Question: I have a 12-year-old son who is interested in joining your gym, however I have some reservations about strength training at an early age. Is this going to impact his development?
Answer: My answer to this client was a lot more condensed, but I wanted to use this medium to expand on the subject just a little bit more.
We really do not have a cut-off on chronological age to start training, we look at it from a maturation standpoint. If they can pay attention for an hour and be coached, then we will train them. However, I do believe young, young kids, 6 to 9 years old, would benefit just as much from regular play than lifting weights.
The literature is pretty clear on the benefits that weight training at a younger age brings to the table, but it does have to be done correctly and with form in mind. A vast majority of our youth athletes present very weak and to be honest they are so weak that they probably shouldn’t be playing the sports that they participate in on a regular basis.
If strength training is implemented correctly at a young age, it is only going to skyrocket their development instead of hindering it. Bone-mineral density is going to increase, tendon and ligament strength is going to increase, and so is their motivation and willingness to train.
Growth plates are not an issue as different sites close at different ages. Certain growth plates in your hip will stop at 13-14, and your collarbone will not stop until you’re about 26-27 years old.
Plus, when your kid is running around and sprinting with a backpack on, or using the monkey bars, they are experiencing far more rotational forces on their joints than they would picking up a kettlebell in the gym.
So I think it’s fair to ask instead of “should they be training?”, it should be “what kind of training should they be doing”? The formula is very simple: a heavy emphasis on getting stronger, proper deceleration mechanics, and core strength will make them far better athletes than doing a bunch of speed ladders and dot drills all day every day.
Lastly, variety is the spice of life, and if we can expose these kids to as many movements in all three planes as possible, that is only going to develop them at a quicker pace.
The most difficult pill that a lot of young athletes and parents of these athletes have to swallow is the time that it takes to really develop someone. It is not an overnight venture and it takes years and years of doing the same thing over and over again to get a different result.
Is your youth athlete interested in weight training? Good news! That is our specialty.
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