I used to get headaches weightlifting, but I’ve made a discovery while lifting my kids that has made the headaches disappear.


I beat-box, that’s right, beat-box. Like the Fat Boys back in the 80’s. My beat-boxing, equal parts flatulent sputtering and hyperventilation, is not prizewinning, and in terms of style points, might be better done into a paper bag--but I always seem to have a beat in my head, especially when my heart rate gets going, and I’ve found letting it out energizing and curative.

Beat-boxing has not only made my breathing more regular during strenuous bouts of “nipper ab rippers” and “baby girl car seat curls,” it has also allowed me to meter repetitions musically rather than counting them one by one, which I’ve found gives me a psychological boost and tricks me into greater endurance.

The kids laugh at my beats, all except one year old Daisy. Whenever I walk into a room with my shiny warmup pants, Daisy cocks her arm to the side and does a little bootie dance. She’s got her baby beats working.

Now, I may be treading into dangerous territory even suggesting this, but I think I may have found a method to my madness, via the wisdom of celebrated health and holistic healing specialist Dr. Andrew Weil.

In his seminal book Eight Weeks to Optmimum Health, Dr. Weil describes a yoga technique called “bellows breathing” designed to energize you when you’re feeling sluggish.

Bellows breathing is a rapid breathing pattern in which “inhalation and exhalation should be equal and short..with muscular effort at the base of the neck and above the collarbones and at the diaphragm...Breath should be audible on both inhalation and exhalation, at a rate of three cycles per second.”

Sound familiar?

I’ve occasionally tried this technique at work instead of buying coffee. Coffee works way better (it’s not even close), but bellows breathing, or in my case beat-boxing, is an admirable natural energizer that does provide an extra boost when my heart's already kicking beats in an elevated state.

I've always prefered unusual workout routines--like beating a tractor tire with a sledgehammer, or doing sprint intervals at the skating rink that involve pulling several children in a sled and zinging them over a snowbank. I also like workouts with bombastic names, like "Legendary Abs" or "The 300 Workout"--workouts tied to ancient austerities from cultures shaped by the resourceful shifting of brutish hands.

In keeping with esoteric iron practices, I'm drawn toward kettlebell training (which I've alluded to in past entries), which began in Finland over 700 years ago and migrated to Russia, where to this day it is a staple of great wrestlers and schoolchildren alike.

A kettlebell is a cannonball with a handle that is meant to be swung, not lifted, and is said to improve balance and power in martial arts and military pursuits. It sounds like a purely macho thing, and it is, although I was heartened to discover, when I attended my first kettlebell class in Minneapolis, that the majority of the class's students were women.

Among them, a woman named Barbara stood out as a true specimen of strength and agility. One particular drill involved scattering kettlbells of different sizes across the floor and moving hand over hand from one to the next, with an occasional pause for pushups at the instructor's cruel bidding. I watched as some students' arms shook like reeds and the backs of others began to sag. Barbara, meanwhile, remained straight as a board with few outward signs of fatigue. She was an inspiration, and I later learned that body-building types had sauntered into the class and all but wept trying to keep up with her.

Barbara has since become a teacher, and I recently found out from my dad (a fellow kettle beller) that she has opened her own school on University Ave. called "The Center."

I would strenuously recommend checking it out if you're at all interested in building bionic core potential. I've adapted many of my kid-lifting/swinging workouts from kettlebell routines, which has suited me, but there's nothing like the combination of a cold, unforgiving piece of iron and a warm teacher with a roomful of heart to get the blood pumping.

Learn more about "The Center" and Barbara's personal path to kettlebell glory at www.find-your-center.com.

Happy swinging!

Muscle Group: Deltoids
Difficulty Level: Black (Difficult)

Warmup with a few rounds of “Tick Tock Goes the Clock.”


Tick-tock goes the clock...
Tick-tock goes the clock...
Tick-tock goes the clock...
And now (young coach) it’s time to stop!

Switch kids and repeat this little ditty until your shoulders are good and warm.


DADIATOR PRESS

Do this move from your knees if ceiling height is an issue.



Have your kid/coach grab your wrist and push down as you press up to take the strain off his belly.

Tip: Coach can also reduce strain by wrapping his legs around your forearm (although this will restrict your range of motion).

Press up on “One Mississippi,” down on “Two Mississippi” for as many reps as you can do comfortably.

Switch arms.

For an added challenge, start with a heavier coach, then do an immediate drop set with a smaller coach.

Tip: For coach’s comfort, use a folded blanket or a small couch cushion to pad his abdomen during presses.

Tip: If you wiggle your fingers during sets, your coach will get the giggles (which will strengthen his abs).

When you are able to complete 10-12 reps with either hand, and if you have multiple children, try the...



DOUBLE DADIATOR PRESS.


If your two coaches are the same size, do your sets without switching hands.


If they are different sizes, do half your reps--switch hands--then do the other half.

Enjoy!

Quad Jogger
Originally published April 30, 2008, 12:04 PM on sevensidekicks.com



A guy has to stay in astronaut shape to keep up with seven (no pun intended). Occasionally I’ll take four for a run in the quad jogging stroller. Check out this bad boy! From the front we look unassuming, a single child in a tricked-out buggy with elaborate suspension.

But when I hang a turn we stand out like Dolly Parton at a great blue heron convention. “Are they all yours?” a passerby will ask. I want to quip, “Why do you think I’m running, dear sir? I just kidnapped these children and I’m trying to get them to the state line in the most heart-healthy way possible.” The question comes up a lot. Are they all yours? Or if the asker knows our adoption history, “Which are yours and which I adopted” to which I logically reply, “they’re all mine, some came by the loins, others through the heart.” That's why hearts gotta stay healthy!

What started as a bike-ride alternative has turned into a way of life. Between pre-school drop-offs, errands, work site visits, and commutes, I find myself doing hundreds upon hundreds of "car gym" reps and driving with less tension and more courtesy toward fellow drivers. I've also grown a bicep on top of my bicep, like a little "Izzy" scoop.

I've added a second resistance band, which allows me to keep one band permanently attached to the back of my seat for tricep extensions, and the other looped around my non-driving foot for curls and rotator cuff exercises.

I've discovered that if I tie a "stirrup" into the end of the band, it heightens resistance by shortening the band's length. The stirrup also reduces the likelihood that the band will fly off my foot and snap me in the chin (which, I admit, would make for a solid Youtube video).

I even find myself doing dropsets, i.e. do as many reps as possible while grasping both handles with one hand, then drop one handle for lighter resistance when fatigued.

A caveat. The foot band doesn't work if you drive a stick, but stick drivers need not dread slackerdom because of the extra hip flexor workout that goes with engaging the clutch.

Whoopie! Today I had six smoke breaks during work, including a fourty minute bike ride at lunch. I even played softball in the autumn dusk at the fields by Fort Snelling (near the Mpls/St. Paul airport)--and batted for the cycle minus dinger.

Feeling great, but can't quite sleep--which is a problem. I went to a talk tonight by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, child temperament expert and author of Raising Your Spirited Child and other notable books, and she suggested that sleep was the number one influence on our our ability to keep a cool head when our kids are driving us nuts. She even went so far as to suggest that adults need 8.25 hours to function optimally.

I'm pretty busy, and 8.25 seems like a stretch, at least all in one bang, but Mrs. Kurcinka passingly mentioned a phenomenon dubbed power napping that has become the craze of Japanese workplaces ranging from tech offices to auto plants. Apparrently, there are even kiosks that specialize in renting power napping desk pillows. A power nap is what it sounds-- a brief, half-hour or so, midday recharge that, practiced habitually, promises to deliver a serious blow to the coffee industry. No amount of caffeine in one's briny brain broth can take the place of the magical chemical cleanse that actual sleep seems to induce.

So I'm thinking of factoring the odd power nap into my smoke breaks, particularly when my immunity strains against my seven public school petri-dishes sporing worlds of contagion at home. I used to power nap occasionally as a field carpenter, cracking the truck window on a summer afternoon and drifting into a swirl of leaves and cloud and sky through the moon roof, to wake up feeling calm and ready for the next half.

Rumor has it that painter Salvador Dali took power naps by drifting to sleep on a barstool with a pencil in his hand. As soon as the pencil would drop, he'd awaken, refreshed and brimming with just enough dreamscape to set to canvas.

Maybe I'll try one tomorrow, between fierce bouts of life and Dadiating.

Time for another stretch break...



I've always thought that smokers had the right idea getting up every several times a day and taking a stroll to some quiet remove to take several deep, meditative breaths. Such an act can be restorative and stress-reducing. Of course smoking is deadly, but so is stress, and although clinical comparisons have given the edge to smoking as a cause of coronary heart disease, remove carcinogens from the equation and smokers are definately onto something.

Accordingly, I've taken to facetiously calling my workday activity breaks "smoke breaks." Like smokers, I also take meditative breaths to refocus, but I take them through intense rounds of physical activity, which numerous studies have indicated may be as effective as longer sessions in promoting lifespan heart health. See the following article links for details...

www.medicinenet.com
news.ulster.ac.uk
reboundtohealth.wordpress.com

A school district in North Carolina has even implemented "smoke breaks" (all right, they're not called "smoke breaks," but Energizers) to keep kids fit and focused. I found this article at standout dad blog familymanonline.com, which includes a link to a downloadable Energizer curriculum.


I've listed my "smoke break" activities in a wallet sized, laminated card, with check boxes that I tick off with a dry erase marker as the day progresses. I store the marker in my (Costanza-esque) wallet with velcro tabs. I'm a fan of velcro (so much so that my favorite actor is Val Kilmer, my favorite singer is Cheryl Crow, my favorite early hominid is cromagnon man, etc.)

Though the list includes pushups and situps and other things that make me feel like Delta Force Dad (I do like that hardened Soviet aesthetic within the confines of tame office life), I understand that not everybody has the urge to do pullups on every precipitous ledge. I must remind myself that the goal of the smoke break is not to prove that manhood trumps vasectomy, but rather to elevate my "heartbeep" (as my kids call it) and improve bloodflow to office-logged brain. So the list includes fun activities such as "hallway hackey sack" and "parking lot frisbee," as well as low-key ones like walking to the co-op for lunch or squeezing a stress ball. Why not?

Overall, I try to work in at least five "smoke breaks" a day. Try doing the same and turn a quarter pack into a six pack in no time!


P.S. The card also includes "Home Gym" activities, or quick bursts that I can do througout the house without breaking the continuity of family life. I'll write more on these later...

The "Blankie."


The ultimate symbol of a child's comfort and security, an emotional handle, and so much more!


My coach and I harness the great power of the Blankie in an unusual way. Try this...






Have coach fold his blanket in half diagonally and lie on top of it with its point toward his toes. Tie the blanket around coach's waist and use the knot as a handle. To reinforce your grip, have coach grasp your lifting wrist tightly with his hands and cross his legs around your arm.

Execute one armed bent over rows, with your non rowing hand steadied on your knee or another solid surface. Up in one Mississippi, down in two. As with RAINBOWS , have coach call "touch" when he's close to the floor so he doesn't mash his mellon, or better yet, have him perform an abdominal crunch to avoid contact with the floor.


Breath deeply as coach's comfort brings the burn between your shoulder blades. Bang out 10-12, take a short rest...






...Then do it two handed!

Benches at the playground?
We don't need no stinkin' benches!

I'm always heartened to see parents chasing their kids up jungle gyms
and underdoggin' em on swings rather than idling on park benches.
Playgrounds are designed for building strength and agility in
kids, but there's no law that says parents can't use them too.
If you want to get a real workout at the playground, try the
following.

Monkey Bar Ladder Routine

A ladder is a series of repetitions designed to build strength and
stamina quickly by maximizing overall training volume in a very short
period of time. The way it works is simple. Say you're doing pushups
with a friend. You do one. Friend does one. You do two . Friend
does two. Three three. Repeat and build until one of you can't add
reps. Then start over at one and repeat the buildup. Doing sets this way allows you to squeeze in many more reps than you would with ordinary sets, and badasses ranging from Russian Special Forces to US Marines and SWAT cops use this technique for maximizing reps on PT tests.

If you don't have a
friend, count off "imaginary friend" reps between your own sets.

I like to do monkey bar ladders while playing alongside my kids. Here's how.

Start on one end. Swing from first bar to next, with hands on both,
do a chin-up. Swing, do two chin-ups, swing, do three, until you can't
build and have to start over at one.

I'll do the same pattern from above, doing dips between bars, and Roman
chair sit-ups during recoveries. A couple times back and fourth and you'll
be jockeying with your kids at the water fountain.

Start out easy by doing one rep for each swing, or if you're working
your way up to chin-ups, drop to the ground and jump for each rep.

Build to the Dadiator version, rep ladders with child clinging to waist.

Dads, try this one out and let me know how it goes.

Click here for a more detailed explanation of ladder training...







Also, there's a whole school of exercise based on building core
strength through basic play movements.

Check out Monkeybargym.com to
learn more.


And don't miss these incredible pull-up and dip"freestyle" routines that I found on Youtube. You will be appalled!

9:30 am stretch break...


I've been working for an hour and a half. I sit back in my chair, crack knuckles, feeling morning coffee in my bladder. Get up for a stretch,
bathroom break. On the way back I do a 2-min pushup drill in the
warehouse behind the office. I have actually purchased Perfect Pushups for the occasion and my workmates have taken to them as well. I even caught my boss the other day, sneaking in from warehouse looking sheepish, breathing like he'd just wrestled an alligator.

