Fatherhood – Page 6 – Serenity Through Sweat

Galanin to the Rescue

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about galanin, what it is and some of the many ways it helps us.

Galanin is a neuropeptide, which is fancy word for a protein produced by neurons. (don’t worry I had to look it up because it sounded more like one of king arthur’s knights to me). Galanin is found in many different parts of our brain as well as our GI tract.

A recent article in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows an increased galanin level (derived from unfettered access to cardiovascular exercise) was correlated with a conferred resilience to stress in mice.

Two groups of mice were observed after a stressful event (foot shock). The respective galanin levels were measured in each group, with the experimental group having access to a running wheel in their cage and the control group having none. After three weeks there was a correlation between the elevated galanin levels, the amount of time exercising, and the degree of stress resilience, in the group of mice who used the running wheel. (After building in the first week they were averaging 10-16km per day, if you needed some motivation for your own running)

The test then went on to elevate galanin levels in otherwise sedentary mice and the observed the same stress resilience effects. It is obvious but worth stating that people are not mice, but we do have very similar galanin receptors. This experiment shows that repeated cardiovascular exercise increases galanin, and increased galanin helps us deal with stress.

Doing further research on galanin, I found this article in Nature, which shows that increased galanin levels are responsible for regulating aggression toward pups in male mice, and increasing their tendency towards parental behavior.

I’ve always felt that I’m a better father, husband, and overall person after a good sweat session. There are obviously multiple chemicals in play there, but galanin has a big role to play. This is especially true as stress levels have been elevated these past few months, as has time with my sons without daycare.

Increasing galanin levels seems like a great thing to do no matter what, but an especially great thing with all the stresses of Covid life, and the best way to do that is some good old fashioned SerenityThroughSweat.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

The Missing Dollar

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. One of the things I struggle with the most as a husband, a parent, hell as a human, is communication. I think a lot of communication problems are rooted in perception, specifically different perceptions of the same event.

I remember first hearing the missing dollar problem on a boy scout trip. I think it was a way to quiet us down on the long bus ride between Buffalo and Washington DC. It goes a little something like this:

Three guys are going to share a hotel room that costs $30 and they each give the clerk $10. The clerk realizes an hour later that the room only cost $25 so he gives the bellhop $5 to give back to the three guys. The bellhop can’t figure out how to evenly split it between three guys, so he keeps $2 and gives each of them $1 back. So each guy originally paid $10 and got $1 back for a total of $9, and the bellhop kept $2. $9 x 3=$27 + $2 = $29, but the three guys originally paid $30, where is the missing dollar?

It’s easy to get caught up in the missing dollar. Like many word problems, the information is there, but the presentation matters. 9×3=27 +2=29 makes sense, is good math, is easy to follow and leaves a dollar missing.

But if we follow the money, the clerk has $25, each guy has $1 for a total of $3, and the bellhop has $2 so all $30 is accounted for. The cost of the room ended up being $27, $25 to the clerk with an invoultary and unknown $2 going to the bellhop. Then, each guy gets $1 back so the 25+2=27 for the cost of the room + the $3 refund accounts for all the money. The focal point isn’t the $27, it is deciding whether the bellhop’s $2, or the guy’s $3 was accounted for in that $27 based on the information given.

It’s easy to get sucked in to either interpretation of the numbers (especially the wrong one) based on your perception. Beyond being a fun math problem to stump your friends and relatives, I think that is the point.

Whether it is interacting with your spouse, your kids, your coworkers, or anyone for that matter, it is easy to get caught up in the wrong perception and fixate on “the missing dollar” of that particular situation. In the age of information, it isn’t hard to find facts or math that supports your preconceived ideas or notions. The fixation that results is often a source of the polarization of so many issues we see today.

In our example 9×3=27+2=29 is good math. It is an erroneous argument, but all of the individual components check out, it just has one piece of bad data. But without knowing, understanding, or being able to otherwise rationalize the correct information, the comfort that comes with the known math outweighs the uncertainty of not being able to explain the more reasonable answer (that the dollar is not in fact missing even though the math doesn’t work out)

Projectile therapy, and not too shabby despite time away from the stick

I see this most often in myself when I am resistant to changing my opinion even in the face of new information. The original opinion is almost always based on assumptions, information, experience, and judgement, but if any part of those inputs turns out to be incorrect, the logic putting them together still holds up. That is why it is often so hard to change our minds. There is almost always some element of truth and logic to the way we arrived at our opinion.

