- What kinds of scientific studies have been done that support your claim that the ability to do pull ups immunizes kids against obesity?
Despite any number of efforts to get academia to wrap a scientific study around this claim, we have failed miserably to do so. On the other hand, to my knowledge no academician has bothered to study whether your nose is on your face or not either. So just because academia has failed to study it, doesn’t mean it ain’t so.
- Kids generally hate pull ups, so how can you motivate them to do something they literally hate doing?
What kids hate is failing in front of their friends at anything, and that includes pull ups. On the other hand show them a way to succeed week after week, month after month and you’ll discover that kids actually love learning to tackle a difficult task like pull ups in front of their friends as long as they succeed. Success breeds success.
- Pull ups alone seem to lack the comprehensiveness of a complete fitness program. Why would you limit your program to pull ups alone?
Pull ups are simply what we measure in this program. This doesn’t mean that we discourage or limit anyone in any way. In fact we encourage all exercises that burn calories and help kids maintain or reduce their body weight. But much like a miler who does all kinds of things to reduce one thing, his mile time, we measure pull ups and we encourage kids to do anything and everything (short of performance enhancing drugs) to improve their pull up performance.
- With all the emphasis on being strong VS being weak, does OPYOW inadvertently encourage the use of performance enhancing drugs like steroids and human growth hormone?
Good question. And the basic answer is that in the short run, performance enhancing drugs seem to work. But in the long run they've been proven to be detrimental to your health. As a matter of fact intoducing anything alien and unnatural into your body over a period of time (which is required by these drugs) will prove to be detrimental to your health. And OPYOW is a completely natural orientation to strength.
One more answer to this question is the fact that another word for weakness is dependence. And using any illegal drugs makes you dependent on an illegal supply chain. Another word for strength is independence, and OPYOW is all about helping kids become independent and self reliant.
- I know plenty of skinny kids who are unable to pull ups because they’re too weak. So you’re not saying that the inability to do pull ups means kids are obese, right?
That absolutely correct. But if you’re skinny and still unable to do pull ups, OPYOW can help you gain strength, which will help you in all kinds of other ways.
- They always say that if something looks to good to be true, it’s probably untrue. Does this apply to OPYOW?
It absolutely does not apply to OPYOW. It is however so simple that it’s been overlooked by a plethora of experts who are spending millions trying to find something that’s been hiding in plain sight for years and years.
- What exactly do you mean by a pull up anyway?
We wrestled with this one, but we finally decided to count any repetition in which the participant goes all the way down (elbows straight) and all the way up (chin touching bar). Everything else was fair game and we avoided having to make judgment calls.
- All body weight exercise performance (push ups, jumping, running, etc.) benefits from fat loss, so why just focus on pull ups?
That statement is absolutely true. We decided to focus on pull ups however because everyone knows what they are, they’re inevitably associated with being strong because such a low percentage of kids can do them, and finally pull ups reflect the pull your own weight phrase in a way that no other exercise does.
- Don’t boys have an advantage over girls in OPYOW?
No. As a matter of fact at the younger ages (K - 3) girls are often the best in the class, not the boys. Girls you see mature faster than boys and therefore there’s no advantage, especially at the younger ages…which is the best time to start.
- Doesn’t OPYOW just embarrass the heck out of heavier kids who can’t perform?
By using height adjustable pull up bars and leg assisted pull ups, OPYOW is able to avoid kids failing and humiliating themselves in public. In fact they all succeed in front of their friends for weeks or months on end, and in the process they learn to tackle a difficult task in public and expect to succeed instead of to fail.
- Are there any liability issues associated with OPYOW?
There’s liability with eating eggs in the morning. But if the liability of doing leg assisted pull ups is your greatest liability, you’re in an extremely safe environment.
- What if there’s no top down mandate like you had at Jefferson School. Won’t that undermine a program like OPYOW?
Top down mandates actually undermine any legitimate program. We’d much prefer to see the motivation come from legitimately concerned teachers who want to make a difference, than school principals who want to implement a new mandate.
- Some may think that a phrase like pull your own weight promotes selfishness. Does it?
If you think that you are unfamiliar with OPYOW’s one final challenge. In fact the black belt in this program is achieved when you master the ability to do pull ups yourself, and then turn right around and help two other kids learn what you’ve learned to do on the pull up bar. And the kids who complete this one final challenge are inevitably amazed at how much stronger they feel about themselves.
- How did you generate so much positive publicity?
Actually the local news media is always hungry for positive news about kids. We found that feeding them regular press releases about what was going on with our OPYOW program was sufficient to generate boatloads of positive press. Actually any school administrator who values positive press will love what OPYOW does for their school.
- If OPYOW requires no degree to teach it, what good is it?
The greatest strength of OPYOW is its sheer simplicity. Anyone can afford it. Anyone can understand it. Anyone can measure it. And anyone can implement it. That means that you don’t need a degree. Any concerned parent can implement the program in their own home for next to no money. What more can you possibly ask?
