How young is too young?

[SamTHorn]

I have a seven year old boy who really wants to start working out with me. I have done a little research and I haven't be able to find anything telling me that it is bad.

I'm talking strength training, not body building. Let me know your insights. Thanks in advance.

~ Sam

[Maria]

He can do strength training at that age but you have to be careful with him. His growth plates still aren't fully closed at this point and injuring a growth plate could hinder growth. If you keep his weight moderate and higher rep ranges he should be fine. Of course form is important. Doing a lot of body weight exercises is a good start too. I use to coach young gymnasts and I had them do general strength training as well as sport specific conditioning.

[BBbox]

He's too young.

The epiphyseal plates in his bones (which cause longitudinal growth) are still soft and too much pressure will inhibit this growth... which can cause a decrease in his ultimate height in adulthood (this is why children who get into hardcore gymnastics etc end up being so short!)

[steve_d]

he's not too young to have some bonding time with his dad. just set him up with something that might not be so crazy, but at the same time letting him have fun and feel like he's working out.

pushups, situps...etc. just don't get him doing 1 rep maxes everyday

[faller]

(this is why children who get into hardcore gymnastics etc end up being so short!)

^I'd like to see some studies confirming this.....

There's tons of body weight movements he can do, throw in some light barbell work to make him feel like he's training with Dad and it'll all be good.

[#8]

Put him in hockey and play street hockey with him instead. This will pay off later as a much better investment if he makes pro.

Hockey > working out

[natenator]

Put him in hockey and play street hockey with him instead. This will pay off later as a much better investment if he makes pro.

Hockey > working out
agreed.

[BBbox]

^I'd like to see some studies confirming this.....


I took anatomy in uni.

Just look up bone growth & epiphyseal plates.

[ubcpower]

Sports for the win.
If you want him to come to the gym with you for father-son time get him set up with pushups, situps and chin ups.

[warlock]

Not loo young as long as he is trained smart.

2X a week would be enough, every day a new work out for him in order to keep interesting for the boy, lower weights more reps, Balls, Bosus, wable boards, elastic bands, sledges, corner bars, ketlebells etc are all good.

I have had a few clients bringing their kids to the studio and they loved being my "assistants". The parents loved that the kids got wiped out doing plyos learning new stuff and them came back home ate and had a afternoon nap!

[Aaron_37]

I would put my kids in sports until at least 12, perhaps 13. Then we'll talk.

[cog]

IIRC,the Russian opinion was higher reps only,15-20 min,body weight movements.Just getting the wiring in place.

[#8]

I would put my kids in sports until at least 12, perhaps 13. Then we'll talk.

Im assuming you mean you WOULDNT put them in until that age....

and by doing so that is a GIANT FAIL.

Put them in at 13 if you want them to have an enormous competitive disadvantage as all of the other kids have been playing since they were 5 or 6.

I would know. I didnt start hockey until I was 10.

Or if you are one of those parents who doesnt care who wins then please never put your kids in sports at all and just continue to pay for their magic points on their world of warcraft accounts while they get super fat.

Go to bed.

[Aaron_37]

Im assuming you mean you WOULDNT put them in until that age....

and by doing so that is a GIANT FAIL.

Put them in at 13 if you want them to have an enormous competitive disadvantage as all of the other kids have been playing since they were 5 or 6.

I would know. I didnt start hockey until I was 10.

Or if you are one of those parents who doesnt care who wins then please never put your kids in sports at all and just continue to pay for their magic points on their world of warcraft accounts while they get super fat.

Go to bed.

I don't think you read my post properly, so please save your unreasonable attitude for someone else. Your post is seriously disrespectful, even if I had made that assertion. I'm going to stay calm on this though because it's the right thing to do.

I said I would keep my children outside the gym until 12-13 by having them do sports instead at least UNTIL 12-13, and then I would consider having them weight-train. I was not saying that I would hesitate to start them in sports at 12-13. Good day, sir.

[Memo]

you should start him into BJJ instead... it will be better and he can start weight in 2-3 years

[MuSuLPhReAk]

I'd put him in different sports instead of weight training until he's older. There is no need for him to be lifting weights at that age.

[natenator]

Im assuming you mean you WOULDNT put them in until that age....

and by doing so that is a GIANT FAIL.

Put them in at 13 if you want them to have an enormous competitive disadvantage as all of the other kids have been playing since they were 5 or 6.

I would know. I didnt start hockey until I was 10.

Or if you are one of those parents who doesnt care who wins then please never put your kids in sports at all and just continue to pay for their magic points on their world of warcraft accounts while they get super fat.

