Is weight lifting good for kids?

People who do strength training, usually start to practice this type of exercising since their teenage years.

Not only that high-schools have an athletic program that includes strength training, but there are also clubs that allow younger kids to workout in this way. So the question is. Wouldn’t this affect they puberty growth? So let’s find out.

Let your kid grow

Some years ago, kids managed to get in shape using their own rules. This triggered their interest in real sports because they would realize that sports are fun. And for a kid fun is the most important part.

Due to the scholarships given for athletes, many parents started to think that only with an athletic performance their kid can get into a good college. This took the fun out of the sport and all the time the child had was directed only for one sport. This led to levels of fitness and strength.

The good part is that there is a long-term athletic development (LTAD). This approach creates development in the kids’ motor skill, multi-sport sampling. Also, it promotes physical development, the mental one and the social wellbeing for kids, but also in adults.

LTAD helps adults fix five errors in youth physical development:

1. Strength training will stop the growth process

2. Only kids with an early good performance early in sports and resistance have  athletic talent

3. Workout only with a pros’ technique

4. Kids need to start practicing at a very young age if they want to have success

5. If they stay outside and move a lot is enough

Strength training is the core of athleticism and motor skill development. This will not stunt a kid’s growth. Kids should at least be familiar with terms such as pushups, planks, bands and tubes or free weights. Children can be let to start an easy resistance training at a normal age when they start to present interest in sports.

Depending on the child’s physical condition, different training programs should be done. For example, obese or overweight kids need to exercise and should experience the success of lifting an external weigh. The secret is to find that one exercise your kid really enjoys doing and build from there.

Don’t mistake to consider your kid a prodigy simply because he/she has better results compared to his/her friend. Children are volatile and tomorrow he/she might not even be interested anymore in that sport.

Kids need to play

At a young age, children don’t have to pick a sport and stock only to it. This doesn’t automatically turn your kid into a professional athlete in 10-15 years.

You should let your child play different sports and when or if he/she is ready to pick one. If your kid plays more than one sport, a wide variety of movements will be developed. Due to this, your child will grow up and will be able to move confidently and chose the best sport for its constitution and preferences.

All sport training protocols need to be adjusted for each individual and not for a group. The fitness program should be made exactly for the child’s level of development and level of interest. So, most probably a college program for high school athletes will not be in the best interest for a teenager.

Just Moving Isn’t Enough

Yes, running around with no purpose is fun for a child. But if a person doesn’t understand from the beginning of his/her life the rules and benefits of doing sports, he/she will probably won’t have any interest in the subject in the adult years. And that is not desirable.

But adults need to understand that kids like fun, so to increase their interest in any kind of sport, they need to understand that kids are kids and not min-adults. So in any kind of sport, add rules for children to respect, but made for their capacity and not for an adult’s