We’re giving away three copies of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution in honor of Fatherhood. Read on to find out how you can get one for yourself (if you’re a Dad), your husband or your father.
Picture courtesy of pipitdapo on Flickr
What’s the meaning of Fatherhood? I think it’s more than just donating genetic code. Being a dad is about stamping something of value – our best efforts and qualities – into the impressionable minds and hearts of those in our care. For me, I don’t even derive my impression of Fatherhood from my biological father, but from my Grandfather.
My “Pop” was of one those “real men” that are hard to find nowadays – but were ubiquitous back then. I’ve always maintained that if I absorbed even a fraction of his honor and duty, then I count myself among good men.
And it was my Pop who taught me the beauty of physical activity. Some of my fondest memories of childhood and young adulthood are of playing racquetball with him. He was a guide through all the important moments in my early explorations of physical culture.
Me & The Kid
Now that I’m a Dad, I embrace that same responsibility to provide a role model of vibrant energy and physical activity for my daughter. I also feel the duty to ensure that I have the energy and drive to play with my daughter and give her the attention she deserves.
Fit For Fatherhood Giveaway
How to Enter: In the comments section below, answer the questions in one of three categories – Dads, Wives, Sons & Daughters – with a short essay of between 150 – 250 words.
Deadline: You have until Saturday June 20th at 8:00 am ET to post your entry. We’ll pick the best entry in each of the categories and award a copy of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution. The winners will be posted on Father’s Day.
Questions:
Category 1 – Dads
Why do YOU feel that your health and wellness are an important part of being a Dad. What fears do you face regarding your health and your Fatherhood? What is standing in the way of fully embracing the health and fitness lifestyle you want? How is Bodyweight Exercise Revolution the perfect tool to set you on the right path?
Category 2 – Wives
Why is it important to you that your husband take care of his health and fitness? Why do you think Bodyweight Exercise Revolution would be perfect for him?
Category 3 – Sons & Daughters
Why is it important to you that your Dad take care of his health and fitness? Why do you think Bodyweight Exercise Revolution would be perfect for him?
That’s it. Enter your answer into the comments section below to win one of the three copies of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution. Fatherhood is one of the most important and demanding roles a man will play in his life. Staying fit and healthy is one of the best ways to ensure you or the man in your life can fully embrace it.
No related posts.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
I am a soon to be father and life long fitness fanatic. The more I look forward to having my first child and becoming a Dad the more I am starting to understand how important my health and vitality is not only to myself but to my wife and “soon to be” child. As a Dad, we have more responsiblities then just being a “man” instead we have to teach, care for, pay for, pray for, and love on our family. What would or could I do if I did not have my health, be a burden, be “that guy”(the drunk, the fat couch potatoe)? Now that I have information on a daily basis at my finger tips(ie. the internet) I can keep up with the newest, lastest and best ways to stay in shape even when i may have some new time constraints. As an advocate of heatlh, fitness, wellness and vitality I know that it will be my responsiblity to transfer this thought process on to the next generation.
Mitch
Health and fitness is the example Ichoose as one of the gifts I can give to my children. As my children watch me rise up to my challenges, embrace my value system, they take notice and will incorporate those values into thier lifestyle. My eldest daughter recentlty found the benifit of bodywieght exercise. She didn’t like that I would ask her to join me in my DJM and FlowFit practice. She didn’t make the connection between fitness and athletic performance. Her grappling was not improving as her skills aquisitioned were hindered by her athleticism. That all changed when she went out for the dance team. She earned a spot as an active dancer for the 2009-2010 team. After two weeks of practice, and the motivation to work in the zone of being uncomfortable, her attitude has changed. She is even willing for me to give a workshop to the dance team to deliver conditioning protocols such as dynamic joint mobilty for active recovery and metobolic conditioning with bodyweight exercise. I have seen how my lifestyle has a positive effect on the choices my children make.
