My 12 year old son

[Peaceful Rainbow]

is homeschooled and he's not playing basketball this year, so we're doing gym every day. He's currently working on his 1RM's so he can start STS soon, but yesterday I had him do Hiit Pyramid. The child is quite athletic and does very well with the type of coordination needed for things like basketball, baseball, soccer...but beyond that He obviously inherited those genes from DH!

While he was doing Pyramid I had to bite my lip quite a bit to keep from LOL, but then during the stretch when Cathe was doing pigeon pose, he says "that's just unfunctionable!" Between the comment and his positioning, on top of spending 1/2 an hour trying not to laugh, I collapsed in shaking heap on the floor and just laid there gasping for breath while he's going "what...what?"

 

[MadnNatsmom]

That's great that you're spending time with your son, but is 12 years old enough to start heavy weight-training? 1RM uses requires very heavy weights.

I tried looking up information for my 13-year old son, but the general concensus seems to promote exercises using his own body-weight, such as pullups, pushups, planks, etc.

Just wondering if you found any information regarding safety of weight-training for someone just hitting puberty?

 

[mj476]

Someone posted this article over at VF re children and weight training:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...0036910610.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5

HTH.

Marcy

 

[RapidBreath]

I wonder if he should try martial arts? I think that 12 is too young to do weight training.

 

[Peaceful Rainbow]

Actually, he's not using heavy weights. Generally 3's and 5's and the barbell with no added weights. Mainly I just want him to understand proper form and get into the mindset of working out. Next year he's planning to go to school, so the opportunity for one on one form training gets tossed out the window. I'd actually planned to wait until he was at least 13, but decided we could work on the basics now while we have the chance. I do appreciate your concerns, as I had them myself.

 

[Fembot40]

My DD is also homeschooled. He's been doing the upper and lower body premix to Cathe's Boot Camp workout. With the warm-up and cool down, it takes about 25 minutes. Since September he's been doing this 2 to 3 times per week. Some days he likes it, and other days he has a few choice words for Cathe. I have him on the treadmill the opposite days, as I know he would never try a Cathe cardio. His pedatrician checked his growth plates and said he was cleared to lift, that said, he doesn't really use anything over a 15lb barbell and 10lb dumbells. He also attends a military program one night a week and they have those kids (boys and girls) team lifting 75lb bags and doing boot camp drills, so I think the training he's been doing at home should help prevent injuries from that. We're looking into the PS3 workout motion program to add more variety.

 

[Peaceful Rainbow]

I have him on the treadmill the opposite days, as I know he would never try a Cathe cardio.

Nick likes the MMA workouts (which have guys) and the Hiit Workouts, but step or hi/lo he wouldn't have the kind of coordination needed to do them safely. I've thought of having him do Boot Camp, too. He's very much on the bottom of the scale size wise, so it'll be quite awhile before he's up for anything more than light weights.

 

[Little Chickadee]

My DS (15 now) has been working out since he was 12. He flat out refuses to use any "girly" workouts. He does Power 90 because he's okay with Tony. I'd like him to try P90X but he is happy with Power 90. So unlike his mother, who has hundreds of DVDs.