I looked out onto my students in last Tuesday’s teen class before we were about to start our warm up. My class seemed very different than the formidable gladiators-in-training I see representing CrossFit Kids on posters and in the promotional videos.
I love these kids for all their differences and for all their very unique reasons for being there. All of their personal goals are different - often different from their parents’, too - and I appreciate it all. I try to cater to all their needs because I know all of their reasons are important, including their parents’. Couldn’t this class build strength, improve power and speed, give balance, be fun, help prevent injury in other sports, and still tip a hat to their ever-growing consciousness about their body’s aesthetics? Was their rising self confidence from a weekly shot of feeling accomplished worth it all? Without a doubt. My new tennis player smiled from ear-to-ear during the entire deadlifting session of her first class. I asked her what was making her happy. “I dunno,” she said, grinning, but I realized that no one had told her how strong she was before. She loved me telling her, “Put some weight on the bar because you can certainly handle it.”
Absent from my line-up last Tuesday was my fourteen-year-old student with severe scoliosis. Her condition was so bad that the bend in her back was visible as she stood, even more noticeable when she held the top of a plank. Her mother had come to me seven months ago, not without concern, to get her daughter stronger for when she would undergo surgery in April to have two metal rods placed up her spine. She believed more strength would help her recover faster and ease her pain. I agreed. The doctors told her the recovery from surgery would be long and hard, probably about eight months.
Though shy at first, this girl became my most faithful student. She was always the first kid to show up for class and the more she came, the more she opened up. She was embarrassed that in the beginning she could not do a single push up, not even from her knees, but I told her not to worry we’d get her there or get close. I scaled workouts to whatever she needed. When she felt pain, we stopped until she was ready again. Because she was working at the same time as the rest of the class, she never felt apart from the others. With her effort and spirit she was no different from any other kid in class, including the kids bound for collegiate sports glory. And every one treated her that way, too. By the time she had to leave for her surgery a few weeks ago, her push ups had improved one hundred percent and she nearly got a pull up, to which the entire class almost fell on the floor with excitement. The girl nearly burst with pride.
CrossFit has become an avenue for many different kinds of kids to get what they need. On the surface, it’s a great way to get fit and in shape. It is also a terrific tool to cross-train and to get full-body conditioning for kids who are serious about a single sport. More and more studies are showing that’s exactly what kids need to help prevent the increasing number of overuse injuries. But from what I’ve seen in the classes I coach, CrossFit has become so much more. The fun, the camaraderie, and the sense of accomplishment, as well as all of the physical and health benefits, are the best of unexpected surprises for my students. They all have their own reasons for being there, but in the end they are one, bonded team making great strides together and individually.
Check out our CrossFit kids program here: http://www.amrapfitness.com/crossfit-kids-sports-performance/.
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