The next time you find yourself unable to reconcile an old opinion in the light of new information, try to find the “missing dollar” in your reasoning. You might just find some serenity along the way.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

A pair of runs and some windy rainy miles with Layla

How Far We’ve Come

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I’m sitting post run in Greenville, SC where I wrote the first edition of the blog back in mid November, and thinking of how far we’ve come.

I have an eclectic taste in music, especially for different types of workouts. There is a special dopamine rush when that perfect 90’s alt rock song comes on unexpectedly in a workout. Energy seems to materialize from the ether, and I can go from boarding the struggle bus, back to a spring in my step. Matchbox twenty’s how far we’ve come has always been one of those songs for me.

Sleepy sloth hugs art project from El Duderino

A drum solo start, a punchy guitar line, up tempo beats, Rob Thomas talking about the end of days, it’s got everything I need to sprint out the last few miles home. The lyrics seem deceptively appropriate for where we find ourselves six months into a pandemic and an election year.

“I’m waking up at the start of the end of the world, but it’s feeling just like every other morning before,” “I believe the world is burning to the ground, oh well I guess we’re gonna find out, let’s see how far we’ve come”

El Duderino taking the wheel on the walk with Speedy, while mommy gets in some bike miles

On their own and out of context, the lyrics make it sound like a sad song, one of desperation and defeat. It never struck me that way listening to it, and the music video (I don’t know if those are still a thing anymore, but they were in the 90’s and the 00’s) paints a different picture. It shows scenes of human triumph and progress like the moon landing, Muhammad Ali winning the world heavy weight title, and the Berlin Wall coming down.

There is no denying the pain and suffering that has occurred in the last six months, but look how far we’ve come. Public health and well being is now a priority on a level I’ve certainly never seen before in this country. As a nation we are having productive discussions on race, justice, and policing that are well overdue.

First time cooking in the new Z grills pellet grill. Smoked picanaha and veggies were awesome

On a personal level, I started this blog ten months ago to talk about fitness and parenting. It was as much of a personal indulgence (writing about my own endeavors) as it was a meaningful platform with a message I hope to share with my boys. I can look back over that short time and see how far I’ve come, as a parent, an athlete, and a writer.

I’ve become focused at a level I haven’t been since I was writing my thesis, not just on producing content, but also consuming it. The amount I read, fiction and non fiction, and listen to podcasts has increased tremendously. My intake of instructional posts, blogs, and videos for grappling, fitness, nutrition, and mobility has skyrocketed. Speedy, being born early on in all of this craziness, was a blessing helping me to take stock of things that really matter in my life. It also forced me to evaluate and evolve my parenting with two boys at home with no daycare.

First time on the bike since father’s day. New shoes, new cleats, and a whole lot of dropping the hammer on the last 5 miles

I’ve written before about Serenity as a journey or a series of fleeting moments, more so than a destination. I’m grateful for these post run moments of clarity where even though I’m not there yet, and I may never get there, I can reflect on how far we’ve come.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Layover miles on the swamp rabbit trail is Greenville

Duty

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I often think about what it is to be a man and what it is to be a father, specifically through the lense of communicating that message to my boys, early and often. And while the answer is nebulous and is something of a moving target, the search for the “answer” seems to always give me something I needed in that moment.

Obviously COVID-19 has dominated the news cycle and most of our thoughts recently. It’s hard to find even the simplest of tasks that hasn’t been affected at least in some way. That said, the mission statement of men and father’s hasn’t really changed. Sure the circumstances are different but the mission remains steadfast.

El Duderino not a big fan of the face shield

Which brings me to duty. In the movie gladiator, the General Maximus asks his servant Cicero, “Do you find it hard to do your duty”. Cicero replies, “Sometimes I do what I want to, the rest of the time I do what I have to”. This really spoke to me as father in these strange times.

