If you have a kid that plays sports, I’m pretty sure that you’ve heard (on more than one occasion) that lifting weights will stunt their growth. When you think about the well being of your child, there is no way that you can totally dismiss the idea of unknowingly hurting your child’s growth potential. After all, we all want our children to be the absolute best that they can be at they do.

In today’s modern world of athletics, the stakes are high and if you are serious about developing your little athlete, you should give them every advantage possible. They should be learning the ins and outs of their sport, whether it is football, boxing, karate, jiujitsu or whatever. Believe it or not, they also need to supplement there knowledge of the sport with some type of resistance training.

Resistance training in young athletes has multiple benefits:

• Children who do resistance training are less likely to be injured when play sports.
• Children who do resistance training have increased bone density
• Children who do resistance training tend to have stronger ligaments
• Children who do resistance training are just physically stronger than their counterparts and it shows in their athletic performance.

Moreover, training at a younger age primes the nervous system to utilize and efficiently recruit muscle fibers for maximal strength. Thats, why if you ever go to a powerlifting meet and watch the top kids compete, they are never “buff.” Yet, they are strong for their size and age. It is because children’s bodies do not engage in hypertrophy the way that adults bodies do. However, they do get stronger. Moreover, there is a window of opportunity that can be missed by the end of adolescence with regard to explosive strength development. The time to develop that explosive power that is necessary for boxing, football or basketball success is when they are children, not the teens or early 20’s.

Also you may need to get a strength program that emphasizes volume over weight. Be consistent and in no time you could be training the next JJ Watt or Marshawn Lynch.

 

Good Luck