Weight lifting for children

Georgia

Cathlete
Hi Cathe. I have a 11 year old son who is training for Cross Country this summer. He wants to incorporate wt. lifting for upperbody. I'm a little leary about this since I've heard that children shouldn't lift wts, but I remember reading somewhere if you keep the wts. light with high reps, it should be ok. I would appreciate your input. If it's ok, how many times a week would you recommend?

TIA :D
 
I too would be interested in this. I have a 12, almost 13 year old who is ready to start lifting. I was thinking he could actually work out with some of my tapes with lighter weights. I really don't know how else to tell him to work out other than the way that Cathe has presented.
 
Cathe, I hope you can answer this better than I. But I know that you are doing a lot of work right now. So I will take a stab at addressing it until you see this thread.

Georgia and Sailingwidow (cute name!),

I have a book called "Strength Training for Young Athletes." I got it from the Human Kinetics site. I think you can access it by typing "Exrx" into your address bar.

Anyway, in the book are many caveats to know, in order to make strength training safe, enjoyable, and effective for youngsters. One thing I remember from the book, and that is that muscle hypertrophy, or size gains, will not occur until after puberty. It is influenced by the presence of hormones.

The authors of this book say that strength training is useful and effective, but that body-weight only, and calisthenic type exercises (think Boot Camp) are better suited to young physiques than heavier weights. It is a nice book to read, and if you could find it in the public library it would be useful to read.

A lot of the book is given over to designing strength training programs for schools, and is not very pertinint to my needs. So I wish I had found it in a library. I am keeping it for reference though, and if you have a specific question I'd be glad to look for it in the index.

Cathe has more knowledge about training in general, and her reply would probably answer your question more specifically. My take on it (I have an eleven-year-old boy) is that a certain maturity and patience level needs to be attained in order for a Cathe-type workout (as is) to be of benefit. However, you could probably shorten it (to match his attention span) and be his instructor for each workout session.

Full-body workouts with lower body work as the warm-up would be a good beginning.

HTH

-Connie
 
Thank you Connie for your reply. You gals are so friendly over here. :) I didn't think of going to the library. Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't plan on a Cathe w/o. I feel he's way to young for that. Just the biceps, triceps and deltoids. Maybe some push-ups. I notice the gym teachers have their students doing push ups. And I would be his instructor. His legs will get worked well with the running. I think I may search the net and see what I can come up with to. Cathe, still would like your input though. Thanks again Connie! I love ya gals!
 
Hey there!

Definetley talk to your sons coaches and the DR... what ever DONT have him go heavy on weights. My son is (8th grade now) just going into HS and his hockey coach says he is even young to go heavy. Of course a bunch of the football guys are lifting heavy.

BIG thing I've seen (everyone told me and I didn't believe it) BUT adolescence changes everything. At least from my perspective (my son had his first game with the HS) that kids that are PUSHED Into sports by parents - OFTEN quit in HS - if the kids is ONLY doing it for the parents they don't have the desire. Kids that were SUPERstars young arent often the stars by the time they hit adolescence. Finally adolescence changes everything - the little kid can become the big kid - some of the kids that grew early are now the little guys.

Funny I'm short (5 2) and my son heard that lifting heavy can stunt growth (the 2 boys who started lifting HEAVY in 6th grade are short now - built but short) so he doesn't want to at all!! I think being short is his biggest fear!

Definetly check with your kids coach, a PT, or dr though!
 
I'm not sure that I believe that strength and muscle gains don't happen until after puberty.

I have an 11 year old daughter that is RIPPED she has been ripped for a couple of years.
She has more definition than Cathe! Her body is rock hard. My goal is to look like a more
mature version of my daughter. I'm not kidding or exaggerating on this. She can beat all
the (much larger) boys at school in arm wrestling (ha, I love it!). In fact she can even beat
the almost 15year old boy across the street with a black belt at arm wrestling. (ROTFL)
She can ALMOST but not quite beat me.

I think that her strength comes from just not being able to sit still. She loves to swing
on the monkey bars. Recently, she broke a metatarsal (foot bone) and two weeks later
she had the bad sense to go on a mile run with her class because she couldn't stand
the thought of having to stay behind. (She did not even come in last or near last!) She
did get in trouble with me and the Doctor over this, but it goes to show how she wont hold
still.

She also wants to work out with weights, but I usually wont let her. My reasoning is that she
in not patient and mature enough to follow good form. I think that this will be my deciding
factor on when I will allow her to weight train. When she can patiently and with good
form follow my instructions on weight work, then she can weight train. Until then she
will be restricted to body only exercises. Body only work can also be highly effective.

Dona
 
I think I have found a wonderful angle to the strength training for kids.

I got a book from the library for myself called Powersculpt The Women's Body Sculpting and Weight Training Workout Using the Exercise Ball. It is tough, has some of the skills Cathe uses and others. It has helped increase my upperbody strength and really whole body strength. It does have things you can do with weights on the ball, but I just do the other stuff.

I have 2 boys, 8 and 12. They saw me doing all these things on the ball and wanted to try. They will spend 30 min. tumbling around on it and balancing (hands and knees on ball). I think this is a great way for kids to increase their strength w/out weights. You know how hard Cathe's PUB/PLB ball work is. Plus, the kids think it's fun. My older son loves doing this more than anything with light weights. When you add things like trying to balance on hands and knees, then lift one hand off the ball, then both, it's quite a challenge and REALLY works those muscles.

Hope this idea is helpful to you. Try getting the book, it has lots of pictures and even a routine that you can try.

Melinda;)
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. The library sounds like an excellent place for me to start. You are right about the stability ball- my 7 and 12 year olds both like to roll around on that thing. Don't know why I didn't think about that myself....
 
Running on a broken foot doesn't sound good at all. I can't believe the teacher didn't do something about it :( Gotta look out for the long term. I would be so mad at the teacher.

Hopefully she can take part in some team sports with good supervision.
 

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