I am a daughter and from my dad I got my love for keeping fit. He was always out playing football and if not coaching it. He set up a football club for our local area when I was very young. As I got older the local lads would slag him for wearing his socks over his trackie bottoms, so funny but true and he didnt care he was there to teach them and they loved him, they want him to coach them again and now they have their own kids. I would love my dad to have this book as I have learned from my own trainer that bodyweight training is the way forward and no matter how old he is, I know he wants to find new and interesting ways to keep him fit. One of the ways was when he was 50 he completed a 26mile marathon and he did it, if I remember correctly in under 6 hrs.I messed up by parking about 3 miles away from the finish line, we got a taxi it was ok ha ha!!He inspires me every day to stay fit and healthy and at 28 its just one of the many gifts he has given me
First off..thanks you guys for even doing this contest. I have been an avid fan ever since I thankfully discovered your site. I am entering in the “wife” category. My husband IS the COUCH potatoe. He is going to be 60 years old on June 30 and I am so worried about him. He is terribly overweight and goes about wanting to lose weight all the WRONG WAY. For example…he is the person who thinks by starving himself all day (just a hardboiled egg and apple for breakfast and lunch). He has been having nightmares lately about dieing and leaving me and our 4 children alone. He is the sole supporter of our wonderful, loving family. My children and myself are all fitness fanatics… He has watched me transform my own life in the last 2 years having dropped over 90 lbs myself and finding my passion after 50 years… I love every aspect of fitness. I want him to love it as well! Time is running out for him but as we all know it is NEVER to LATE! He is not about or able to do any explosive type of exercise in his current shape. He works a job he hates and has for the last 27 years to provide a living for the 6 of us. I have been blessed to be a stay at home mom, thanks to my husband. Please allow me to give him this wonderful program and help him get the most out of the precious time he has left. There are no words to tell you how much this would mean…he can hardly walk, his knees hurt, his clothes are all too tight…he snores so loudly i cannot even sleep with HIM! He is a GREAT HUSBAND and FATHER… this would truly be a “GIFT OF LIFE” for him. Your program is amazing in every way… Please help me to help my husband… Thank you so much~ Bribes you say? hmmm.. just what would i have to do to cinch the deal? LOL
Cat. 3 – Dad’s come in all shapes and sizes and personalities. My dad love to serve his family and community any way he can. I have been influenced by my father in so many ways, and would like to send him a book to “influence” him as he is aging. Never one to formally exercise, he has always been active (still mows the lawn) and walks or hikes. He is 76 and has spent the last few years eating a heart healthy diet, but the idea of a bodyweight workout could really help him strengthen his core. I know he is an avid reader who likes to learn new things (such as e-mail, surfing the net, and taking digital pictures.) He has 11 grandchildren and we’d love to have him around for many years to come.
Question 3
My father went off to serve in Vietnam when I was about three years old. During his time overseas, my mother decided to divorce him. His Army career kept him out of the country for all of my childhood years. Although he invited me to visit him in Germany, Japan, and several other duty stations, my mother would never even consider it. We became strangers with the same last name.
He finally came back to the states permanently when I was in my 30s. Although he had always kept in touch with letters and cards, and sent gifts at the holidays, I was very bitter about growing up without my father around. I knew it wasn’t entirely his fault, but I hadn’t really come to grips with the feelings. When he returned he wanted to establish a closer relationship, but initially I refused. I figured that I had done just fine without him up until then, why did I need him in my life?
A few years after his return I finally put those feelings in perspective and contacted him. We email, talk, and occasionally visit now. Although the years we missed can never be replaced, we have time to get to know each other now. My dad needs to keep himself in shape with Bodyweight Exercise Revolution so he can live as long as possible – so we can make the most of the rest of his years.
.-= Linus Callahan´s last blog -> 6/14/09 More truck loading… =-.
First of all, Yes i am a woman, 100% full blooded female , no one has ever mistaken me to be otherwise…but not by choice, but more of situation am I the man of the house, the breadwinner, the dad to two wonderful growing boys who I’ve raised as a single parent. My friends have long given up greeting me on Mother’s day, cause I would always remind them that I celebrate it come the 2nd Sunday of June. It may seem strange, but it gives me a sense of accomplishment that another year has gone by that I’ve managed to be a mom and dad at the same time, check on the boy’s daily schoolwork as well as make sure they had food for the next day, juggle two kinds of work (i am a yoga teacher as well as a group exercise instructor and a ghost writer as well, haha…i don’t write for ghosts but I do the articles for a famous chef here where I live ) towards midnight, I spend some alone time on the net, researching for stuff for my yoga and cardio classes, and I turn in to Scott Sonnon’s site as well as yours for inspiration . You guys rock…you give me the extra energy and drive I need to sail through my classes.. And there are so many valuable insights I get from your site that I share with my students. Your teaching sites are valuable resources for me. For self practice as well as for my classes. You continually make Exercise fun and creative…most importantly you drive home the message that it is what we need if we want to live life to the fullest and the beauty is you make it accessible to all, whether rich or not so rich, young or not so young, strong or no as strong… as long as one breathes he can exercise. Hopefully, one day (i can always dream right) I would like to take your teacher training courses. But for the meantime thanks for this wonderful site. God bless you guys. Btw, my sons are treating me on Father’s Day by watching a chick flick with me for a change. They’re swell kids!!!
