Fonebloggin’ (the Tornado’s) Foamrollin’

by

(not a foam roller, but it’s what Ive got on my smart phone. d*mn spontaneous posts…)

Subtitle: Arent I the one who says if you practice what you preach there’s nary a need to preach?

Last night, after a day of active vigorous mama/daughter play, the Tornado gestured vaguely to her side and announced:

Mama if this still hurts tomorrow Im going to get up and foam roll it.**

Yes I laughed (on the inside where it counts).

Yes I told all of you (on FB where it’s less ephemeral than twitter).

Yes she’s gotten up and is attempting to mangle her 5 year old bod on my roller.

Which all leads me to wonder (aloud to you more experienced at parenthood and/or foam rolling types):

  • When we choose to practice and not preach should we simultaneously let our little people know some ‘stuff’ we are practicing is NOT for them to try?*
  • And, more importantly, is foam rolling harmful to little bodies even when done in play with a big person around?  (remember my Airrosti adventure? they seemed to think not…)

Id love your thoughts, insights, & foam rolling fer 5 year olds tips in the comments below.

 

*By way of full dizclosure I should let you know Ive already walked in on her rolling her booty with the grimacing tennis ball pictured above.

**When I closed down my mom-blog to pursue MizFit fulltime I purchased a (fancy for us) notebook with the Tornado’s initial on the front. I leave it on the kitchen table and when she says or does anything Id have blogged about I write it in there.  I already love going back and reread the jottings.  If you dont do this already I highly recommend it!

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Comments

  1. My 4 year old watches me workout regularly as I have a home gym with a playroom right beside it. She always wants to play with my medicine balls, jump on my BOSU, and is the only one who wants to use the dust collecting recumbent bike. And yes, she also wants to foam roll.
    Anything that only requires body weight, I let her try. Some of the warm ups I do, she does in gymnastics and she loves to show me how she can do it. If I’m using my balance ball, I’ll let her try using one of her beach balls from her play room. It’s a constant battle though, keeping her away from the things that could hurt her. Once she’s old enough, it will be great working out with her. For now though, I want her to have fun in the play room while I workout and climb all over the play structure when we go to the park in the afternoon.

    • that’s how I feel! body weight is ok and it’s all more in play than anything else. I really did a doubletake as she (kids in general? Tornado Tornaaaaaho.)really listens even more than I give her credit for.

      and I give her a lot of credit.

      I had no idea she even know when words FOAM ROLLER.

  2. I am not a help with the rolling, but I am stealing the idea of if we do what we say we will do we don’t need to talk about it.

    • I really try to live that and each time I think GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLE I WANNA LECTURE HER ON THIS SO SHE DOESNT FORGET I try and remind myself of the power of being silent and leading by example.

      it works well on spouse/partner types too 🙂

  3. I say do what you are doing and let her play on the roller with you guiding her in fun.

    Let her know healthy living is fun.

    I am going to draw on my tennis balls now, too 🙂

  4. I totally recall the first few times I foam rolled (and tennis ball rolled) I literally wanted to CRY it hurt so much…and I rolled and rolled grinning like a mad woman so that she’d think healthy living was fun.

    the things we do for our kids…

  6. we are like the Army tagline up in herre (Im sure Im getting this wrong so apologies Army people): We get more done before six a.m. than most people do all day.

    its fun and tiring.
    FIRING 🙂

  7. from KIM over on Facebook

    I know that Alex has tried it a couple of times. I think he thinks it’s just fun to roll around. I do think it’s ok to let them know that there are some things that we do tha…t they shouldn’t. Alex LOVES to “run” on my treadmill. I let him do it ever now and then and I put it really slow. He always wants to go faster, but I’m not comfortable with it. I just tell him that treadmills are for big people, and if he wants to run fast we’ll go outside and he can run as fast as he can.

