Children Lifting Weights?

I wouldn't have him start until he's obviously started puberty.
But it's safe to have him lifting at that young, but he'll be in the best environment to gain muscle while about 15-21 years old.
The only way he's going to damage his growth plates is if he ends up breaking a bone on the growth plate while lifting, and that's very rare.

Supervision (making sure he uses very good form), making sure he warms up by doing warmup sets, and uses higher reps (NO 1 rep maxes). Also make sure he uses free weights and not machines since force you into fixed unnatural movement patterns.
Lifting weights actually increases the amount of Growth Hormone produced by the body and some people believe it can cause increases in height because of increases bone mineralization (stronger bones).

Here are some injury rates of sports.

Sports Injury Rates (Hamill 1994) Sport
Injuries (per 100 hours)

Soccer (school age) 6.20
UK Rugby 1.92
USA Basketball 0.03
UK Cross Country 0.37
Squash 0.10
US Football 0.10
Badminton 0.05
USA Gymnastics 0.044
USA Powerlifting 0.0027
USA Volleyball 0.0013
USA Tennis 0.001
Weight Training 0.0035 (85,733 hrs)
Weightlifting 0.0017 (168,551 hrs)



Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program is actually great for kids. The only problem would be teaching him correct form, which is why it would be a good idea to omit the Power Clean from the program and maybe add in some barbell rows, chinups, and dips.


edit: Look at any high school football team. Plenty of those kids are very tall and still manage to grow tall despite lifting weights all the time.

Yes, but they are 14 or older :P So mid-puberty/post-puberty (and generally the ones on the field hit puberty sooner, hence their physiques).

All of the national professional organizations that are involved in this topic-- American College of Sports Medicine, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American Academy of Pediatricians--have published position papers stating that resistance exercise can be both safe and effective for children.

The concerns about growth-plate fractures have been shown to be greatly overstated.

While younger children are not going to increase muscle mass, they can significantly increase strength.

There are several guidelines for children lifting weights:

1. Avoid maximal lifts, esp heavy overhead lifts--this is the one area that does carry a higher risk of injury.

2. Make sure the child is motivated and interested. Problems occur when children become fatigued or bored.

3. Emphasis should be on learning proper form--lifting sessions must be supervised by knowledgeable results.

4. Keep in mind that most children want to PLAY, they don't want to "exercise". Watching adults lift weights, it sometimes SEEMS like play until they actually start to do it and realize it takes work and discipline. Then, all of sudden, it's not so much furn anymore.

5. Related to #4: While physically, younger children CAN lift safely and effectively, my experience has been that few of them actually WANT to, once they have tried it for real. Our center made a concerted effort to attract younger children (and their families) by purchasing some equipment that was supposedly "child sized" and setting up a number of programs and classes. It has been a colossal flop and waste of money. I had kids come for circuit classes--they came 2 or 3 times, with their parents pushing them, and then disappeared. We had some marginal success with some of the other programs that were more "game" based, but for the most part the kids (7-10) just did not have the motivation, concentration, or physical skill to do even the most basic of exercises.

All of the national professional organizations that are involved in this topic-- American College of Sports Medicine, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American Academy of Pediatricians--have published position papers stating that resistance exercise can be both safe and effective for children.

The concerns about growth-plate fractures have been shown to be greatly overstated.

While younger children are not going to increase muscle mass, they can significantly increase strength.

There are several guidelines for children lifting weights:

1. Avoid maximal lifts, esp heavy overhead lifts--this is the one area that does carry a higher risk of injury.

2. Make sure the child is motivated and interested. Problems occur when children become fatigued or bored.

3. Emphasis should be on learning proper form--lifting sessions must be supervised by knowledgeable results.

4. Keep in mind that most children want to PLAY, they don't want to "exercise". Watching adults lift weights, it sometimes SEEMS like play until they actually start to do it and realize it takes work and discipline. Then, all of sudden, it's not so much furn anymore.

