It has been an interesting few weeks...
I had the honor of presenting at the Iowa Physical Education conference in Davenport, Iowa a couple of weeks ago with Dr. Ed Thomas and Gray Cook.
Kettlebell Training was the theme of my presentations and it was great to expose some of the Physical Education community to my preferred tool and RKC principles.
The Sports Medicine program at High Point University (where I received my Bachelor of Science) was/is housed within the Physical Education program. So I took all the Physical Education classes except the Education classes for teaching - I could have been your Gym Teacher!
It was interesting therefore to step back into the world of Physical Education.
Physical Education is one of the key components of an "Education" but it is being cut by School Districts all over the country. And PE can be so much more than "sport" time.
So in the decades that Physical Education has been disappearing from our schools it should not surprisingly only 3 out of 10 American Youth can pass the Military Entrance Standards. And this number has been steadily dropping since WWI and WWII.
The Greeks had it right - Sound mind in a Sound body.
For as long as we are attached to this mortal coil we must care for it and exercise is the way to do that.
Look at the rates of Obesity, Heart Disease and Diabetes and the fact that what used to known as Type II Adult On-set Diabetes is now just Type II Diabetes because rates of Childhood cases and Adult cases have become equal - meaning our children are burning through their Pancreas at an alarmingly fast rate.
This is Dietary and Exercise preventable and treatable in most cases.
We are at a crisis point physically.
I also had the honor while at the Iowa Physical Education conference to meet the Army Accessions Command Sergeant Major for the Army and his team. (see pic above for the post workout shot) The Command Sergeant Major Troxell and his team are intent upon improving military fitness and trying to improve the physical capacity of American youth so they can be better prepared for entering the Armed Services if they choose to do so.
There was a special segment of the Iowa Conference where some of the attendees got to experience a little bit of Army Training with the Command Sergeant Major and his team.
And I have to tell you it was not only a very good training session but a great glimpse at what this team is trying to accomplish in revamping Army Training. And I am impressed.
(BTW - KBs are part of the new Army Training Manual)
Training has been pretty good - still breaking in to the KB Muscle program and looks like I will stay with reps of 4 for a few weeks but run the workouts otherwise as designed.
Yesterday for something different:
Prep: Foam Roller, Brettzel, Brettzel 2.0, Stretch
24 kg Get-ups x 5 singles Right and Left - with a press at each step on the way up and a Windmill at the top
24 kg Swings
10 right + 10 Left
20 alternating
20 side stepping
10+10
20 alternating
20 side stepping
Stretch
2 comments:
Not simply towing the party line, but I have always been fascinated by the wisdom the Greeks left us with. They do seem to have informed many crucial aspects of today's society (the Hippocratic oath, etc), yet our embrace of the PE aspect seems to be loosening.
It almost seems that we're in an inextricable situation now, with that the 'advances' in technology increasingly tending to render the population sessile. Those figures for the military test sadly don't come as a surprise, as people would have been a lot more active back then, with less trappings holding them back.
Perhaps they should try and instill a sense of pride in schools by teaching them the ways activity and education permeated the Greek societies. I know that reading books like 'The Spartan Health Regime' and 'The Warrior Diet' gave me a fascination with that civilization, in ways that '300' never could. (The penny only just dropped now as to why you used Greek terms for your recent DVDs)
It's probably particularly important to instill these kind of ideas in citizens during childhood/adolescence, because after school exercise seems to become slightly elitest and the preserve of the more well-off (gym fees or equipment, athletic clothes, etc). I've heard that a lot of the problem can be down to litigious parents who'll sue if they're child arrives home with a scratch. Difficult situation to correct.
davor,
it is a difficult situation to correct but one that we ignore or do not take on at our own peril.
Health care costs alone of obesity, diabetes and heart disease can potentially cripple many of the national health care systems out there.
Good for the fitness industry though if we get our act together
Post a Comment