    Thanks Kim! I need to figure out how to get my blogs to STOP posting there as “notes”

  8. LOL at your astrix thingies.
    They are out of whack. I like the notebook idea though 🙂

  11. I luv the tornado!
    neither my son nor daughter were like that….saying things or following in my footsteps
    hmmmmm wonder if I can get the new granddaughter to be like me?! hmmmmmm

    oh and i’m of no help w/the rolling

  14. Body weight activities and the ever watchful eye of Mama Fit are the best example ever. The lessons will truly last a lifetime.

  15. I love she said that.
    At five I knew nothing of exercise at all let alone things like rolling or stretching.

    ROCK ON MAMA!!

  16. First, I love this:**When I closed down my mom-blog to pursue MizFit fulltime I purchased a (fancy for us) notebook with the Tornado’s initial on the front. I leave it on the kitchen table and when she says or does anything Id have blogged about I write it in there. I already love going back and reread the jottings. If you dont do this already I highly recommend it!

    Carla, I think that as long as you are there to “teach” and I don’t know squat but maybe explain in 5 year old language which I know nothing about, that little bods like hers are different from adult bodies & she has to be gentle while she is growing.

    I LOVE that she wants to be just like you! 🙂

  17. Great concept Carla.

    I tend to be a nagger and no one listens.

    (Including the boyfriend ;-))

  18. i love the notebook idea! and the fact that it is old school analog, your would almost be able to recall the incident happening just from the colour of the ink or the scrawl of your writing. beautiful stuff.

    i have no clue on the roller thing. you’d think with her little 5 yo body she’d be okay with your supervision. in this house the roller tends to be used more as a butt-whacking weapon!

  20. Foam rolling hurts, but it is just using your body weight. I don’t think it will do any damage to her, and probably after a couple of tries she won’t want to. I think I’d be encouraging her to try anything that isn’t unsafe for a child. Because it’s better she’s eager to try it all and decides which things she doesn’t like, than to think she can’t do them. And of course, you’re there with her to supervise, and would not let her do something truly harmful. My daughter has used the foam roller before. Don’t think she liked it much, but she got on it to be like mommy. I’d rather she copy me when I’m doing something like that than when I get off the scale and pout because it went the wrong way.

  21. I foam roll my son (he’s 7).

    He lays there and I roll the roller on him.

    He loves it.

    • Thank you!
      Id hoped some bloggers would wanna toot their own horns but alas no BEEP BEEPS!

  24. I’m saying this from completely a non-expert-in-anything perspective, but I think the reason the foam roller hurts us so bad is because adults have lots of knots and gristle and ugliness formed up in our bodies, and I don’t think the little ones have all that mess in their muscles yet…so I don’t think it should hurt her the way it does us.

    But like I said, I’m no doctor, and I haven’t even stayed at a Holiday Inn anytime recently.

  25. I have a love/hate relationship with my foam roller that I pass it along to all I teach & train. I have a link on my Blog from last summer about tips for foam rolling if you want me to pass along?

  27. Point taken.
    I eat junk.
    Kids eat junk.
    I slack.
    Kids slack.
    They do do what we do 🙁

    • no frowning face. took me forever to learn the lesson (and truth be told I learned it with the husband :)) I just needed to lead by example and say nothing.

      It helps motivate me, too, when I dont feel like doing something.
      The awareness little (& not so little) eyes are watching.

  29. I can’t imagine the foam roller or tennis ball injuring anyone. Although, they do hurt like crazy. My kids play on my foam roller, yoga mat, climbing rope, etc… (9-12) I bet the people at Trigger Point Tech could help you out with any questions concerning safety though.

    Good read, made me think about practicing what I preach. Speaking of preaching… here is a quote that I love from my pastor that kinda goes with this post. “Live what you believe and you will change the world around your whether you want to or not.”

    J.

  31. I really like that idea with the notebook, Miz.
    I stopped by Michael’s after I saw your post this morning and now we have THREE on the table!

    One for each girl.

  33. Love the notebook idea! I have to say my girls are both so different. One climbs trees and hangs Anole lizards from her ears to make me laugh while the other is a makeup hound. I figured either way like you said they are always watching and hopefully they’ll go for the healthy. *fingers crossed*

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