5. Related to #4: While physically, younger children CAN lift safely and effectively, my experience has been that few of them actually WANT to, once they have tried it for real. Our center made a concerted effort to attract younger children (and their families) by purchasing some equipment that was supposedly "child sized" and setting up a number of programs and classes. It has been a colossal flop and waste of money. I had kids come for circuit classes--they came 2 or 3 times, with their parents pushing them, and then disappeared. We had some marginal success with some of the other programs that were more "game" based, but for the most part the kids (7-10) just did not have the motivation, concentration, or physical skill to do even the most basic of exercises.

Thank you for this, it's very useful.

I got my girls (aged 2 and 6) some of those plastic dumbbells that you fill with water, but they play with them empty, so there's no risk of injury. And they're pink too, which is both my girls' favourite colour. (Yes, I've found a use for small pink dumbbells that are too light for adults to do any serious lifting lol) The 6 yr old wants to learn to exercise for real, but I suspect it'll be like you said in no 4 and 5, i.e. she won't have the attention span or the determination for it and just wants to play. I see the fact that they watch me work out with dumbbells and then copy what I do with the toy ones as giving them a very positive message and when they're older I hope that they'll want to learn to lift weights properly. I'm sure before long she'll persuade me to fill the dumbbells with water and teach her some real exercises, and I'll see how it goes with that, following the above advice.

No, at his age you can do permanent damage to the growth plates in his bones. Encourage him to be active and built muscle through sports and other activities. Save the weight training for when he has finished growing.

^^^^ THIS

All of the national professional organizations that are involved in this topic-- American College of Sports Medicine, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American Academy of Pediatricians--have published position papers stating that resistance exercise can be both safe and effective for children.

The concerns about growth-plate fractures have been shown to be greatly overstated.

While younger children are not going to increase muscle mass, they can significantly increase strength.

There are several guidelines for children lifting weights:

1. Avoid maximal lifts, esp heavy overhead lifts--this is the one area that does carry a higher risk of injury.

2. Make sure the child is motivated and interested. Problems occur when children become fatigued or bored.

3. Emphasis should be on learning proper form--lifting sessions must be supervised by knowledgeable results.

4. Keep in mind that most children want to PLAY, they don't want to "exercise". Watching adults lift weights, it sometimes SEEMS like play until they actually start to do it and realize it takes work and discipline. Then, all of sudden, it's not so much furn anymore.

5. Related to #4: While physically, younger children CAN lift safely and effectively, my experience has been that few of them actually WANT to, once they have tried it for real. Our center made a concerted effort to attract younger children (and their families) by purchasing some equipment that was supposedly "child sized" and setting up a number of programs and classes. It has been a colossal flop and waste of money. I had kids come for circuit classes--they came 2 or 3 times, with their parents pushing them, and then disappeared. We had some marginal success with some of the other programs that were more "game" based, but for the most part the kids (7-10) just did not have the motivation, concentration, or physical skill to do even the most basic of exercises.

Yep. THIS.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

No, at his age you can do permanent damage to the growth plates in his bones. Encourage him to be active and built muscle through sports and other activities. Save the weight training for when he has finished growing.

^^^^ THIS

It's just not true. Again, rather than relying on random opinions, I would again refer everyone to the position papers published by the relevant professional organizations and physician group.

5th grade... is he playing any sports?

My sons are a little bit younger and know I go to the gym and lift. After baseball and coming up to football season they wanted to do some workouts with me. I just focused on body weight things like different pushups contests, body weight squats and lunges too. Did a lot of different races, who can say no to bear crawls around the yard!

My 10yr old son started weights early this year, he'll be 11 in Dec.. Dr approved, and dad or I have to always be with him to ensure he is doing things correctly and safely. He doesn't use a lot of weight, very low actually, I figure if nothing else it's teaching him a good habit. But it has helped with his shooting. He is in shooting sports with the local 4H and was having trouble even holding the gun up that long but now he can do it much longer without being so tired.

He's plenty active in other ways too, like baseball, biking, walking, playing regular ole sports with friends, etc.

I'm not a doctor but as a mother of 2 boys it's not something I agree with. At least until they hit puberty.

do u deny your children lots of things based on how you feel about something vs say evidence?? or just lifting?

I'm a parent and yes I deny my child a lot of things based on how I feel about it.

Kudo's and applause for actually being a parent!!! Thank you!!!!