Hanging Bar

We miss our brachiation ladder. To be completely honest, it wasn't even up for a couple months before the move. (My bad. I took it apart to alter it and never put it back together).

But still. We miss it.

Thankfully, though, we got our first piece of "physical excellence" equipment a little while ago. It's technically adult workout equipment (a pull-up bar) but it works nicely for its intended purpose of a Doman-style "hanging bar".

In the physical excellence book they refer to a simple exercise for toddlers and babies (and kids, and adults for that matter) to develop their strength and grip by hanging from a wooden dowel for short periods of time. Some fun things I learned are that

Hanging from a dowel...

• Stimulates a baby's grasp reflex and aids in the development of voluntary hand release
• Helps kids develop hand control and strength
• Builds fantastic upper body strength
• Strengthens the necessary palm durability and muscle strength needed for brachiation, an excellent brain-building, body coordinating, fun activity.

Plus, it is really fun (if done the right way, of course).

Hunter can only hang for about 15-20 seconds right now. But, considering that we haven't done this exercise in a long time, that's not too bad.

We're having fun counting who can hang the longest, and also practicing hanging and brachiating at the park nearby whenever we go for a run (there is no brachiation ladder at the park by our yard). Our goal is to be able to hang for one minute by the end of the school year (maybe). We'll see how it goes.

"...then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong." 

2 Samuel 16:21

Hunter is 4 years, 8 months old