At What Age Should You Learn Exercise?

Teaching students exercise SKILLS FOR LIFE.

“When should I teach kids how to exercise?”

I get a lot of variations of this question now that I’m coaching about 100 students as a volunteer exercise coach.

In my experience there are 3 main times.

But we will start BEFORE the process of teaching exercise.

My first goal is to artfully delay “working out” for my kids.

They’re 2 and 4 years old, so I prioritize going outside, going to playgrounds, and going to gymnastics or setting up basic gymnastics at home.

For the past 2 years we’ve had a playzone for them at our ATG HQ gym, and now we’re expanding that concept with a playzone and safe gymnastic space in a new public gym that’s under construction!

HOWEVER, my kids often see me and my wife, Alissa, working out, and they want to join.

Well, I grew up watching my parents manage office buildings. My dad was constantly mowing lawns, painting walls, and doing other jobs too advanced for a toddler.

Somehow, I never got injured, and by the time I was an adult I was professionally effective at the basic skills of his job!

So the earliest I can see it being smart to learn exercise is similar to apprenticing any other life skills you see your parents doing.

My job is setting up a safe environment and not allowing them to do dangerous exercises for their age.

For that reason, I made my squat and pull-up rack with grooves so they can hang from the bar at an appropriate height.

That’s just one example.

And as mentioned above, my main strategy was giving them their own safe space within my gym.

By the time my kids are adults, I wouldn’t be surprised if they can coach exercise at a professional level! But I sure won’t be forcing them to. They’ll just apprentice life itself with me, and that happens to be what I do.

The next main time I see value in learning exercise is if you become serious about a sport with serious SURGERY chances.

As a teen knee surgery case myself I can tell you this is NOT FUN.

It can single-handedly lead to depression at a time of life that should be exhilarating.

For basketball, this means that something like a CONTROLLED, DEEP squat with appropriate but progressive loading becomes SAFER THAN IF YOU DON’T.

Sure, learning a controlled, full range squat with appropriate but progressive loading has more risk than doing nothing.

But if you play basketball, NOT LEARNING IT HAS MORE RISK THAN LEARNING IT.

In coaching many hundreds of young people for over a decade, I have not seen an injury in doing so, but I coach with tremendous focus and attention to form and control!

The third main time I see it smart to teach exercise to young people is any time prior to graduating high school!

We have so much TIME in school, and in my personal experience I did NOT learn adequate skills for LIFE.

So now I live it, teaching students exercise SKILLS FOR LIFE 2-3 times per week.

Each item is not just “do this exercise.”

WHY are you doing this?

How is it a GRADIENT SCALE you can use the rest of your life?

And these factors are valuable at ANY age, even after graduation.

My Exercise Skills For Life program is on the app, but you don’t have to be in school to do it! It’s designed as an education you can use for LIFE, and as always, with the lowest price I’ve seen to coach YOUR FORM.

If you’re reading this, it means you have already supported me in some way, and it’s because of this support that I can be a volunteer exercise coach and then spend the remainder of my time sharing my most valuable exercise skills on social media, in articles, and on the site/app for broad accessibility.

I hope this article helps in your own efforts to help others!

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

Exercise Skills For Life program

Scalable pull-up rack

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