Strength Training is Good For Kids!
It’s official! After many long years of arguing with fools, I am validated! Based on hundreds of studies and thousands of hours of research, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) have finally taken the position that age-appropriate resistance training is not only good for kids, but recommended.
 Strong Kid |
Children under the ages of 11 in girls and 13 in boys used to be discouraged from participating in resistance exercise, for a variety of reasons, none of which I will get into here because none have any merit. Based on the NSCA’s new position on childhood strength training, children from the ages of 6 on, will now be encouraged to participate in a wide range of exercises involving linearly progressive resistance loads.
The exercises can include anything from bodyweight exercises, to plyometrics, weightlifting, odd object lifting, and intense cardiovascular performance. Snatches, cleans, and jerks are specifically mentioned as appropriate ‘weight lifting’ exercises that are safe for children!
Important Social Benefits
It has been obvious to me for some time now that those kids in junior high and high school, who started weight training when they were younger than 10 years, had an advantage in gym class, extracurricular sports, had more friends inside and outside of school, and were generally stronger and healthier as adolescents and young adults.
Important Health Benefits
The potential benefits of youth strength training extend beyond an increase in muscular strength and may include favorable changes in selected health and fitness-related measures.
If appropriate training guidelines are followed, regular participation in a youth strength-training program has the potential to:
- increase bone mineral density
- improve motor performance skills
- enhance sports performance
- better prepare our young athletes for the demands of practice and competition.
Promote Childhood Resistance Training
It is now the objective of public health officials, to encourage boys and girls age 6 and older to regularly participate in activities that enhance muscular fitness. Parents, teachers, coaches, and healthcare providers should realize that youth strength training is a specialized method of conditioning that can offer enormous benefit to our children.
Qualified instruction, competent supervision, and an appropriate progression of the volume and intensity of training is required, but children and adolescents can and should learn advanced strength training exercises, should be encouraged to feel good about their performances, and most importantly: they should have fun.
I had always wished someone taught me how to train when I was in elementary school so that I could have had that social edge as a teenager, but the old philosophy was that kids should not lift weights or use too much resistance when exercises. Wrongo!
The Current Position of the NSCA
It is the current position of the NSCA that:
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program is relatively safe for youth.
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can enhance the muscular strength and power of youth.
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can improve the cardiovascular risk profile of youth.
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can improve motor skill performance and may contribute to enhanced sports performance of youth.
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can increase a young athlete’s resistance to sports-related injuries.
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can help improve the psychosocial well-being of youth.
- A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can help promote and develop exercise habits during childhood and adolescence.
ACSM is in Agreement
Comments made by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) also suggest that adding generic strength and resistance training to athletic practice should significantly reduce sports-related injuries in children, as kids more frequently engage in sports-related activities at a increasingly younger age.
Basically, when your kid enrolls in a sport the coach or trainer should have them use resistance training exercises in addition to sport-specific training and skill-development, to better prepare them for the demands of competitive physical activity.
The Swole Opinion
In my opinion, kids are geared more towards full body training with HIRT and HIIT routines. Some children who have good coordination and CNS activation will probably benefit from full body weightlifting routines as well. I think a higher rep range will be good for kids, as I don’t see an 8 year old using 5×5 barbell back squats or maxing out on the deadlift.
Do I smell a Werewolf Training for Kids routine in the near future???? What about Swole for Toddlers????
OK, OK, I won’t push the envelope too far, but at least now you know that it is OK to teach your kids to do pull ups, push ups, depth jumps, ab wheel roll outs, squat jump thrusters, bench presses, military presses, some deadlifts, and surprisingly even Olympic lifts like power cleans!
Resources:
Strength training for children and adolescents.
Tags: acsm, children, Kids, nsca, Research, strength, strength training, teenagers, Weight Training, weightlifting
Hey Steve – have you heard where health experts reckoned where the quality of your childhood nutrition and exercise sets you up for life and vice versa? In other words, if you exercise right and eat mostly healthful foods then it will set you up for a healthy life even if you don’t care of yourself in middle age. However if you grew up with little exercise and low quality food your lifelong health will always be mediocre regardless of how much you try exercise and eat right as an adult . . .
Gil: I don’t know of any such studies, but that’s a good question.
Is it really?
lol @ the picture!
What about growth? Can strength training stunt growth in kids or is that also a myth?
Chris: I have never known strength training to stunt growth, nor have I found any studies that draw a link between the two. If you find one, please post it here.
Wow way to be current. The first NSCA position paper on youth resistance training came out in 1996. The one you are citing is the updated position paper released last year.
What’s your point Dave? It was updated last year, so that’s pretty current.
The common belief is that kids shouldn’t participate in strength training. I’m trying to dispell a myth here. Thanks for your feedback.