Kids strength training

[Lazarus52980]

This subject comes up from time to time, so I thought I would just create a general thread on it so we can hash out the subject (Since we have a lot of people here with a LOT of knowledge and experience.


What age is it appropriate to start kids lifting weights?

What lifts should be done? What lifts should NOT be done?

How many sets/reps are appropriate for younger kids?

How do you progress with weight? What is safe, and what is most effective?

Won't it stunt my kids growth?


I will let others chime in first.

 

[TheFamilyMan]

I know some will groan by me posting this...but here goes anyway. As my wife and I both do CrossFit, we were looking at ways to get our children involved as well. This began with us simply going over and talking about the exercises we were doing in the gym.

Fast-forward to now...my 12-year old knows all the movements and is working on beginning compound movements and getting her form right first and increasing weights second. I stay in touch with what her workouts are and ask questions that pertain to age-appropriateness, types of workouts, insuring advancement is natural vs. pressured, and how she is handling the increasing weights (i.e. soreness, aches, no pulled muscles, etc).

We've found this whole experience to be incredibly positive. She has always had a good self-image and natural confidence but we can see a progression and bit of maturity of both of these as her workouts and advancement have progressed.

 

[Lazarus52980]

I know some will groan by me posting this...but here goes anyway. As my wife and I both do CrossFit, ...

While I personally am not a CrossFit kind of guy, I can see how this would have a very positive impact on a young girl. Why would there be "groaning"??

 

[highland145]

Subject came up yesterday with my 12 year old. He's lost his electronics privileges for the next month. Good, I say. Anyway, my ortho said there's no reason that children can't do strength training with proper supervision. Kid jumps off a piece of playground equipment and that can put 3X their body weight on their joints...when would they ever lift 3X their body weight?

 

[Lazarus52980]

I have become a bit of an evangelist of kids weight training over the last year or so, so this subject is near and dear to my heart.

To give an idea of how strong kids can become, here is a video I found I had posted to youtube of my son almost exactly 1 year ago with 20 lbs (and looking back, it was too much weight for him at that time):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1xMH_OvbNA

And here is the video of him 2 days ago with 70 lbs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew35ieLAcQU


That is just an average boy in about 1 year of steady work.

He has had no injuries, and has gone from being in the 38 percentile for weight, to being in the 69% for weight for his age in one year. (and looking at him, I don't find him at ALL fat, so I think it is mostly muscle).

Just remember to ask for help. AT and other forums have been instrumental in how far along my son has come, because I had never coached children before and needed extra guidance, advice.

 

[Blackjack200]

Subject came up yesterday with my 12 year old. He's lost his electronics privileges for the next month. Good, I say. Anyway, my ortho said there's no reason that children can't do strength training with proper supervision. Kid jumps off a piece of playground equipment and that can put 3X their body weight on their joints...when would they ever lift 3X their body weight?

I think that's something a lot of people don't realize, and not just for kids.

A powerlifter puts 2x his bodyweight on the bar and squats it, and the bar looks imposing with all that weight on it, but think about a hockey player doing a turn.

Just standing on his skates he has 1x his bodyweight. He leans into a turn at 45 degrees, and now the centripital force of his turn is equal to his bodyweight, in other words, his legs are now carrying 2x his bodyweight. Now he picks up his outside foot to crossover, and his inside leg is carrying 2x his bodyweight all by itself, or the same loading it would have with a 3x bodyweight squat!

I would guess most recreational hockey players can't squat 3x their bodyweight, so they cannot explode through those crossovers like a professional can. Instead the inside leg just holds the weight while the outside leg crosses over, but imagine the performance boost if you could!

That's what gets me under the bar. :thumbsup:

 

[Lazarus52980]

I think that's something a lot of people don't realize, and not just for kids.

A powerlifter puts 2x his bodyweight on the bar and squats it, and the bar looks imposing with all that weight on it, but think about a hockey player doing a turn.

Just standing on his skates he has 1x his bodyweight. He leans into a turn at 45 degrees, and now the centripital force of his turn is equal to his bodyweight, in other words, his legs are now carrying 2x his bodyweight. Now he picks up his outside foot to crossover, and his inside leg is carrying 2x his bodyweight all by itself, or the same loading it would have with a 3x bodyweight squat!

I would guess most recreational hockey players can't squat 3x their bodyweight, so they cannot explode through those crossovers like a professional can. Instead the inside leg just holds the weight while the outside leg crosses over, but imagine the performance boost if you could!

That's what gets me under the bar. :thumbsup:

That's a really good point. In your opinion then, do you think all kids who participate in sports like hockey (and maybe football and soccer) should begin some sort of weight training when they start those sports?

 

[Blackjack200]

That's a really good point. In your opinion then, do you think all kids who participate in sports like hockey (and maybe football and soccer) should begin some sort of weight training when they start those sports?

"Should" is a tough word for me. I loved athletics growing up and would have practiced all day and night if I could have. If I knew what the lifts could do for my performance I would have been very enthusiastic about lifting. My brother did not like sports, and my father pushed him to practice anyway. To this day I think he resents it.

But if the lifts are being done correctly, and they want to do them, I don't see why they can't.

 

[Lazarus52980]

Anyone have any opinions on what lifts are "OK" for kids, and what lifts should be avoided? The ones I seem to get the most flack over are power cleans and over head press...

 

[Pantlegz]

Dave Tate had a bit on kids training in one of his seminars and I agree with what he said. Stick to bodyweight movements until they stop seeing gains from them. Something about allowing them to makes all the gains they can without weights because once you add weights then bodyweight work isn't as effective as it was before. I'll look for the video at some point. I think teaching them how to move and perform natural movements (see Kelley Starrett on Joe Rogans podcast from a few days ago) and how to move 'correctly' is much more important than teaching them to lift at a young age. That doesn't mean that lifting can't be used to teach them but it should be done at very light weights.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

FWIW: I think if a kid can run a 5K at any age, that is great.

