For years, my kids have been following me into my garage gym—even before we had a proper home gym, they would steal stray dumbbells or yoga balls that I thought I had bought for myself. I would encourage their interest, but I wondered: How can I encourage them to make exercise a habit? It took a while, but I think I have that figured out.
I wrote this, or something very much like it, on a whiteboard in the gym:
2 sets of 5: goblet squats
2 sets of 5: bench press
2 carries, any heavy object of your choice
The basic structure that I stole goes like this:
There are always five exercises that fit the categories of: squat, hinge, push, pull, and carry.
Add weight when it feels too easy.
First, they were sold on the name. If you’re a kid who gets easily winded or discouraged in gym class, the idea that exercise can be “easy” is appealing, even revolutionary. According to a paper that describes the Easy Strength program, the first time you do an exercise it should be easy enough to feel like a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. Or to put it another way: you’re doing five reps of each exercise with a weight that you could do nine or 10 reps of, if you wanted to. (You can add weight if you’re feeling frisky, but it’s never supposed to feel hard.)
Third, and I think this is key, we chose exercises that require zero setup time (or, occasionally, a very brief setup). We have small, medium, and large kettlebells. Depending on the kid, they used medium or large for the deadlifts, and small or medium for the squats. I had thought at first that they could start chaining small plates to the kettlebells to add weight, but they preferred to keep working with the same bell until it felt too easy, and then they would give it a try with the next larger size. Hey—that works.
Why it’s secretly a really solid training program
But here’s the thing: The sweet spot for building muscle and strength is considered to be somewhere in the ballpark of 10 to 20 sets per muscle per week, with beginners able to get away with a bit less. If you do two sets every day, that’s 14 in a week. If you only do five days of training and take the weekends off, that’s still 10 sets. And if you’re a kid who wanders down to the gym a few times a week and kind of forgets about it the rest of the time, that’s still six sets per week, which is a lot more than zero.
Or to think about it another way: nobody would bat an eye at a program that had three or four sets of each exercise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This is the same thing, just spread over more days. It’s the same amount of work. (And no, there’s not a law of nature that you need to take a day off between strength sessions; rest days just make for convenient scheduling.)
How to start doing this with your kids (or yourself)
The most important thing is that the kids (or you) should know how to do the exercises that are part of the program. If a kid has to learn how to squat and how to deadlift and everything else, odds are not good for making it through the first day without crying. But if you’ve already been coaching them through some air squats or reminding them to keep their back flat when they get curious about lifting your kettlebell, then they may be ready to include those exercises in their routine. If you’re not sure where to start, ask them what they’ve been doing in gym class. For kids who are old enough to follow a tutorial from YouTube, try these:
Barbell squat
Deadlift (with a barbell)
Inverted rows
For example, you can have the kids do pushups with their hands on a bench. As they get stronger, they can do them on the floor and then graduate to putting their feet on the bench. Step-ups are a great option for when air squats get too easy. Inverted rows are a good “pull” exercise, and they can work their way up to pullups if you’ve got a bar. Have a look at my list of bodyweight movements that are good for strength building, and pick out some things that will work for your little (or not-so-little) ones.
Is this the very best way to build strength and muscle? I mean, I wouldn’t train for a powerlifting competition this way. But any routine you’ll actually do beats the heck out of doing nothing. So if you aren’t into challenging yourself with tough training plans, make staying healthy easy for yourself by setting up a routine that’s quick enough to fit in your day and that you’ve designed to be enjoyable. After all, why should kids have all the fun?
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