STS for younger athletes

[WantFit]

Cathe and all educated crowds here,

I pre ordered STS was for me and hopefully get my DH into workout. The more I saw your blog, the more I think I can get my DD to use it. I need your help to see if this is appropriate for my DD.

Here is her brief background. She is 10 yr old competitive figure skater. The new trend of training in this sport is need more off ice training in order to get stronger (higher level) and prevent injury. I saw a few of their off ice training: a lot of core work and strength work. Of course a lot of plyo.

My question here are
1. Can I apply 1RM to let her train with STS, especially weight lifting (BTW, she did some Cathe's workouts, like Drill Max, Knick & Punch...She loves them.) In order to jump higher, her coach said that she need to improve her arms muscle and back muscles. She has strong quad. But she needs to improve her hamstring and Thighs.

2. Can she use leg plyo? In her sport, she needs not only jump higher but also need to be able to rotate in the air.

Thanks


WantFit

"Become the change you want to see in the world. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi

 

[jonahnah]

Love to see Cathe or Chris' response on this!

My understanding is kids under 13 should not use wts (other than body wt) due to the potential for damage to growth plates. Time Magazine has a recent article about kids overtraining for their sport and using plyometrics/heavy wt training and wreaking incredible damage to their bodies (ripping a growth plate completely off their knee, stress factures in their spines) Sadly, the examples cited were under a coach's guidance. Not sure if your DD could do something like B&G with NO WTS, doing hamstring roll ins in place of deadlifts. For her arms and back, push ups and pull ups (modified if necessary) are both reasonable body wt exercises for her age. Still need to watch out for overtraining injuries though.

Jonahnah
Chocolate IS the answer, regardless of the question.

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi WantFit! So great that you and hopefully your hubby will be doing STS together. You can motivate each other But honestly, I would not recommend STS for your 10 year old daughter due to the fact that the focus is put on heavier weight training after Mesocycle One.

Many studies show that strength training can be safely performed by pre-adolescents or children under the age of 12 with light weights and proper supervision but heavy weightlifting is not advised. I personally don't recommend lifting even with light weights at this age (unless under a highly qualified coaches direct supervision for the duration of all workouts) and prefer more body weight exerices such as chin ups, push ups, sit ups, plyometric jumps, etc.

But as far as heavy weights are concerned, many studies as well as doctors agree that lifting heavy weights puts pressure against bones. In pre-adolescents, such lifting may damage growth plates, the cartilage at the end of growing bones where bone development occurs. Since growth plates don't close up until puberty has been completed, heavy weight lifting is not recommended until this time. Other skeletal issues can also develop as a result of heavy weight lifting at a young age.

But being that your daughter is a competitve figure skater, I'm sure her training program is advanced and I recommend she ask her coach or highly qualified sports training specialist for a program that builds up her muscle endurance as well as a weekly plyometric workout to improve her jumping skills.

Best of luck to her and to you and hubby when STS arrives

 

[WantFit]

Cathe,

Thank you so much taking your precious time out to answer my questions in such detail way.

I will ask her coach what program to follow.

Yes, I got my smith machine this week and we try to set it up this weekend. We can't wait for STS arrives. Your STS blog totally changed his perception that Cathe's workout is girly workout.}(

Johnahnah,

Thanks for your great input. Currently, I saw she used 3 lb dumbbells doing some moves and she did a lot of core works by using stability ball and some sort of pilate isolation move (such as 100 and plank, etc). Her coach wanted her to do 500 stepups and 100 walking lung with weight(holding a pair of 3lbs dumbells extending arms towards ceilling) and without weight.

Now thinking back, it looks like her off ice training fell in your suggestion that kids in her age training with no weight or light weight. But I can't believe she beat me with many moves that Cathe did in her DVD, like levitation hold and reverse V plank on the ball.x(

WantFit

"Become the change you want to see in the world. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi