Cereal that helps fight the flu??

Is it true??

Can Cocoa-Puffs really help fight off the flu? I don't know about it but apparently Kellogg's is gambling that you're going to buy - pun intended - that box of lies.

There are a few key reasons as to why I am not buying this and what you can do to TRULY improve the immune system of your kids!!

First lets cover the reasons why you should not believe the label for a reason.

1. TO BE HEALTHY YOU HAVE TO START WITH A HEALTHY FOUNDATION. Does it even make sense that a sugary, chocolaty cereal will HELP your kids fight off disease? Everything else we are told is that sugar, highly processed foods are bad for us. So what is so different about puffed white rice (which is void of just about any nutritional value on its own) is going to help us? The answer: Nothing is different. Except...

2. FAKE VITAMINS AND MINERALS DO NOT MAKE FOR HEALTHY CEREAL. Kellogg's added some lab made vitamins that research has proven is not absorbed nearly as well as natural vitamins and minerals. An example of this is comparing the durability of real natural wood furniture vs. plywood furniture. Plywood is less expensive, but also breaks down much quicker than say, Oak furniture, and is not nearly as strong. Which would you rather have? One may cost more, but the quality is what you are paying for. Except now your decision does not just effect how long your furniture lasts. Rather your decisions effect the health of your child.

3. HIGH SUGAR INTAKE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO INCREASE RISK OF THE FLU. You are doing your child no favors by adding more sugar to their diet. A lie mixed with a little bit of truth is still a lie. An unhealthy food mixed with a few extra "goodies" does not make for a healthy food. Put it this way, do you really think whole wheat donuts are healthy?

Want to know how to truly improve the immune system of your child? Check out the "Fuel Like a Champion" DVD. Let Dr. Chris Mohr show you how to fuel your young athlete to build strong muscles, bones and immune systems the RIGHT WAY!!

Good or bad??

I watched a video today and I want you to watch it. This will take about 4:00 and I want you to consider what you have just seen.



Now considering how it appears this kid got this strong...




Was he lifting external resistance?

Well other than the curls no. He wasn't.

Is this going to destroy his bones??

Probably not. Why you ask? The way that this muscular system was stressed is in a systemic fashion. He is not doing isolation exercises but rather he is controlling and managing his own body weight. This puts the right kind of stress on bones, ligaments and joints.

Another interesting fact is that the 6-pack you see on this child was not developed by doing hundreds of situps but rather was developed as a result of his body needing stability during the inverted pushups, pullups, gymnastics and other calisthenics.

Reading the comments on this video when it was posted on Yahoo!, there were hundreds of people who were upset claiming this poor kid was ruining his body and developing a "complex."

Perhaps more american kids should "ruin" their bodies like this and develop a "complex" of fitness. Perhaps then we'll stop that runaway train that is childhood obesity. If what you saw in this video disturbs you, then it is definitely a great idea to keep your child away from the following:

1. Monkey bars at school
2. Jungle Gyms at the park
3. Tree's he/she can climb
4. Hills they can run up
5. Things they can jump off such as benches and steps
6. Fun group activities such as partner wheel barrow's, crab walks, bear crawls and other weight bearing fun stuff

So this child has a relatively large amount of muscle and a relatively small amount of body fat on him. That is no reason to say my 5 year old should not be active.

Now my disclaimer. If indeed the parents are pushing this boy to do more and to engage in weightlifting at such a young age, then perhaps there is cause for concern. But from what I see. This boy is perfectly healthy and a model for engaging in physical activity instead of parking it in front of his playstation.

Sponges and Pruning

How many parents want their young athlete to better than any other player in his or her age group?

Probably a lot of you. When your young athlete outperforms the competition, it is definitely something to be proud about.

However, if you child isn't the all-star on the 11U team, don't worry. THEY'RE 11!!

Don't try to turn your young player into a college athlete right now, because they don't have to be. At Pair & Marotta's Peak Performance Camp we had a pretty wide variety of athletes coming in. Most played baseball, some played soccer and a few played football.

Many played the same sport year round and other played multiple sports throughout the year. And the one thing that myself and Brian both noticed -

The kids who played more than one sport were by a sizeable difference, the better athletes.

Why is this though? Parents dump a lot of money into club teams and making sure that their child is playing the same sport year round. I mean if they want to get better, shouldn't they play more and more?? Not necessarily.

At a young age kids are like sponges, both mentally and physically. This is the time when we should be flooding them with different stimuli to make sure that we are building connections between the movement of their limbs and their brains.

What also happens at this time is a phenomenon called "pruning". You can look at pruning as the "use it or lose it" stage. If a child does not build bridges from their locomotion nerves to their brain, the body will "prune" the connection site because it is not needed based on minimal usage.

After this very sensitive time, if the nerves are not used and the skill is not regarded as important enough to maintain, then it is often very difficult to retrain the skill.

All in all, it is very important to present a wide variety of stimuli to young athletes and to start with very general movements before specific movements. This will ensure that as athletes grow they maintain movements that are needed as the foundation for more sport specific movements that will be refined as they get older.

Be sure to expose your young athlete to a wide variety of movements, sports and games as it will not be detrimental (contrary to popular belief) but only serve to make them better ATHLETES as they mature.