I believe that in order to be effective at one you must be effective at the other. The two go hand in hand. You cannot do what you have to as a father without some balance of doing what you want to. Likewise if you only ever do what you want to, the things you have to do will suffer.

Much bigger fan of “mixie” the cement truck

Obviously balancing the two is tricky even in the simplest of times, which has made the last few weeks even more complicated. Too much focus on doing what you have to do, can be like trying to cut down a tree with a dull blade. Although stepping away from the tree feels like abandoning your primary duty, you are sometimes better off to step away and sharpen the saw.

Steven Covey put forth this idea in his book 7 habits of highly effective people. Sharpening the saw can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but should cover physical, mental, emotional, and social aspects.

Sharpening the saw may seem like a luxury only for those with leisure time, but it is an important part of the duty of being a better man and a father. I have always found that I am in a better mood, I think more clearly, and I make better decisions after I have trained, or completed some sort of task that would seen otherwise not mission critical.

While primary focus these last ten weeks has been on providing for the family and guiding them through these uncharted times, that has left an imbalance in doing what you have to vs. doing what you want to. The shutting down of so many activities due to COVID-19, especially ones with a social aspect, makes it ever more difficult for father’s to sharpen the saw in the same ways that they would have before.

In ever changing and difficult times the duty remains, and is more important than ever. It’s vital to remember that a part of that duty is keeping your tools sharp, and in the case of Serenity Through Sweat activities, doing what you want to, and not just what you have to will make you a better husband, father and person.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, sharpening the saw with sewing, swings, and stroller runs. All alliteration aside, stay home status is starting to stagnate

Happy Easter

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Easter means a lot of different things to different people. It is beyond the scope or intention of this blog to really hammer out religious theology, but one of the over bearing themes of the holiday is new life.

The last two weeks have been crazy for everyone. COVID-19 has us living a new life that I think it’s safe to say most of us, weren’t prepared for. I’ve been very blessed to be home with my family, not working, (by choice for the most part). We have just been living, and adjusting to what life looks like with four of us instead of three of us.

Outside of some wierd grocery sterilization practices, the last two weeks wouldn’t have been that different for us had there been no virus. Which got me thinking about Easter, and our new life.

This virus has already, and will continue to cause an untold amout of suffering. From the direct impact of human loss, to the economic damage, to the psychological stress placed on everyone, no one is untouched by this. However, many of us will emerge from this relatively unscathed. Businesses can be rebuilt, events can be rescheduled, and we will be able to get back to a new life after all of this. The blessing, the silver lining, is in choosing that new life.

There’s a new sheriff in town. Daddy’s sunglasses, and great grandpa’s hat

Right now my days are filled with wrangling a toddler, juggling the needs of a wife who isn’t supposed to lift anything, and trying to keep a two week old alive. There isn’t much room for anything else. Am I worried about keeping my family healthy? Absolutely. Do I think about my friends and family that are outside my little quarantine bubble? Of course. Am I concerned about the state of the airline industry or the broader economy? Sure. But the pressing need, the top priority, is just living. Being a husband, being a father, raising strong, smart, healthy boys.

I don’t know what the world looks like after all of this, and I can’t fathom the suffering that has and will be caused. In my own circumstance though, I’m thankful for the ability to reset, to reevaluate, and to begin a new life with a fresh perspective.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through Sweat, an extra sweaty and windy 10k. The Florida weather has been a blessing allowing us to be outside as opposed to our northern neighbors, but the midday temps when both kids and my wife are napping, makes sure I earn my moniker.

Embrace and Harness

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. For the moment fitness has taken a backseat to fatherhood (in the context of blog topics, it has always been in that order in life in general). With the arrival of Speedy, and managing him and his big brother El Duderino, life has gotten a bit hectic. Throw in the added complications of COVID-19 and it is easy to be overwhelmed.

I’m reminded of a particularly tough loss in a wrestling tournament I had my senior year in high school. Crying in a mostly deserted high school hallway, not knowing what I did wrong or could have done better in a close semifinal match, my coach found me and gave me a quick pep talk that has stuck with me.

