Looking for Help for Sons Ab birth defect.

[tlhfirelion]

Hey Coach, first off thanks for sharing starting strength with the public, I use it and love it. I plan on introducing both of my boys to it when they are a bit older. However I do need some direction as I have 1 son that was born with a birth defect that left him with severely underveloped ab muscles and I'm not sure if ss would be enough, or if he would need additional "stuff" specific to his weakness.

Painfully long story short, he has about 30 to 40% ab function and it's enough for him to function normaly through out the day, but it will be imperative for him to get every ounce of power he can from them and thus my posting you. The hospitals and "trainers" are of no help.

Do you know of anyone that may educate us or know of any avenue we could look into to help with this specific need? Maybe we need someone that would be part strength coach, part physical therapist and part dr???

Sorry for the long post but I'd do anything for my son so thank you in advance for taking the time to read and hopefully reply.

Ryker

[Mark Rippetoe]

How old is he? This might be important.

[tlhfirelion]

How old is he? This might be important.

He will be 4 next month. Obviously too young to work out yet, but I want to have a game plan developed and I want to understand it backwards and forwards before we just head to the gym. You'd be amazed (or maybe not) at how little the medical field can help with this type of issue. It's been a dissapointing eye opener for us.

Thank you for the reply.

[Mark Rippetoe]

He is too young now to do much. These things change over time, and children have a remarkable ability to generate tissue. How much of the ab wall is present and how well is it innervated?