Safety

I can remember the day like it was yesterday. My mom gets a phone call from her best friend and is told that her friend’s kids have the chicken pocks. All I remember next is my mom telling my sister and I to get in the car because we were going to see our friends and play with them for a while. My sister and I were excited and I remember playing with them for a few hours. The next day I remember getting up and feeling really itchy and see red marks all over my body. What the heck just happened? That’s right my sister and I got the chicken pocks.
Now why did my mother do that? Because she wanted us to develop the anti-bodies necessary to fight it off in the future. She wanted to strengthen our immune system. Well it worked very well.
Now, in this society as I know it, is we were to get that call from our friends, our first thought would be to close the shades and lock the doors and keep our kids as germ free as possible and on so many levels that hurts the kids more than helps them. The immune system of most kids today suck at best because we are too interested to protecting them than letting them grow and get strong.
I remember telling this to a new personal training client who is having problems walking. He is afraid to get on the ground because he thinks he won’t be able to get up. So what does he do? As little as possible when it comes to movement and over the last several years his health has deteriorated to a point where walking has become very difficult.
I remember when he told me that he was afraid to fall because he did not think he was going to be able to get up. I remember my next statement to him, “Then get on the ground and let’s see.” At first he looked at me with fright in his eyes but I assured him that I would be able to get him up off the ground if I had to. Then he got on the ground one knee at a time and then laid down on his stomach. Then I sat down and told him to get up. He looked at me and then looked around to see what he could grab to pull himself up and everything he touched, I pulled away from him.
“KEVIN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! DO YOU WANT ME TO GET UP!”
“Yes now get up. You don’t need anything to help you. Here do this.” I said getting on the ground next to him. After explaining to him the proper way he should get up I watched him as he shimmied himself up and after a few minutes got to a standing position. He had the biggest smile on his face and he looked at me and I said, “Now get back on the ground and do it 15 more times.”
Oh, yea, I know I am such a bad trainer. Putting my people thru such things like that. Why would you subject that man to something he said he couldn’t do? Because I know that he could do it and I needed to show him that he could do it. Now that man no longer has any problem with falling or getting on the ground.
We need to stop babying ourselves and let our bodies do what they were meant to do. We were never meant to be in a home with the shades down and kept from the germs of this world. By being introduced to those germs our bodies, we, will develop anti bodies to fight those unwanted enemies and we will become much stronger because of it.