The bullet points were, “be pissed, be sad, be disappointed. Feel all of it. But after ten minutes, it’s time to get back to work and most of those are not productive emotions.”

I think it’s easy to find ourselves in many of those emotional states (anger, sadness, depression) with everything that has changed in recent weeks. Kids at home 24/7, uncertainty about jobs or finances, heck just plain old cabin fever is enough to test your mental and emotional fortitude.

And just like my coach told me all those years ago, I think it is important to embrace those feelings. Ignoring them or bottling them up isn’t healthy. Dig in to them, let them wash over you, but only for a short period of time. Whether it is once an hour, once a day, or once a week, check in on those feelings and realize that this isn’t normal and it’s ok to feel them.

But then it’s back to work…

This isn’t an easy process. Most rewarding things aren’t. This is a lesson I’ve brought with me for the last fifteen years and I’m still struggling with it.

With a toddler at home adjusting to a new family dynamic, a newborn on a two hour sleep cycle, and a wife who isn’t supposed to lift anything after just giving birth, (I still got the easier end of that deal, BY FAR,) my daily to do list is getting more difficult than finding toilet paper at the store. And with those chores piling up, and the sleep debt accumulating, comes the frustration, the self pity, and the jealousy.

Performing for the family is always the number one goal, especially when the shit hits the fan (read: job uncertainty, global pandemic, and newborn). It seems like I’m mostly running on caffeine, but harnessing those emotions helps get me over the hump. (At least until speedy starts sleeping more than a couple hours).

So in between the cooking, the cleaning, and the laundry. After the potty training, the arts and crafts, and the outside play time. And when bath time and bedtime have come and gone, I can harness those unproductive emotions, remember that it is natural and normal to feel them, and keep soldiering on towards Serenity.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat has been tapered back a bit with it being speedy’s first week alive and all. But I have been able to sneak in two Simple and Sinister kettlebell workouts, some push-ups and air squats, and a few rehab mobilizations from The Ready State.

This post was started this morning while El Duderino was playing in the sand, Speedy was in the basinet, and my wife was taking a much needed nap. It was finished while I took the first watch with Speedy and my wife gets as much sleep as she can before he wakes up hungry.

Dr. Dad

Sunday night started out normal enough. El Duderino went down for bedtime without any trouble. Heather was down as well and I was scheduled to have a video happy hour with some other pilot buddies who haven’t been flying.

Having some social interaction for the first time in over two weeks, even over video chat, was much needed and appreciated. The couple of extra beers as the conversation stretched on didn’t hurt the situation either. I was felt like a small piece of me that I hadn’t realized was missing, had been returned to it’s rightful place. As I hung up the phone a sense of fulfilled calm came over me, accompanied by that sneaky little smile you realize is on your face only after it’s been there long enough for others to wonder what it is you’ve figured out.

That feeling was quickly replaced by reality. Getting off the phone at close to midnight, having sated my craft beer craving more than I had in the past six weeks, to my wife telling me that her water broke. Timing has never really been my strong suit.

In general, I’m a person who does better when active. My wife going into labor is no exception. Preparing supplies, meal prepping, getting our guest room ready for grandparents, anything to keep myself busy. This is how my next few hours were spent early Monday morning despite the primary need to sleep and sober up.

After a few hours of sleep, and without my wife’s contractions having started yet, there was a much more organized calm to the morning. El Duderino left with his grandma to have an adventure with her and give my wife and I time and space for our own adventure. We went for a walk, watched some Netflix, and enjoyed a relaxed pace day at home with just the two of us.

The midwives came by around noon and reported that the water had not truly broken, and that without contractions starting there was no hurry to meet baby just yet.

Contractions started in earnest around two in the afternoon. My wife is the type of strong independent person who doesn’t like to ask for help, and prefers to do things herself. Anticipating the needs of a woman has been a task that has baffled men for millennia, pregnancy does not simplify this task in any way. I tried to make myself available at a moment’s notice and otherwise follow signs to be helpful when and where I could. (Along with timing, reading signs is also not a strong suit of mine). This meant being in the next room reading, but within fifteen feet and within earshot, and checking in every five to ten minutes between chapters.

