Seniors and Kids

Summary

The main point of this article is that all peoples needs vary by degree, not kind.

In other words, regardless of who you are you should be squatting, pressing, pulling, and developing the 10 general physical skills that CrossFit is based on. What changes is where you start and how fast your progress.

Elderly and Kids need an extra focus on perfect mechanics before progressing load and intensity in a given movement.

The article finishes with a great quote:

“CrossFit endeavors to train for capacities that are valued regardless of age, gender, or sport. Who doesn’t want faster hips, greater balance, and a stronger torso?”

Journal Link

Highlights

• The needs of the elderly and professional athletes vary by degree, not kind.

• Where one needs functional competency to maintain independence, the other needs functional mastery to maintain dominance.

• Improved hip capacity will help a pro ball player’s throw to first; it will also reduce the chances of grandpa falling in the tub. The squat is the perfect tool for both.

• The workout that challenges a prizefighter will have a toned down equivalent for anyone else. Less weight, fewer reps, more rest, whatever is required to allow exposure to the movements at a challenging but tolerable and intensity

• Three movements, the squat, deadlift, and push-press, are our starting point with nearly everyone.

• The marginal capacity to stand is another way to look at the squat.

• Women with osteoporosis can start their weight lifting careers with a broomstick.

• With an insistence on near perfect mechanics, we start with the squat, deadlift, and push-press.

• We’ve found that strength and control grow perfectly together.

• For both our seniors and kids too much weight is any amount that cannot be lifted with near perfect execution.

• Practicing with small loads and demanding proper technique builds muscle, bone, and strength sufficient to allow for slightly greater loads. That is the process for everyone.

• The most important consideration to make with kids and seniors is to be more patient, celebrate the small gains, work towards mastery of the mechanics of all moves, and practice “incrementalism” - that is, establish a baseline of performance and gently, in tiny increments, move upward.

• The bottom line is that everyone is very different and yet again strikingly similar. Often the genius is to know where to look for similarities and where to look for differences.

• CrossFit endeavors to train for capacities that are valued regardless of age, gender, or sport. Who doesn’t want faster hips, greater balance, and a stronger torso?