Cat.1- I have passed my 40:s, and i have 2 daughters, age 2 and 5.
I come from a childhood full of struggle. I swore if i ever would be a father i would give all the love to my child i never got. But something occured on the way, i got problems with alcohol. Now im clean, but understand that i have to take care of myself, and like my self to be honest enough to give my unconditional love, just like i get from them.
Training is a important role in my life these days, not only for the body, but as much for the mind and spirit. I begin to like myself, and YOU have helped me to get where im today. All i want is to be a loving and proud father in the end of the day, and give them the right values in their childhood as they grow up. The road is never complete straight, and will propably never be, but i do what i can to be the best father they ever could wished for.
In the summer of 2008, at the age of forty, I decided to go back to the weight room and pick up where I had left off some fifteen years previously. With consistency and a healthy diet I soon gained strength along with muscle mass and seemed to be on my way to better health. However, I noticed a recurring pattern of injuries that plagued my regime despite the fact that I spent a good amount of time warming up and using correct form with the weights. The bench press brought me shoulder pain, the deadlift sent me to the chiropractor as did the squat, which also may have caused permanent knee damage.
What (finally) became glaringly obvious was that I was heading into the autumn and winter of life with the strong possibility of joint discomfort if not eventual joint replacement. As a father who believes that a healthy lifestyle is the best medicine for a quality life, I decided that I had to find an alternative. I didn’t want to find myself crippled or too sore and stiff to run and play with my daughters nor did I want to further the example that many athletes set of abusing the body in the name of health. Often my wife has had to explain to my girls that they couldn’t jump on me because I was in pain and more than once my daughters have asked me why I was holding my back or walking stiffly. What sort of message am I sending them?
After heavily researching YouTube I stumbled across Scott Sonnon which, upon further search, eventually led me to Adam and Ryan’s “Bodyweight Exercise Revolution”. Having tried the “leg swoop” demonstration they emailed me I instantly found it more challenging and far more engaging than any other exercise. It seems that I have found a happy medium… something between yoga (which I had practiced for a few years) and lifting weights. Exercises that I can do right in my own living room where my daughters can watch their “old man” become stronger and more mobile with age.
Also, I’ve recently embarked on a career change to become a Health Educator and what better way to educate another than to live what one teaches?
By the way, I asked for the “Bodyweight Exercise Revolution” for Father’s Day!
Thank you for the emails and vids!
~eric
Several years back my father really started taking care of his heath and began a fitness program called Nia. It had an incalculably positive impact on his life. Several years later he is still doing it and is now teaching it. Part of what he does in class is incorporate exercises from various disciplines such as Yoga, martial arts, dancing, etc. all using only body weight. I just bought him a book on Capoeira to use for this purpose and I’m sure that aspects of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution would be very helpful to him and his students as well. Best, and happy fathers day to all, Mischa
My father is the most inspiring person in my life.
My father’s family originally lived in Tasmania, Australia. In his teenage years a series of wildfires swept through the state, destroying thousands of acres of homes homes and farmland. His family were forced to flee their farm leaving all their possessions, livestock, pets and photographs behind. The life they had worked so hard to build had been destroyed in a matter of seconds.
Forced to rebuild their lives from scratch, they relocated to a small country town in Western Australia, using what little compensation they were given. My grandfather was unable to cope with the emotional toll of these events and took his own life not long after the move.
After losing both his father and his home in a matter of months my dad has built his life from the ground up. He became a very successful farmer, starting with nothing, leasing land and equipment until he could buy his own.
He recently realised a long time dream by almost single-handedly (apart from plumbing and electrics) building our present home from rammed earth.
Now the farming business is winding down, making the once regular manual labour a rare event. The effects of this show on my father, he is gaining weight quickly. I want him to remain healthy so he can enjoy the fruits of his years of past hardship.
The Bodyweight Exercise Revolution is perfect for him. Allowing him to quickly improve his health in our home without having to buy expensive equipment. The improved quality of life this product would bring is a fitting reward for someone who has endured so much hardship.
P.S. if I was to win, I would happily pay the postage to Australia.