Go to bed.
you are seriously starting to become a ****ing dickwad.

[#8]

^^ i misunderstood his post.

my fail.

i will negative rep myself with a slap in the face.

[oster]

His comment is worded funny, but its not very hard to understand what he was saying, I think YOU need to go take a nap #8...

As for the OP, I think training a 7 year old in the weight room is ****ing crazy! Throw him in a team sport, not only will that help develop his social skills, but in my opinion be much more enjoyable...

[Delt King]

Well as a kid who started working out at 7 yrs old (and i'm still 5'10) i think there isn't anything wrong with a proper program designed for a young boy. Of course you need the right teacher and seeing how the majority of people train in the gyms i'd say if you're just regular Joe workout guy don't do it because learning bad form young will only make things worse. That being said i've got one of my boys training (he's 7) because he's really interested. Done right it's safer than full contact football (which they do have for 7 yr olds as well)
And no i don't have him doing any 1 rep maxes duhh. and if he ever wanted to quit because he'd rather do something else, no big deal. (he still does karate, baseball and soccer)

[faller]

. Done right it's safer than full contact football

Or hockey, lol. Never mind the cost.

I've got a pic somewhere of my son doing a military in our basement when he was about 6 or 7, pretty kool pic he's just shredded like kids are at that age... He's 6'1".. But to be fair he didn't do it for very long, he mostly did sit-ups, push-ups and some chins with my help.

[GYMBRAT]

yeah it is cute fosho, When my oldest was 7-8ish he always played around with the weights when I worked out but was short lived (he got bored). He is 17 now, but I started him out on a fairly strict regime when he turned 14, and he is now insanely ripped and the girls love him 4 it LOL. Great health move though imo!!!

[Maria]

He's too young.

The epiphyseal plates in his bones (which cause longitudinal growth) are still soft and too much pressure will inhibit this growth... which can cause a decrease in his ultimate height in adulthood (this is why children who get into hardcore gymnastics etc end up being so short!)

Young gymnasts are selected based on there parents and grandparents stature. If the parents and grandparents are short in stature usually the child will also be short in stature.

These kids don't do heavy duty weight lifting. By the way any child who damages a growth plate in any sport runs the risk of inhibiting growth.

[BBbox]

^^ the constant pressure on gymnasts epiphyseal plates is not from weightlifting, its due to the constant impact of tumbling etc. However, weightlifting can have a similar effect.

It deffinetly impacts their height. More than other sports because the pressure is so consistent.

[faller]

Young gymnasts are selected based on there parents and grandparents stature. If the parents and grandparents are short in stature usually the child will also be short in stature.

.

The same happened when my daughter was very active in TKO, the coaches and masters were always looking to the parents to see what potential the child had. The taller the parents, the better the chances of the kid being tall and the better fighter they could be due to reach.

[Maria]

^^ the constant pressure on gymnasts epiphyseal plates is not from weightlifting, its due to the constant impact of tumbling etc. However, weightlifting can have a similar effect.

It deffinetly impacts their height. More than other sports because the pressure is so consistent.

I'd like to see the material based on this. Do you have it?

[physique]

pushups, burpees, sit ups and chin ups are all he should be doing at that age. maybe a few super light dumbell curls. and work on his cardio

[GYMBRAT]

even that is too much^^ imho, unless of course it is just 4 fun

[AlbertaBeef]

I found some good reputable advice here http://www.davedraper.com/youth-strength-training.html

I was interested in this as well because of my own 8yr old son and kids I coach in lacrosse. My understanding was that at around 8 years of age it is optimum for resistance training as it's the best time for bone development and increasing the density, so it is more skeletal than muscle benefit. If a kid is to have a long life in any sport good bone density is essential.

[Delt King]

pushups, burpees, sit ups and chin ups are all he should be doing at that age. maybe a few super light dumbell curls. and work on his cardio

It seems to me that a bodyweight chin up is going to be much more difficult than a properly done pulldown.

[evoke]

When I saw title, I thought this was going to be about jailbait. lol

As for the kid, 7 is too young. Stick to team sports till about 15, imo.

[faller]

I found some good reputable advice here http://www.davedraper.com/youth-strength-training.html

I was interested in this as well because of my own 8yr old son and kids I coach in lacrosse. My understanding was that at around 8 years of age it is optimum for resistance training as it's the best time for bone development and increasing the density, so it is more skeletal than muscle benefit. If a kid is to have a long life in any sport good bone density is essential.

And there ya have it! Great link! Green for you AlbertaBeef!

