As many of you know I?m the proud father of a new baby girl. She?s now just over 6 months old. I love spending time with her and watching her physical, motor, and cognitive development. It truly is amazing.
From time to time, I?ll work out with my daughter. No, we?re not doing cleans together or hill sprints?.we go running together in a stroller sometimes or maybe I?ll do calisthenics with her as an additional load. She loves it. One thing that struck me the other day is how similar (albeit on a smaller scale) this type of scenario is with that of the legendary Milo. If you don?t know Milo is a mythological Greek hero who grew stronger by lifting a calf until it grew up to be a full-grown bull. While my daughter has only gained a couple pounds since her birth it?s still noticeable when exercising, especially when running up a hill with the stroller.
I?m well past my athletic prime but the very progressive gradual loading of my daughter?s growth is quite thought provoking. It makes me think what could be possible if such gradual, long term progressive loading were possible over the course of an athlete?s career. Typically, most coach-athlete relationships last 1-4 years. Imagine if a good coach (who would use age-appropriate training) was able to work with an athlete from the time they were quite young and develop them over 10-20 years without having to worry about competition, performance stress, pushy parents, ridiculous goals or during the early years. I think it would be quite interesting to see the results.
