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My kids have been following me to my garage gym for years – even before we had a real home gym, they would steal random dumbbells or yoga balls that I thought I bought for myself. I would encourage her interest, but I asked myself: How can I encourage her to make exercise a habit? It took a while, but I think I figured it out.
I came up with this routine when my three children were between 6 and 12 years old. The oldest was definitely ready for structured strength training: He wanted to get stronger for the sports he played, and he was organized enough to have a daily routine that included a visit to the garage gym. The younger ones were still just interested in having fun, which is great, but they went to the gym while I was trying to lift weights and demanded that I give them a workout too. So I was looking for a strength training program that was simple enough to suggest on a whim, but still fun and interesting enough to not torture me while I was trying to do my own workout. I’ve found something that works wonderfully for everyone and is my first recommendation for anyone who wants to do a little strength training every day.
I wrote this or something similar on a whiteboard at the gym:
SIMPLE POWER
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2 sets of 5: Goblet Squats
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2 sets of 5: kettlebell deadlifts
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2 sets of 5: bench press
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2 sets of 5: Kroc rows
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2 carry, any heavy item of your choice
The name and the sentence/repetition scheme are separated from a Book I’ve heard of it, but admittedly haven’t read it. I want to make it clear that the changes I have made to the program are not endorsed by the authors. and also that I don’t know what they are, as I just picked up the central ideas and implemented them.
The basic structure I stole looks like this:
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Each exercise consists of ten repetitions, here divided into two sets of five.
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There are always five exercises that fit the categories: squat, hingepush, pull and carry.
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You can do this every day.
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Add weight if it feels too easy.
It was a complete success. The oldest has fallen out of this habit a few times, but always returns to it without any prompting from me. Sometimes his little brother comes along and they train together. And even my youngest child can do the five exercises on the board, although he needs my help with some of them.
Why my kids loved this
At first they were sold under the name. If you’re a child who gets easily winded or discouraged in gym class, the idea that exercise can be “easy” is enticing, even revolutionary. According to a Paper This describes the Easy Strength program. The first time you do an exercise, it should be easy enough that you feel like a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. Or to put it another way, you do five reps of each exercise with a weight that you could do nine or ten reps with if you wanted to. (You can add weight if you’re feeling frisky, but you should never feel that way hard.)
Second, we chose exercises that they enjoy. I’d like to see my kids do more push-ups, but the older ones prefer bench presses (and they know how to do it properly, thanks to the locks in our rack). They hate pretty much all types of squats except goblet squats, so: fine. Better a cup than nothing.
Third, and I think this is key, we chose the exercises do not require any setup time (or occasionally a very short setup). We have small, medium and large kettlebells. Depending on the child, they used medium or large exercises for the deadlifts and small or medium exercises for the squats. At first I thought they could start chaining small plates to the kettlebells to increase the weight, but they preferred to work with the same dumbbell until it felt too light and then tried it the next larger size. Hey – that works.
Why it’s secretly a really solid training program
At first glance it looks almost ridiculous. Only two sentences every exercise? The first time my oldest did it, he was in and out of the gym in under 15 minutes. After becoming more familiar with where to find everything and how to do the minimal setup, he was finished in less than 10 days.
But here’s the thing: The sweet spot for building muscle and strength is around 10 to 20 sets per muscle per week, although beginners can get by with a little less. If you do two sets every day, that’s 14 in a week. If you only train for five days and take the weekends off, that’s still 10 sets. And if you’re a kid who goes to the gym a few times a week and kind of forgets about it the rest of the time, that’s still six sets a week, which is a lot more than zero.
Don’t they need rest days? I hear you muttering on your screen. Not necessarily. Remember: if you do a lot of work that you’re used to (or that’s small to begin with), you can do it practically every day. For example, you can go for a walk every day. Workers show up for work every day.
Or to put it another way, no one would bat an eyelid if a program consisted of three or four sets of each exercise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It’s the same thing, just spread out over several days. It’s the same amount of work. (And no, there is It’s not a law of nature that you have to take a day off between strength training sessions; Rest days just make planning easier.)
Here’s how to start doing this with your children (or yourself).
If you’re looking to start something similar for yourself or your own family, here are some tips to get you started.
The most important thing is that the children (or you) know how to do the exercises that are part of the program. When a child needs to learn to squat And how to do deadlifts And Otherwise, the chances of getting through the first day without crying are slim. But if you’ve already taught them some squats or reminded them to keep their back flat when they get curious about lifting your kettlebell, then they might be ready to add these exercises to their routine. If you’re not sure where to start, ask them what they did in gym class. For kids old enough to follow a tutorial from YouTube, try the following:
Once they know the exercises and can perform them safely, you can let them complete the routine independently, age permitting. This is where the minimal setup rule comes in: make sure they can walk in and get started without having to ask for help or grab a bunch of different materials from the room. Kettlebells and fixed (non-adjustable) dumbbells are great for this, but remember that bodyweight movements also require little to no preparation.
For example, you can have children do push-ups with their hands on a bench. When they get stronger, they can Do them on the floor and then place your feet on the bench. Step-ups are a great option when air squats become too easy. Inverted rows are a good “pulling” exercise and can work your way up to pull-ups if you have a barbell. Take a look My list of bodyweight movements that are good for building strengthand choose a few things that work for your little ones (or not-so-little ones).
And if you do this yourself, consider the version titled “Even Easier Power” explained Here. You have the opportunity to do heavy individual training every two weeks and sometimes do sets of 10. And where your kids might value familiarity with the exercises, you can switch things up every two weeks, or whenever you feel like it. For example, in the slot dedicated to squats, you can alternate between squats, lunges, step-ups, and unloaded single-leg squats to a box (or whatever variations you like).
Is this the best way to build strength and muscle? I mean, I wouldn’t train for a powerlifting competition this way. But every routine you will do actually do Better than doing nothing. So if you don’t want to challenge yourself with demanding training plans, then go for it stay healthy Make it easy on yourself by setting up a routine that’s quick enough to fit into your day and that you’ve designed to be fun. After all, why should children have all the fun?