My wife let me know that she thought she had about five hours of labor left based on her leave why El Duderino from to years ago and how she felt. In hindsight this was a silly prediction, but in my head it have me a timeframe to work with. Predicting labor is probably less reliable than picking ponies. At any time they can run like gangbusters or stop in their tracks and then start again.

I overheard my wife’s reaction to a particularly stronger contraction, and heard her call the midwives to have them start making their way to our home as labor was ramping up. This was about an hour and for five minutes into my fictional give hour clock. I made my way into the room expecting the contraction to be mostly finished by the time I actually got to her side. Instead I was greeted with “oh God, baby’s head is in my shorts, help me get them off”

As a pilot we train for lots of different emergencies and I feel very comfortable in most situations. We’ve spent a lot of time in this blog taking about calm in the Chaos. Knowing that my wife hemorrhaged during her first delivery, and that it was just me and her with medical professionals at least twenty minutes out, (albeit thankfully on speaker phone) I can tell you there was a very long two to three minutes of chaos without calm.

My Wonder woman wife pushed our son out, and our midwife team talked me through what I needed to do and what I needed to look for until they got there. It reminded me of an autopilot kicking off in flight unexpectedly. There is an initial shock factor, and something obviously isn’t going to plan, but ultimately the airplane wants to keep flying, and after a thorough systems check the autopilot can be reengaged.

There is so much uncertainty in this world, and the best laid plans often get thrown out the window. It is in times of stress that we find what we are truly made of. I’m so grateful and blessed to be surrounded by people made of the right stuff.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

Providing as a Father

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. The continually changing situation we find ourselves in with COVID-19 has got me thinking more about an eventual conversation I will undoubtedly have with my son.

I’ve day dreamt about this since my wife first told me she was pregnant. My child comes home from school and is tasked with asking his father what it means to be a man, and report back to the class. That’s a doozy of question and I don’t think it has a clear cut answer. Gender norms and 2020 politics and posturing aside, a large aspect of the answer for me always comes down to being a provider.

Being a provider can mean different things to different people, and it certainly meant something different to me just a few months ago. With uncertainty in my career and my ability to bring home a paycheck, what does being a provider mean?

I had already planned to be out of work for April, awaiting our second child, so this coming month at least isn’t a total shock. During this time, I’m trying to keep my focus on being a man, and being a provider within that capacity. While I may not be able to provide a paycheck (I do have some PTO to go with my FMLA) there are a lot of things I can provide regardless of the circumstances.

I can provide a loving and caring atmosphere. At two and change years old my son doesn’t really have any concept of what’s going on. He just knows daddy is spending a lot more time with him reading books, coloring, riding bikes, and chasing the garbage truck around the neighborhood. He doesn’t understand the weight of the world situation, and I can control the vibe he does feel and provide that positive environment.

I can provide a positive example. It is easy to start a self pity party with all the negative effects of this pandemic, but self pity is a wasted emotion. Lord knows I’ve spent more than my fair share of time at my own pity party, and every day is a struggle, but RSVP’ING NO is a choice I can make for my little guy. It does make it easier that he has no context for the situation and thus no empathy. If daddy is being sullen and sulky, he will pick up on that in a heartbeat. So soldiering on with a smile for the little guy is the only way forward.

I can provide household relief. Even when working a full schedule I do the lions share of cooking and a decent amount of cleaning, laundry, landscaping, and other household tasks. It means a lot to me that I can have some control over the food we put in our bodies and that I can provide healthy and nutritious meals for our family. With additional time home I can expand upon those tasks to help my family.

A few posts ago I talked about changing our world view to adapt to new demands. This is a change in world view for me, about being the best father and husband I can be, in a dynamic and uncertain world.

I’m grateful for a great many things in this life, and being able to maintain some semblance of calm in the chaos, and provide some positivity as a father and a husband in these turbulent times is one of them.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat in quarantine, bike rides with the family finding “stinky dirty” the orange digger. A solo ride with Layla. Throwing some arrows down range at 20yds. A quick sweaty run, and last but not least, working on my artistic skills to keep the little guy interested in things to color.

