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Bodyweight Routine for my 12 year old son

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StuKE

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My son has shown an interest in training and I want to help him enjoy working out, but I want to steer clear of weights for a few years and steer him towards a fairly gentle calisthenics based routine, short workouts, few movements.
I was thinking along the lines of starting with bodyweight squats, some sort of assisted chin ups and hands elevated press ups. Any comments or advice would be moat welcome.
Cheers
 
I think you're on the right track. When my kids were young, I kept a chin-up bar in a doorframe across from the kitchen, and helped them up until they could chin themselves easily. Main thing is to make it all fun and preach good form about that and the squats and pressups. Sports or just being outside on a playground or in a park is great for kids.
 
Run, jump, crawl, climb, play-fight, cartwheels, handstands, proper mechanics for lifts like the hinge and squat....

Try as many sports as possible, including track and field.

Have as much fun as possible
 
wespom9 said:
Run, jump, crawl, climb, play-fight, cartwheels, handstands, proper mechanics for lifts like the hinge and squat....

Try as many sports as possible, including track and field.

Have as much fun as possible
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, I agree that making it fun is most important. My son is not as sporty as his younger brother, though he does l like to go on bike rides. Most important at that age is to play, be active and so on but he has shown interest in doing some exercises with me in the garage (where all my gear is). I just need to get yim to take it seriously enough to learn good form.
 
I was pretty active country boy growing up, but when my older brother let me start training with him was a great experience for me. In retrospect, the mode was probably perfect for a 9-10 year old.

The Bullworker Classic, complete with poster of exercises and suggested routines. Resistance/iso was perfect, as I wasn't going to be getting hypertrophic or anything at those hormone levels but I got pretty darn strong. I still remember keeping track of the red plastic number indicator - man it was tough to make gains on that thing!

I'd say get him doing an abbreviated version of your workout - if its too different he might not keep motivation. I remember really wanting to get as strong as my brother. When I realized that wasn't going to happen overnight I at least wanted to earn his respect for my effort.

It made a big difference. While I was one of the smallest/lightest kids in my class I was also one of the strongest - I beat all takers arm-wrestling one day... except for Sister Ann, who whupped me good! Imagine something like that happening in a 4th grade class these days.

Good form is job 1, and honest praise for solid effort is job 2.
 
StuKE said:
I just need to get yim to take it seriously enough to learn good form.
Click to expand...

Is he your oldest? My kids at this age were all very hard to read. They might act a little oppositional and seem like they ignoring you, but they're actually paying attention to everything and absorbing much more than you can imagine. They'll tell you something years later that they noticed or was important to them, but they gave no clue at the time.

The fact that your son wants to hang around you is a great compliment. I'd assume he's paying attention and wants to emulate you very much, even if he doesn't show it. Avoid what he interprets as "lectures" (anything more than 10 words at this age, haha) and just show him good form and he'll learn fine.
 
I can only agree with the guys! Make exercise a fun activity. Focus on the basic moves: pullups, push ups, squats, crawling, running ...
 
I got my first weight set when I was about that age but I never had any guidance on how to use it properly so never progressed with weights until much later in life. I wish I would have started learning a progression of barbell and KB exercises in addition to bodyweight exercises at a much younger age to really capture that teenage hormone profile and start with all good habits. Seeing weight added to the bar at any age will be fun as long as you're not a drill sergeant about it and let the intensity be driven by the client at that age. I will give credit to CrossFit Kids for making fitness fun and I would consider getting some ideas from them too.
 
loaded carries may be a good addition. i grew up on farm (for real) and i got pretty darn strong helping my mom lug water and hay.
 
StuKE said:
My son has shown an interest in training and I want to help him enjoy working out, but I want to steer clear of weights for a few years and steer him towards a fairly gentle calisthenics based routine, short workouts, few movements.
I was thinking along the lines of starting with bodyweight squats, some sort of assisted chin ups and hands elevated press ups. Any comments or advice would be moat welcome.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Sounds great! I think this could be one of the most wonderful gifts you could share with your son!

Getting my 7 year old son into movement/ sports has been a difficult process as he is not naturally inclined to move his body :)

What has worked:

Encouraging him everyday to do a little bit of movement and follow it up with positive verbal praise

Find opportunities to play and make up physical games

Making outdoor walks and cycle rides about adventure and trying to find new bugs/animals :)

Trying as many different sports and activities until he says afterwards, "Dad that was great!" for him Judo and soccer was not working but now he has really gotten into boxing and chasing the big kids as they run around the block ( I never thought this would happen BTW he used to hate running)

The odd wrestle every now and again!


- I'm sure what every you do with your son will work.

Crawl, walk, jump, lunge, squat, hang, swing, throw, carry & run is the stuff of little and big champions
 
Well I seem to have lost the long reply I typed!
Thank you all for your great advice and kind comments!
I plan to start tonight, nice and easy and fun. This is my eldest son (he has an older sister and younger brother). I started young myself, but with weights whereas we will focus more on bodyweight etc for now.
Has anyone got any ideas how I can help him progress to a chin up? We will be in my garage, using the chinning frame I built - on previous attempts, when he has wanted to try pull himself up, I have had to bear hug his legs and assist him.
 
You could get a bar or platform out behind him to put the tops of his feet on, knees bent 90°.

Another option is to hop assist into the top position and just work on static holds or slow eccentric.
 
Other tried and tested methods for pull-ups and chin ups progressions include:
  • Aussie pull-ups
  • Negatives
  • Band assisted
  • Counterweight Pulley
 
these are great places to start. They can do weights also but keep them on the lighter side. My daughter has been training with me with bodyweight and kettlebells since she was 4 yrs old.

and agree - keep it fun :)
 
Look and see what the park situation is nearby. If there are parks that have great jungle gyms that can be a great way for him to actively use his body in functional ways. With the popularity of American Ninja warrior type shows this may be something he would take an interest to.
 
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