diet sucks, there is little to no change physically. So this month, my goal is this: eat one salad a day, for as many days as possible. This is not a magic pill for everyone. For me, eating a bunch of vegetables and some fruit or nuts just seems to work. It may not have the same effect for you. We are all individuals and need to try things out ourselves. The best way to be successful with this is to plan and prepare. As I pack Emi's lunch each morning during the week, I also make a salad for myself. I do this so that whenever I decide to eat, I have something ready. It is often when we are short on time that we neglect healthy eating and choose to grab whatever is handy. In this case when I prepare, whatever handy is a bowl full of vegetables! What I've Been Reading... Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Call me morbid but this title appealed to me when I was browsing books. It made me want to look inside the cover and see what this was all about. As I started to read it, I was surprised by its contents. It somehow blends Vonnegut's experience as a soldier and the atrocities he witnessed, with a little science-fiction and anti-war sentiment. The Sci-Fi genre is something I typically don't find myself reading but his writing is entertaining and the first few chapters had me hooked! Quote of the Week "As long as you live, keep learning how to live" -- Seneca I hope you all have an awesome week! Chris Fluck |
RSS Feed