Paradigm Shift

There is a lot of craziness in the world right now. There is great cause for anxiety and fear, but also great cause for optimism. Following Maslow’s hierarchy, I think we are all due for a reset and a paradigm shift.

If you aren’t familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy, it goes like this. There are different levels of human needs which must be met in a ascending order prior to moving on to the next step. The idea is, as humans we are motivated by these needs until they are fulfilled. The hierarchy goes: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self actualization.

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, most readers of this blog where probably oscillating between levels 3-5. Not worrying about their job, where their next meal was coming from and having at least some form of social support structure either family or friends. The last two levels are tricky to obtain and maintain, and while Serenity through Sweat as an idea is a big part of it for me, they are largely “first world struggles”.

This pandemic will change a lot of that. We are just starting to see large scale closures in the U.S. The larger economic, social, and emotional/psychological impacts have yet to manifest. But, it is likely many of us will be focusing on primarily on levels 1-3 in the hierarchy for the next few months.

Like I started the post with, this can be a cause for anxiety and fear but also an incredible opportunity. This will be an opportunity to find our own strength, creativity, and innovation. An opportunity to solve problems we weren’t aware we had, and sure up holes in a system we were complacent with.

It’s also a time to shift our focus and realign our world view. My paradigm for this blog has been (as my bio states) as a father, a husband, a pilot, and a lifelong athlete. For the immediate future I’m not doing a whole lot of flying. A global pandemic and an immuno compromised pregnant wife and soon to be newborn don’t mix. I find peace in physical exertion and movement, (SerenityThroughSweat, duh) but anything with a group is out for the near future as well. That leaves half of my self described bio in some form of disrepair.

I’m fortunate enough to be in a place where I can still focus on my higher needs (3-5) at least for the time being. I’m nervous and excited to lean in to what that paradigm shift will be. More time focusing on being a better father and a husband, and filling the holes left from the other two large aspects of my life.

I hope that we are all able to see the silver lining in this global event. I hope that we can all shift our paradigms, to realign on that which is most important. And I hope we can each find our own little slice of Serenity.

Thanks for joining me, and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s SerenityThroughSweat, chasing “stinky dirty” around the neighborhood in the jogging stroller for some morning miles.

Stockpiling

Welcome to 2020, where the American people have become hoarders of toilet paper. As a husband of a pregnant wife, there is plenty to be concerned about the current events, and as a long time resident of Florida, I’m no stranger to the histeria that leads to stockpiling supplies. That being said, there is one thing I’m always stockpiling, and it is a huge asset to have in your backup plan.

I’m talking about fitness, overall wellbeing, and of course serenity. Obviously any fitness and/or wellbeing pursuit is valuable in and of itself. It also caries its own sort of insurance against future uncertainty. Whatever happens, or doesn’t happen, you will be in a better place to deal with it from a place of fitness, general wellbeing, and serenity.

This is even more important when there is a known or forecast period of uncertainty ahead. Who knows where this virus will end up, public places especially ones where multiple people are sweating and touching communal surfaces might end up being shut down temporarily. Will you be any worse off if you “stockpile your fitness”.

As a father expecting a new child soon, I know my sleep and my free time will be limited. Extra training now will help carry me into that period of uncertainty and leave me better off to return to regular training after what will inevitably be a period of reduced fitness load (although caring for a newborn is a full time routine of its own).

Mental and emotional wellbeing should be treated the same way. Know you have a stressful project coming up at work, or some other challenging life event on the horizon? Just like trying to build momentum before climbing a hill on your bike, building a positive mental and emotional foundation can help carry you through times of uncertainty.

So stop stashing supplies and switch to stockpiling strength, stamina, swagger, sweat, and serenity. All alliteration aside, when a sinister storm suddenly sneaks up, you’ll be all set. Next to the rice, beans, toilet paper, and beer, don’t forget to leave room for all the serenity and sweat.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.

Today’s Serenity through Sweat, chasing “stinky dirty” the garbage truck on a stroller run to the playground with El Duderino. Some simple and sinister kettlebells during his nap, and some mobility work in the bottom of the squat position while he is potty training.