what happens to childhood strength/stamina?

[godusjourney]

So I'm curious to see if anyone here has any sort of answer for this one.

My good friend (and currently personal trainer) and I have been training to work up to Parkour workouts. Today we were jumping up onto the bench-press benches numerous times, and discussing how ridiculous it was that it was hard, considering as a child it would have been the most effortless thing ever.

So it got me thinking - what happens to our bodies that makes us lose the strength and stamina of childhood? I would love to swing across the monkey bars 20 times, then jump rope for 10 minutes, and play 10 min. of tag with loads of energy to spare for the next recess and games after school. Where did it go? I'm relatively very young, and in pretty good shape, and there is no way I could do all of that without some serious complaining then and the next day. I remember reading an article that said something about how an olympic athlete lay next to a baby and copied the baby's every move for an hour and was exhausted by it.

So, is it because we stopped playing tag at a certain age and something deteriorated, or is it because we're quite a bit heavier now, maybe something to do with metabolism and constant energy flow, or lack of stress...??? Anyone know?

[CathToria]

lurking, for a great discussion I hope. I have no idea

[stlmomof2]

What a great question! I have been wondering this myself lately. I recently lost about 30 pounds and gained a tremendous amount of energy both from losing the excess weight and from the daily cardio. And so instead of just watching my three year old at the park, I have been trying to play along with her, too. BUT... yeah, it's exhausting. Today I tried to hang by both arms from a bar on a climbing structure and I could hang for maybe 3 seconds. My three year old was hanging by her arms from a bar and it was too far down for her to jump. I was dealing with the baby from across the playground and she was calling out rather calmly, "Mommy... mom-my!" so that I could help her down. I finished up what I was doing and a couple minutes later made it over there and she's still just patiently swinging away waiting for me to help her down. One of my friends said that her husband weighs only 115 pounds, has a muscular, though small build, and can play just like a kid on monkey bars and stuff like that. I imagine the difference has to do with the relation between our level of strength and how much we weigh. I don't have much arm strength at all and I have 140ish pounds to lug around. I don't have as much trouble climbing things because my legs are stronger than my arms, but that's definitely harder now than it was when I was a kid. We get longer as we get older, too, and our bodies become a lot more cumbersome--harder to coordinate. Another time at a playground, I noticed a boy who was probably about 7 or 8 trying to climb a climbing wall. He was having a much harder time with it than my DD. He was a lot longer than her--his head was much further from his feet. That may be anecdotal, though.
Seems like knees really get in the way a lot more now, too. It would really kill my knees to be crawling around like my baby all the time. Geez... you'd think he'd be more willing to take naps with the kind of workouts he gets.
Recently I went out to eat with my family and the service was REALLY slow and DD was getting totally antsy so we all took turns running her up and down the block for about 30 minutes. And then it occurred to me, well no wonder she's in such great shape. I should run for 30 minutes before I eat, too.

[godusjourney]

Hmmm...interesting. Maybe the answer is what you said - the relation between our strength and how much we weigh (and probably a little of how much space the weight is spread - height - though I've watched some seriously killer rock climbers who were pretty tall, so that probably isn't totally hindering, but does factor in some). It seems like when we hit our biggest growth spurt (puberty) is the same point when we stop being so active all the time (skipping everywhere, running constantly, etc.) - sure some of us do a lot of sports in high school (and it probably pays off in the long run for those who do), but I'd have to say a lot of us probably didn't, too (I admit, I was one of the latter). So we gained weight and height and lost strength.

Sounds about right. I'm curious to see if there is more to it though. It seems like there is some place that kids live in their head that is full of energy, that doesn't seem directly related to strength. I'm curious about that as well. Where does it come from? Where does it go? Is it really gone, or have we just become serious adults and left that plane of excited thinking (that maybe created the energy???)? Is it mentally created or physically?

Anyone read about this maybe? I tried a google search and didn't come up with anything remotely close to my question!

[lifeguard]

I think it's simple a maintenance thing. We stopped living the active lifestyles we lived as children & it's pretty hard to get back to that high activity level again.

[stlmomof2]

But you know, my DD doesn't have a whole lot of endurance. She can typically walk for no more than a mile before she's literally falling on the ground tired. And she'll typically ask to be held or to ride in the stroller before a mile. Her energy seems to come in spurts. I can walk a lot longer than a mile... I'm not sure how long before I'd be totally conked out but a whole lot longer.

[amcal]

When you're a kid, playing is your only job. You don't have children, have a job, a house to take care of, errands to run, you're not studying for college exams, writing papers etc.... just the simple nature of growing up means you have less time to just run around and play and as you do it less and less, you loose your endurance.

[stlmomof2]

I really don't think it's about becoming more sedentary or about having less mental energy. I think I currently get just as much exercise as my child but it's a different kind of exercise. It's more structured and involves more coordination. The change that occurs has got to be something about the ratio between strength and weight. I wasn't a particularly active kid. I sat around reading and drawing and stuff like that a LOT. But I could definitely swing across the monkey bars if the situation called for it. I don't remember finding jumping rope to be at all taxing, though I couldn't do anything fancy like double dutch. There are some adults who are mentally two years old or five years old or whatever. Barring those with physical problems, I wonder if they can run around and play as effectively as children. I tend to doubt it, though I may be wrong.

[SugarAndSun]

Originally Posted by lifeguard

I think it's simple a maintenance thing. We stopped living the active lifestyles we lived as children & it's pretty hard to get back to that high activity level again.

Originally Posted by mandymichel

But you know, my DD doesn't have a whole lot of endurance. She can typically walk for no more than a mile before she's literally falling on the ground tired. And she'll typically ask to be held or to ride in the stroller before a mile. Her energy seems to come in spurts. I can walk a lot longer than a mile... I'm not sure how long before I'd be totally conked out but a whole lot longer.

I think they take very frequent breaks. I think I can go a lot longer than my two and almost four year old. DS1 has a hard time even walking/running a mile. I even know a lot of bigger kids who would have a hard time putting in a sustained effort. They play hard, but rest frequently.

I think it is matter of interest. I can focus on a long run or bike ride, but I just loose interest when it comes to the monkey bars or jumping on the couch or whatever. I would never jump on the bed for more than a minute or so. I can do jump backs and jump throughs for an hour and a half straight during an Ashtanga practice though.

It's kinda like jumping in a puddle imo... I could do it, but somewhere along the line I just lost interest.