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Strength-Training Tips to Lift Young Athletes

As seen in Sports Illustrated August 12, 2002

Posted: Wednesday June 22, 2005

Last month I gave parents some pointers on teaching their young athletes about the dangers of steroids (July 8 issue). Using drugs to build a more muscular frame is certainly a terrible mistake. But there’s nothing wrong with active youngsters’ trying to increase their strength, because they can do so in healthy ways. Here’s how.

Most people used to believe that kids shouldn’t lift weights until they were at least 16 or 17. Any younger than that, the thinking went, and they could seriously damage their developing bodies. Some even thought lifting could stunt a youngster’s growth. But times have changed. Fitness coaches and pediatricians now generally agree that children ages 12–14 can start working with weights, and some experts say it’s O.K. to begin even younger. Dr. Michael Axe, author of Weight Training: Designing a Program for Children and Adolescents, says his three kids all started at age seven. “The point of importance is that they’re mature enough to know how to do it safely,” Axe says. “And the equipment has to be the size for young children. That means the parents have to make special investments.”

Parents also must make sure the youngsters aren’t lifting on their own. “They should do so only under the strict supervision of a qualified trainer,” says Greg Brittenham, a New York Knicks assistant coach who directs the team’s training and conditioning. “And make your child’s doctor aware of it.”

The value of training with weights extends beyond the obvious. Along with building muscle, when done correctly and using a full range of motion, it can also improve bone structure and density and help develop a youngster’s flexibility, exposing another old myth—that lifting weights has the opposite effect.

Brittenham and others in his field advocate a more functional approach to strength training for kids. Introduce them first to basic exercises that have little or no weight. The emphasis must be on using proper technique. As they get older, the weights can gradually get heavier and the number of different activities can increase. “I like a youngster to develop a strong foundation for his or her body, and a good, solid program to do that includes working with medicine balls, stability balls, balance boards and so on,” Brittenham says.

He recommends that kids do at most three sets of eight to 12 repetitions for each exercise. They shouldn’t lift more than three times a week, and they should never sacrifice technique for additional reps or weight. For safety reasons, Brittenham also discourages youngsters from lifting any weights over their heads or faces or any other lifting that unnecessarily strains their spines (for example, bench presses and shoulder presses).

According to Cedric Bryant, the vice president of educational services at the American Council on Exercise, kids ages 11–13 can begin doing some of the more traditional strength training exercises, but “really keeping the resistance loads light,” he says. “When they hit about 14 or 15, you can start to think more in terms of some developmental-type resistance training programs. Then when they’re 16 or older, they can move to entry-level adult programs.”

And what can parents tell the skinny teenager who weight trains all summer but is disappointed in the fall when he doesn’t see bulging biceps? “Relax,” Brittenham says. “Just because you don’t immediately see the results of your strength training doesn’t mean it’s not working. It’s just that your body’s hormones may not have fully kicked in yet to make those muscles pop out. But don’t worry—you are getting stronger, and that’s what counts.”

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