Working Out With My Son

So I have written about my son before. I have two kids (boy and girl) and my son is 13 years old now. He is the oldest and he was the main reason I lost over 200 pounds the first time in 2008. I did not want to be a 400 plus pound father and knew I needed to be healthy to keep up.

Well, in 13 years my weight has fluctuated. Up and down. I have gained and lost, but before the pandemic, was always consistent in working out at the gym. Always. 6-7 days a week. I mean, sure I would eat crap to gain a ton of weight, but I would make sure I was at the gym.

That is…before the pandemic.

My son is a teenager now. He says things I do not understand. I always thought I would be cool and hip and understand what the kids say and the music they listen to, but I was way wrong. Everything to him is “mid” which I assume means subpar. I think dripping means cool but I really do not fucking know. And when my son said he liked rap, I mentioned Fresh Prince and he was confused that the guy who slapped Chris Rock also rapped. But he did say he liked old school rap like Tupac and I realized that really is old school.

Sidenote- Will Smith’s music really did not do well in time.

Anyway, if you have followed me, you do know that he plays baseball. Baseball is huge to him. He has been playing since he was 4 years old. Always the smallest person on the team. Never given a chance. But always had this fast swing and cannon of an arm for such a small kid.

It really did suck that he was not given a chance by coaches. At the time, I worked 6-70 hours a week so I was not going to coach a Little League team. The travel ball teams were huge money grabs here. Kids drenched in Perfect Game gear with parents claiming their little Johnny is already committed to Texas Tech. But finally we had a travel ball team for him to join…

Then the pandemic hit.

People can say what they want about the pandemic. They can blame scientists for being honest, but I do not. It is also to blame politicians for not acting quickly or with the data they were given. I look at it a different way. It is something we have not been through. So my goal was to keep my family safe. Wearing a fucking cloth over your face or taking a vaccine that scientists worked hard to develop were life savors. So people angry about vaccines or masks mean nothing to me. They sound like idiots. Period. And while there has to be a balance with living your life and being safe, too many people lost their lives or have long term covid. And I can live with being isolated for a while. I cannot live with putting my family in danger.

Anyway, my kids did virtual school during the pandemic. They excelled. Like both of my kids had 100% averages. My son at the time went to an all virtual school and just did great with it.

The reason why I am talking about this is because something else happened during the pandemic. My son grew. A lot. Like grew over a foot and put on 60 pounds of mainly muscle. It was shocking.

So after the pandemic my son played baseball for his school. He was in sixth grade. Since his school did not have a JV team, he played with high school kids.

He hit .300 with three doubles and fourth on the team in on base percentage. He was 12.

So we come into the now. My son is now in seventh grade, he has an A plus average (He wants to play D1 baseball but realizes if not he wants to go to a D1 school and walk on) and he keeps getting stronger and stronger.

And for the last month, he has asked me if he can go to the gym with me.

Keep in mind, he isn’t asking to go to the gym. He isn’t asking to go workout with his friends. He is asking to work out with me. His dad who has lost his way from the gym. Someone who fell out of love with the feel of lifting and running.

And about a month ago I told him to give me a little time.

If you have read my posts, you know I have gotten back on track and have been slowly going to the gym. Not loving the gym but going back. But it has been important to me. Because I knew that I was going to start working out with my son. So I kept going, lost weight, and got back on track.

And today, we worked out together for the first of many times.

He enjoyed it and I explained he will be sore tomorrow and made sure to be careful and everything…

But I have to be honest. Working out with him was probably one of the best moments I have had. And the way he talked, I am assuming it was for him as well.

And after such a rough few years, I think we both deserve it.

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