I’m a 24 year veteran of being a dad. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that things that worked in the past don’t necessarily work now. I’m older, obviously, & things like time & energy levels, which weren’t an issue are now very important. I can’t invest as much time as I once did exercising & when I do exercise, it takes me longer to recover. This a problem that looked unsolvable; that is until I read about what “Bodyweight Exercise Revolution” can do. How great would it be to get in a result producing workout without going to gym, feel refreshed & energized & not be bored with the same routine by doing something called the “4 X 7 wave”? I’m intrigued, heck, I’m genuinely excited! Also, within the last year I have become a granddad. My paradigms are shifting awfully fast. The Bodyweight Revolution looks like a great way to keep pace.
Without good health and physical vitality, I will not be able to participate in activities with my young boys, such as sports and roughhousing. Boys are rather active and it takes a lot of energy and physical stamina to keep up. It’s really a quality of life thing. The better a dad’s health, the more they can enjoy their time with their children.
I often worry that some chronic injuries I sustained years ago will continue to plague me and slowly but surely reduce the level of activity I can tolerate. To a degree, this has already happened with a low back injury. I am finding that basic activities are sometimes tough to do. I do not want my sons seeing their dad partially immobilized and thinking that is how things are supposed to be.
As far as what is holding me back from being more fit, the short answer is nothing. Like many people who have fallen off the fitness wagon, it is really tough to get back to it, just because it has not been part of a daily routine for so many years. It’s a matter of changing habits. The aches and pains certainly do impede efforts to get healthy again by making the process of moving and putting in the much needed work painful. Mentally, it is hard to remember what great shape you were in once and realize that you can’t do it any more.
I believe that bodyweight exercises are probably the safest and most incremental way to start back on the path to fitness. There is also an infinite number of ways to alter exercises and keep the workouts interesting. Variety in the routines make it less likely for one to get bored. I also am aware of the authors’ backgrounds and am confident that the material is not only valuable, but synergistic in nature, making the results one receives that much better.
I have seen my husband faithfully devote his heart and soul to supporting our family for the past 29 years. Ours has been a one-income family. My husband generously made the decision to provide the means for me to stay home with our three children as they were growing up.
This sacrifice on behalf of his family created tremendous pressure on my husband, starting around 21 years ago. At that time, his health plummeted and he gained a lot of weight in response to the stress. Despite many attempts to reduce and control the excess weight over the years since, he has not been able to successfully keep it off and get back the fitness that he so much desires.
My husband is a volunteer Scoutmaster, influencing many young men every year. I know it is his desire to increase his fitness so that he can continue to serve these boys. Since we live in a very rural area, access to gyms and other equipment is non-existent. I believe that a copy of Bodyweight Exercise Revolution would be a perfect way for him to achieve the fitness and body weight goals he’s had for 21 years!
There are no mistakes in the universe…part of my lesson here is to see this and practice from this clear space…at age 74, years of training are now being directed towards bodyweight exercises…my opportunity of being a father once again are small, yet my opportunity of being an example to others is large.
“Let’s play!” These words are sweeter than candy to a child. I love to get down on the floor and wrestle with my kids, crawl around on all fours with as many kids on back as can hold on, swing them around in circles, carry them piggy back style or on shoulders. Awesome bodyweight exercises! Playing is one of my essential functions. As a Dad, I can’t imagine life without being fit and well enough to play with my kids. For me, making time to play is a priority, and with a small amount of imagination play can be adapted to fulfill a daily workout, and build healthy habits as a family by getting everyone involved. Bodyweight exercise for children comes naturally, and they have loads of fun doing them. Using bodyweight exercise can helps dads and families have fun, get fit and build lasting bonds of love as time is shared together.
Thanks for the great info!
I have been a Dad now for 15 years. My fitness level went from excellent to good to fair and is finally starting to push up to good again. I am just finishing up my first year of med school and have only been successful because of the support of my wonderful wife and 5 children. As a doc-to-be, I fully understand the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and level of fitness. I need to continue to push and improve my fitness so that I can play with my youngest (3) as well as play with the oldest (15) and be able to do all those things that a dad should do. With my limited schedule, bodyweight training is my ticket. I can do it at anytime at home and not feel that I am pulling time away from my family nor my studies. Even better is that the knowledge I have gained both in and out of school will enable me to be a better Dad and Doctor, which leads to healthier patients. Thanks!