2 minute drills go as follows...

Figure out your max by well, doing as many as you can. Say you can do
30. Subtract ten and do twenty for your first set, twelve for your
second, and eight for your third. Do all of the above in 2 minutes.
Maintain the same rep proportions regardless of whether your max is
higher or lower.

P.S. The founder of Perfect Pushup is a fellow Dadiator.

Througout the day, I'll do two more two minute drills during stretch
breaks, not just with pushups, but with abwheels, kettlebells, chinups (from sturdy ladder hooks) and resistance bands (lifted from "Car Gym").

You can change the rep structure as needed with these other options, the objective being to work to failure three times within two minutes. Try bringing your own easy-to-store infomercial gadgets and tucking them under your desk. Trust me. They're a lot more useful in the office than collecting dust in your basement!

7:30 am: Ride bike to work...

My daily commute is seven miles one way. Its a crisp, clear, September morning. Fall has come early in Minnesota, and I'm wearing sleeves for the first time in months. A perfect day for a bike ride.

I ride a half mile, hit my stride, legs filling up and--whoosh, my tire exhales and I wince at the scraping of my front rim.

I get off and backtrack, looking for the puncture source--find it, a pile of roofing nails, conspicuously left over, a coworker will later suggest, by anarchists trying to sabotage traffic to the Republican National Convention (which ended three weeks ago). Normally anarchy doesn't phase me because it often seems the one constant in my house of seven under eight, but today I'm pissed.

I leave the nail in my tire so I can find where to patch the hole, and jog home, cleats shooting sparks. My six week fitness blitzkreig has not begun as I had hoped, but hope is not lost, because I have an idea!

I rig heavy duty resistance bands to the driver's seat of my oh so sporty minivan. I stash a squeeze ball in one side of the cupholder, a cup of coffee in the other.

At red lights I do bicep curls and tricep extensions--surprisingly effective ones--and when the light turns green, I pick up the squeeze ball and go to town. 100 on one side. 100 on the other. Sip coffee. Repeat. Building an iron grip is key because many of my impromptu
daily exercise bursts involve hanging from this or that.

I repeat the routine until I get to work, listen to NPR, catch up on the
morning news, walk into the office, guns blazing, ready to greet the day.


I sit down at my desk, log-on, and prepare to rise within the hour for another burst of activity.

P.S. I keep a pair of inline skates in my car gym at all times, just in case. After years serving as work truck/kidmobile, "car gym" has become a bit
of a hooptie and quits at wierd times.


Believe it or not, this gesture alleviates road rage (at least your own)!
P.S. For obvious reasons, don't attach straps to steering wheel...











Yipes! Stowaway!

Otis, Sheff "If Kids Ran the Circus." MN Parent Magazine on the web.Sept.2008


This is a column I wrote for MN Parent Magazine describing kid circus school options in the twin cities. Check out this link on sevensidekicks.com to see how my kids train for the circus at home.

Welcome to dadiator-workout.com, a resource for young dads who’ve fallen off the fitness boat...


Easy.............Hard............Expert Only

How was work today? Are the babies in bed? How’s Momma?
Oh, yeah. I almost forgot to ask. Have you exercised yet?

I don’t blame you at all if your answer is an emphatic 'no.'

We dads have more important priorities than battling traffic to hit the gym on the way home from work, or spending narrow slivers of post-bedtime liberty pumping iron in a dank basement. Personally, there are many other things I’d rather do with my free time. You?

This site is a forum for young dads to discuss fitness ideas that have little to do with conventional workout mentalities and everything to do with our families and daily routines.

We don’t need that extra hour. There are ways, unusual ways, of meshing our fitness with the hours we already have, and with the ones we love.

We’ll talk about structuring work and home environments around facilitating spur-of-the-moment bursts of activity. We’ll also discuss ways of turbo-charging play with our kids, making it into a workout--not just any workout, but one fit for a Dadiator!

In tackling the challenges of these early kid years it sure would help to have the strength and stamina we had in our twenties. Let's get it back by being creative together.

Go Dads!

-The Dadiator

See the following articles...

Dadiator, The Video: Produced by Troy Melhus. Minneapolis Star Tribune on the web 20 April.2008.

Moran, Sarah "How I Got This Body: The Dadiator." Minneapolis Star Tribune on the web 20 April.2008.

Otis, Sheff "Seven under Seven." Williams College Alumni Review on the web March.2008.

MN Parent: "Real Parents: Deirdre and Sheff Otis." MN Parent Magazine on the web September.2008.