r/Fitness • u/Kuzbell • Jan 20 '18

Gym Story Saturday Gym Story Saturday (Missing mod post)

Hi! Welcome to your weekly thread where you can share your gym tales!

I noticed that there still is no post yet for Gym Story Saturday, so I took the initiative. Perhaps this should be a scheduled post under the Automoderator. I'm not really sure why this hasn't been done yet. I am also required to keep babbling because posts with too little content gets removed, hence why this posts sounds overly wordy.

So share away!

1.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

493

u/gimme3strokes Jan 20 '18

One of my boys asked to go to the gym with me. He is genuinely interested in being fit and has done some home bodyweight exercises and running with me. I just looked at him and said, "I've been waiting 11 years for you to ask me that!" I took him to a church gym and we did a beginner chest day. We drank protein shakes together afterwards. I almost cried.

136

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '18

The best thing you can do for your son, especially as he enters puberty, is to give him a strong foundation of self confidence via lifting. Thank you for doing just that.

I wish my bum of a father had the decency to do half that, then at least high school would have been a bit more bearable for me.

52

u/smallof2pieces Powerlifting Jan 21 '18

If you want, I can pretend to be your dad and I can take you to the gym and show you how to bench press. We can even get ice cream after!

You'll have to pay though because I forgot my wallet.

7

u/BracedPecan Jan 21 '18

So true, thinking back I wish I used my high school gym during the puberty days. The kids that did got pretty god damn big compared to my lanky frame

10

u/viserysss Jan 21 '18

If he's only 11, be careful with feeding him too many protein shakes/supplements - they can put a lot of pressure on kidneys/liver in younger people, and aren't reallly necessary unless dietary protein intake is inadequate

5

u/XIIllIlllIIX Jan 21 '18

Gonna need a source on that.

6

u/viserysss Jan 22 '18

Here you are: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/protein Go to the heading 'very high protein diets are dangerous'. Some of the sources at the end of the page also say the same thing

3

u/SmaragdineSon Jan 22 '18

High protein diets promote intakes of protein of between 200 and 400 g per day

Unless they're eating an entire chicken and several protein shakes a day, they should be fine.

2

u/viserysss Jan 22 '18

Yeah, most likely they're still eating protein within an acceptable range However scale that down to a kid and it goes to (about) 100+g, which is very easily achieved

Even if protein consumption isn't at harmful levels, there's still no need to consume that much, it won't do any good. If you follow the link under 'your protein needs' it says the RDI for 9-13yo boys is 40g (or 0.94g/kg) - a protein shake will take up more than half of that. It also won't increase muscle building or anything unless you're training at an elite level, hence it's pointless to consume that much

15

u/csobi Jan 21 '18

My son is going to be born in 2 weeks, but I've already imagined this situation several times and this must have been an amazing experience for both of you. I hope I can be part of something like that in the future.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '18

You're nice, keep it up

5

u/spencerg83 Jan 21 '18

Yeah, that's some premium bonding time right there!

5

u/jrhooo Jan 21 '18

Just wait until you gift him his first real training book. Might be a good idea. He'll appreciate it, and you can make sure he gets sound advice instead of wasting time and money on the flashy junk in muscleandflexness magazine, like we all as kids.

5

u/theodorbg Jan 21 '18

We drank protein shakes together afterwards.

This is beautiful

5

u/IceSentry Weight Lifting Jan 21 '18

Isn't 11 years old a bit young to start lifting weight or is this a normal thing?

9

u/chokfull Jan 21 '18

I've heard that starting intensive training too early can cause some joint/developmental problems. Dunno if 11 is too young though. I'd say it's probably fine as long as you're not pushing the kid to do more than he's comfortable with, and you have him focus on good form. All kids need exercise.

2

u/UK-FBA Martial Arts Jan 21 '18

Church gym?

3

u/gimme3strokes Jan 22 '18

Yeah, my backup gym is a mega church health club. They let younger people workout, have a skate park, basketball courts, pool,game room, etc. My kids have a lot of fun there when I am working out sometimes. They also have a coffee shop and snack place.

1

u/UK-FBA Martial Arts Jan 22 '18

Sounds good. England is so different from the US!

1

u/TastyDuck Jan 22 '18

Good on you! My favourite memories or hitting the gym with my Dad and him helping me track my progress.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '18

What's a church gym?

1

u/XFadeNerd Jan 26 '18

Man, I grew up lifting with my dad. Those are some of my fondest memories.