My concerns about a “regular” camp—I’m not saying what would happen but what could—are that if the kid can’t keep up with activities, he may feel left out all over again, and this time, he can’t go home at the end of the day to feel better about himself. But if he could go there, more or less fit in, make a few friends, all that, sure—that would be the best solution.
Before sending to such a camp, I’d still run the question past a doctor. While I doubt the kid would keel from a heart attack or anything, it might be tough on the joints for instance. And IMO one really important thing—exercise shouldn’t hurt too much. You wouldn’t want the kid getting so sore, day after day, that he developed a loathing for exercise and avoided it entirely thereafter.
As for weight camps, I’d shop around. If I found one and their sales pitch was “We run 'em hard all day!” or something half-assed, I wouldn’t send him there. I would also be looking at the typical results they get, find out if they had any testimonials on file, and really listen to how much science they’re bringing to bear on the issue, whether they’re trying to address all sides of the problem, etc.
But after posting it, I realized that this may be a moot point/dead end. The OP is in Germany, where she can’t even buy Lean Cuisine—I think that speaks volumes. There just isn’t the demand for it over there that we have for it here, so likewise, specialized camps may not exist at all or they may be exorbitantly expensive etc.
Shoot, the link goes to an ‘Under Construction’ page for me. Thanks for it, though! I’ll hit Google with the key words and phrases and see if I can’t find it another way.
lobotomyboy63, that really bites! It sounds very much like your mother has huge issues with food that she worked really hard to install in you. Good for you for resisting the pressure and fighting to get yourself on a healthier track as an adult! It must have been so difficult when you were growing up to be surrounded by a distorted attitude towards food at home and then struggle to find your own way without any support or understanding from the most crucial figures in your life.
This is just exactly what I most fear – I want my son to grow up with a healthy approach to nutrition and exercise, so that he can just lead his life and not be held back by insecurities and demons that I put into him myself when he was most vulnerable … and that he can then eventually pass on to his own children.
This is what has held me paralyzed for what feels like a long time now – I see that he (we) need to make a change, but I’ve been so afraid of having ‘There’s something about you that we need to work on’ turn into ‘You’re inadequate as you are. You need to change, because there’s something very wrong with you. Everyone can see how flawed you are; we have to hide it!’ I don’t want him to end up with a critical voice in his head nagging at him with every bite of food and every movement he makes.
But I’m feeling released from the paralysis now. Looking at the whole situation, there’s so much that’s already working here. I’m going to focus on building on that, and making some healthy changes without blowing a trumpet and announcing, ‘Now we’re eating more fruit! And more fish! And less pasta! Because we’re making a change! AaaOOOOgaa!!’
And as a nice step in the right direction, he starts with the handball team today, and beforehand, we’re going to a sports shop to get good running shoes for both of us. I mentioned the C25K program to him casually, as an I’m-thinking-of-doing-this-wanna-do-it-together-sounds-easy-and-fun kind of thing, and he sounded interested. Woot!
CrossFit Kids. They do some of the same kinds of workouts as the adults, but scaled to be appropriate for kids. There are also kid- and parent-friendly resources linked on that page. Check out some of the workout videos. You should also see if there’s a local affiliate; it’s almost certain that he’ll make friends there if there is one.
The attitude I’ve found with the CrossFit people is to be competitive but supportive. It’s pretty common to find the more advanced athletes cheering on the late finishers or providing pointers on getting better. The coaches approach exercise as a constant progression. You might not be able to do it now…but you will be able to in the future if you work at it. That’s the exact opposite of the crap that he’s gotten from school from what you said.
I’ve been doing CrossFit for the last year and a half, and even though I can’t work out regularly enough to do the 3 days on, 1 day off schedule they set out, I’ve lost a ton of weight and can complete workouts that would have half-killed me before. Yesterday’s workout was 5 timed rounds of 16 pull ups, 24 push ups, 36 sit ups, and 40 body-weight squats with a 3 minute rest in between (scaled down to 80% of the prescribed 20, 30, 40, 50 reps that the big guys do). That’s a total of 80 pull ups, 120 push ups, 180 sit ups, and 200 squats! And I not only finished it, I’m only a little bit sore today.
I just bought some new (expensive) jeans last week as a kind of reward for being good with working out and other things, and found out that my waist is the smallest it’s been in about 10 years. While everything CrossFit does is performance-oriented, you can’t help but look good after doing it for a while. The other day, my wife said that I was starting to look like an underwear model Plus, because it’s constantly varied, you never get bored with working out, and you usually don’t look for excuses to skip stuff. If today’s workout is something you don’t like doing, it’s only one day, and tomorrow is probably something more fun (for masochistic values of “fun”).
Plus, because it’s constantly varied, you never get bored with working out, and you usually don’t look for excuses to skip stuff. If today’s workout is something you don’t like doing, it’s only one day, and tomorrow is probably something more fun (for masochistic values of “fun”).