[JacktheThriller]

firstly make sure this isn't just him looking for your attention, wanting to hang with his dad

but id say body weight exercises are more than enough to progress at such a young age

[BBbox]

I'd like to see the material based on this. Do you have it?

I have information about it in my textbooks and journals for the anatomy and physiology courses I took in university.... sorry i cant send you a "wikipedia" or "john doe's workout blog" link

[devo09]

Ok, the actual answer to this is...yes hes too young to strength train..

WHy? because he won't get ANY benefit from it, ZERO..you actually won't be able to improve muscular OR cardiovascular elements until during/after puberty...

So, before then what can you do? You focus on basic motor skills that will help them when they can actually benefit. So teach them proper running mechanics, jumping, agility, etc

[LondonMuscle]

a while back orthopedic physicians expressed concern with respect to weight training and the stunting of one's growth but research done on this issue has not confirmed their original stance and in many causes has contradicted it showing weight training to increase joint integrity in youths not inhibit it

in order to stunt your growth from exercise you must damage one of the growth plates which is quite hard to do... also when this happens you tend to get unilateral deficiencies in growth, not bilateral... in other words one limb will stop growing not all of them! so you would have one leg longer or shorter than the other, they wouldnt both stop growing at exactly the same time unless you damaged both of them

the US government collected data on injuries suffered by adolescents and found that approximately 50% of growth plate injuries were the result of sports and physical activity... the top 5 sports they found most likely to cause such an injury were soccer, basketball, football, skateboarding and bicycling (im sure hockey would have been there if i could find the canadian stats!)... weight training was not directly related to any growth plate fractures that i could find

bottom line is that any sport can cause growth plate injuries, although its an unlikely occurence and weight training does not seem to be one of the top ones although it must also be taken into account that there are many more youths playing soccer and basketball than are in the gym training with weights

should you decide that resistance training is right for your child, there are a lot of good books out there on this subject... the key is to keep resistance low, not max effort stuff or anything like that, and incorporate body weight exercises where possible

the NSCA's (national strength and conditioning associations) positions on weight training for young ppl is as follows:

"Despite outdated concerns regarding the safety or effectiveness of youth resistance training, scientific evidence and clinical impressions indicate that youth resistance training has the potential to offer observable health and fitness value to children and adolescents, provided that appropriate training guidelines are followed and qualified instruction is available."

[faller]

green^^^

[Maria]

I have information about it in my textbooks and journals for the anatomy and physiology courses I took in university.... sorry i cant send you a "wikipedia" or "john doe's workout blog" link


How old are your textbooks? Sometimes some textbooks aren't up to date with some info as there is always research being done and books would have to be reprinted all the time. The teachers follow a curriculum as well and what is in the textbook.

I also took anatomy, physiology and biomechanics courses while in school, more specifically as a national level gymnastics coach! Obviously the books and possibly you don't know anything about gymnastics as the equipment as come a long way in terms of providing more "spring" to their tumbling and less impact on their joints! "Backyard" gymnastics is more hazardous to young childrens' joints because the ground is not as forgiving.

Sorry, I don't mean to highjack this thread. I'm not going on any further about the topic of gymnastics but rather go back ON TOPIC about children weight training.

There are benefits to weight training PROVIDED it is done PROPERLY! Lately I have seen some dads bring their kids into the gym and don't know enough about training young kids. They have them lifting weights that are too heavy for them, with poor form! I am a stickler when it comes to form as it has been ingrained in my head due to gymnastics. I had been a coach and had worked with kids for 15 years, and still do from time to time. I occasionally get children in who are into other sports and want to improve on their sport through strength training. It has it's place. If it didn't then there would be no personal fitness trainer certification for youth and weight training.

So for those who wish to have their child weight train please do your homework and read about it and educate yourself before you begin, or take them to a certified trainer. If you feel your child is too young then don't start them until they are older. Everyone brings up their kids differently and you do what you think is best for your child.

[MMASTAR]

you are seriously starting to become a ****ing dickwad.

HaHa... funny hearing you say this, but i guess you should know... lol..

[avg2fit]

couple of links that might be an interesting read in relation to this post:

wfac-gym.com/files/ssyc.pdf
faqs.org/sports-science/Us-Z-and-bibliography/Youth-Sports-Injuries.html

i thought the danger in letting young people train with weights was the premature fusing of growth plates near the epiphysis and the end of the long bones of the body. impacts can cause this so how is weight training more dangerous than soccer / hockey / basketball or even climbing a tree (and prehaps falling)

anyways, hopefully common sense dictates "in moderation"