For upper body, I'd almost want to do targetted exercises.

My son has asked about it (age 8) but when I tried to teach him to deadlift an empty bar, he wasn't understanding what I meant about form. What i mean is that he doesn't have the patience to learn to do things correctly. He just wants to grab weights and use them. So I shelved this idea for a few years.

laz,
Only comment is head position on that second video of your son. He is cranking his head back instead of keeping the spine straight. Just tell him to look at a spot somewhere and to not stop looking at it.

I've read that weights for kids has shown actual benefit to central nervous systems. I think that basically means that they will be better able to control their body when doing activities. Having lifted weights, I see that kind of improvement in myself.

 

[iluvdeal]

If you are interested in improving a child's sports performance, I'd use their training time instead on improving those sports skills rather than strength training since they can always add strength training later on with no detriment. The earlier and the more time they can put into practicing sport specific skills like practicing their jump shot, dribbling with both hands, hitting a baseball, fielding, swinging a golf club, etc, the better they'll be at for the rest of their lives. It's like those sports skills get imprinted into their brains if they are done early and often.

 

[Lazarus52980]

If you are interested in improving a child's sports performance, I'd use their training time instead on improving those sports skills rather than strength training since they can always add strength training later on with no detriment. The earlier and the more time they can put into practicing sport specific skills like practicing their jump shot, dribbling with both hands, hitting a baseball, fielding, swinging a golf club, etc, the better they'll be at for the rest of their lives. It's like those sports skills get imprinted into their brains if they are done early and often.

In my sons case, it doesn't have anything to do with sports. The only sport I have had him show any interest in was martial arts, and I just can't afford it (For him and his sister, its $200 a month). So... for us, lifting IS the sport.

 

[Lazarus52980]

laz,
Only comment is head position on that second video of your son. He is cranking his head back instead of keeping the spine straight. Just tell him to look at a spot somewhere and to not stop looking at it.

Thank you, that was good advice. Helped us with our lift last night.

 

[kalrith]

In my sons case, it doesn't have anything to do with sports. The only sport I have had him show any interest in was martial arts, and I just can't afford it (For him and his sister, its $200 a month). So... for us, lifting IS the sport.

Have you looked around at different martial arts schools? At my local YMCA, I could get a family membership and Tae Kwon Do for 3 people for $65/month. I'm guessing it not going to be an excellent martial arts program, but it's probably better than nothing.

When I was a kid, my family couldn't afford the expensive schools, so I went to a cheap $20/month school. While it was very mediocre (or worse) as a martial arts school, it was so much better than nothing as a kid. I went to it from age 12 - 14 and got my red belt (black-belt testing was too expensive).

 

[iluvdeal]

If they are motivated enough to study and practice it on their own, another suggestion I'd throw out there is instructional DVDs. You can find multi dvd instructional sets on ebay or amazon for karate, tae kwon do, muay thai, etc. There's a jiu jitsu course aimed at kids and parents for handling bullies called "Gracie Bullyproof" so you might wanna look that up. You could buy some sparring gloves/pads/mitts so you could be part of their training as well.

BTW I have heard of MMA fighters learning moves through watching instructional youtube videos, so don't disregard the value of learning martial arts through videos on your own. If one of your kids has a passion towards it, I'm sure they could learn a lot from them.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Reviving thread to ask, what exercises are appropriate for kids. In particular, my 8 year old is asking about weights again.

should I go after macros are targetted exercises?

I was thinking, empty bar (15 pound) squats and deads. Maybe concentration curls with empty bars (5 pounds maybe).

Thoughts?

 

[Lazarus52980]

I personally am in favor of compound lifts for anyone, kids, adults, or elderly.

Assuming an average 8 year old, I agree with a 15 lb bar to start with for squat, but not until he is able to do the basic motion without a bar. Good form before the bar goes a LONG way to having good form with the bar.

For deadlift I think you want to start with at least SOME height on the bar, so if you want to do just the bar, get some boxes to put the bar on so he is not pulling it from 1" off the floor.

While I don't see any issue with doing some "show muscle" work, I HATE curls. IMO, work on chin-ups with him for bicep work. He will get a lot more out of it than just bicep. WHen I started working with my children on pull-ups/chin-ups we started by doing negatives (help them get their chin above the bar, and then go down as slowly as possible).

I would also recomend push-ups until he is able to do 10 or so of them and can keep his form decent. At that point its time to move onto bench press.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Worth reading:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/strength-training/HQ01010

Basically, don't stress lifting heavy till the body is fully mature.

 

[Lazarus52980]

Worth reading:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/strength-training/HQ01010

Basically, don't stress lifting heavy till the body is fully mature.

I have read that, but I don't put much more stock in it than I do my pediatrician’s opinion on lifting. They know a lot about treating illness, but I doubt even the Mayo's understanding of strength training.

I think THIS would be better reading:

http://www.lonkilgore.com/ssyouth.pdf

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

laz,

Thakns for the PDF

 

[Blackjack200]

I have read that, but I don't put much more stock in it than I do my pediatrician’s opinion on lifting. They know a lot about treating illness, but I doubt even the Mayo's understanding of strength training.[/URL]

Totally agree, what an asinine article.

 

[Plugers]

Kids are just curious. I know when I was doing "Insanity" my 8 year old daughter kept asking to do it with me. I just kept letting her know she doesn't have to do the whole thing if she got tired. She took a lot of breaks at first, but wanted to do more.