I feel that my health and wellness are an important part of being a father so that I can model and good lifestyle for my son and future kids. I’d like to show him/them that being physically active is a more productive and rewarding way of life. My concerns are that I would not be able to keep up with my kids and/or would be one of those fathers that their kids aren’t proud of or don’t respect because of their lifestyle and appearance. I do not want to be an example of laziness, being overweight and lethargic, but of strength and vitality. Schedule and equipment constraints, and program design are the challenging factors. The challenges of picking exercises and set/rep schemes while not spending hours training at a gym or with unique and expensive equipment, and picking exercises that provide “bang for the buck” from the hundreds of thousands of various exercises are the biggest needs. “Where do you start, which ones, how many, how do you progress?” That is why I feel that Bodyweight Exercise Revolution is a good fit.
#3
I’ve always felt the need to challenge myself, to expand the boundaries of my limitations, and my fitness is an area where it has been most readily apparent. I made an evolutionary jump about 4 yrs ago, with the coming of my son (first child), which propelled a major shift in my approach to my life and all it’s aspects. This included my introduction to a smarter, more efficient way of training (Kettlebells, Joint Mobility, etc.).
Then last year, I once again found myself taking major steps in my personal journey and, wouldn’t you know it, coinciding with the coming of my second child. Thru the effort to make these steps permanent, I found myself at the doors of RMAX International (another incredible evolution in how I view and apply fitness).
I credit my sons and their coming into my life, giving me the gift of being their father, with contributing so much to my growth as a human being. In thanks (and in honor of Fatherhood, to which I owe a great deal), I want to give them the gift of having their grandfather, my father, one of my closest mentors and best friends, around AND KICKING, for many years to come:)!
What better way, for a man who travels a lot with his work, than a Bodyweight only Exercise program, founded on the principles of a system that is causing such a Revolution, that I can’t help but tell every person I come into contact with!
As a father of two, part of my ‘job definition’ has been to serve as a one-man amusement park, a platform to be jumped onto and from, pulled on and by, etc. Occasionally, just being a simple pack mule will do. Both functions, which put quite a strain on my not-so-slender frame, were recently called into play. We were ‘stranded’ car-less a mile from home, when my son (aged
started to cry in agony with severe leg pain. In a stroke of fatherly self-sacrifice, I offered him a ride home on my shoulders. Thus perched, his pain was gone and, as happiness rushed in, he started bouncing and swaying every which way. As much as I love bodyweight exercise and exercise sophistication, this was pushing the leverage too far. It took me a week to realign my back and hip. While this may sound like a lot, even this level of resilience is no small feat for me: Ten years ago, at 35, I suffered from debilitating back pain which projected down my legs. However, I refused surgery and exercised through the pain to improve my muscular balance and develop better strength, agility and flexibility. This saved my back, and much more.
It was the quest for this kind of training for health and balance that led me to discover CST, and recently the Bodyweight Exercise Revolution. I believe the BER program can safely take my ‘resilience’ skills to a much higher level, ensuring that I can continue to keep up with my kids (and future grandchildren). I also love a challenge, and the mere drive to manage the exercises will surely motivate me to restrain my eating, currently my greatest obstacle to true fitness.
As father of 3 beautiful and healthy children and a wife I feel myself complete. Just passed 40 years and better fit than ever (Thanks to BER and CST) I want to be good example to my family. I love to to exercise with my children – and they love the same. I can only imagine what kind of “stamp” BER/CST – exercises leaves to my children – they are generation with computer, television and MP3 etc. Less and less physical activity and more passive time wasting. I hope that they will keep on using their bodies and keep in fit. With BER I have already expand my boundaries and will keep on rocking…
I would like my father to be healthy and fit now since he literally spent the first half of my life (I am 36 y/o) working very physically demanding jobs (steel mill) as well as going to school in the evenings just to support my sister and I. Now my father is preparing to retire in December of this year and I would love to be able hang out with him and toss the football around etc. It would be great to see him enjoy his retirement in a healthy, strong state.
i am a dad of four children.i try to set an example for them everyday in ways to better them selves.i hug them and tell them i love them very much.i want them to now that they are important .my goal is to be around them for a long time so i can pass on to their children how much i care for them as well.i try to lead be example ,i teach martial arts to kids and adults,i ride my bike and try to eat the right foods.i could use some help with good exercises for them and myself.thanks for your time.
Thanks to ALL of you for the amazing stories!
The results are in and you can find them here.
As you’ll see, it was a seriously tough job deciding on “winners.” In fact, it was so tough that we had to add extra prizes!
Thanks again.
Adam