CRUZ BECKHAM’S ROWING ROW!

Meanwhile (as the rest of the world seemingly goes to hell in a handcart) in celeb-world, the Beckham’s received a fair bit of criticism following their 12-year-old son, Cruz posting a video of himself working-out on a rowing machine. This whole storm in a tea-cup left me with 3 main questions:

1. Does every Beckham have an hereditary gene giving them an insatiable appetite for self-promotion?     
2. Why on earth have three hundred thousand people (myself included) wasted 30 seconds of their life watching a kid do nothing more than row at a fair intensity on a rowing machine?
3. Why did some people on social media, wrongfully condemn the Beckham’s for allowing their son to perform some form of semi-serious exercise?   
   

Now, question 1 can probably only truly be answered by doctors; the answer to question 2 is probably that more of us need to ‘get a life’; and as for question 3, I’m going to set about answering that now…

I’m sure any right-minded person would agree that all children should be doing some sort of exercise or activity, whether it be kicking a ball about with friends, playing kiss-chase, climbing trees or whatever; and indeed, the experts corroborate with this too. A quick glance at the NHS activity guidelines pretty much tells us so. They recommend that every child between 5-18 do an hour’s activity each day.

So why have the Beckham’s come in for such grief?

Why I think the Beckham’s have come in for particular criticism, is because of the nature of what their son was doing. If he’d posted a clip of himself having a running race with his friends everything would have been hunky-dory, but some people seem to think that children training in a gym or using gym equipment is inherently more risky or dangerous than other less formal exercise. But are these people right? Let’s see what do the experts say:

According to the world-renowned and more importantly well-respected American College of Sports Medicine, aerobic-type training such as rowing (as Cruz was doing) is not only perfectly acceptable, but should also be vigorously encouraged.

They don’t stop there though, they go even further by saying that strength training (lifting weights), which is often demonised when talking about training children, provided it is done sensibly and under supervision is also a sensible form of exercise for children too; and indeed, our very own NHS also agrees with this sentiment.

Aerobic and strength training

So, there you have it people, leading authorities in the world of health and fitness not only recommend aerobic training, but they are now recommending that children do some form strength training too, given that many of the tales you hear about its negative effects on the growing body have largely been debunked by the science!

But none of this is too revolutionary, if you think about it children have been informally strength training since time immemorial. Whether it be pulling up their entire body weight whilst climbing trees, or carrying the whole weight of another human being whilst playing piggy-backs; or even the more mundane task of carrying a heavy school bag laden with books and PE kit, children have forever inadvertently been strengthening their bodies!

In conclusion…

Exercise is good for children. Traditional aerobic type activities such as running, jumping, swimming, skipping are very beneficial to children and relatively inexpensive. However, if you have the inclination and the equipment don’t be put off from allowing your children to some strength training too. Provided it’s done sensibly it’s a great form of exercise!

And as for those ‘quick to type, slow to think’ type o’ people on social media, perhaps they should check out the facts and seek the advice of experts before giving their opinions. But then again if we can’t expect this from the President of the United States, who can we expect it from? 

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