Children Lifting Weights?

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.

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

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.

Gets her water and snack and pulls up a chair as this debate begins once again.

I actually stumbled across a video today of a 10year old girl competing powerlifting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5noObrJ4zC4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I honestly have no opinion a far a if it's safe cuz I have no clue. I just really thought it was cool too see someone so young lifting weights way heavier than she weighs!

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.

at that early age, resistance training should just be his body weight. When he gets a bit older you can start him out with some resistance bands or something. weights aren't for kids.

I don`t get this reasoning. resistance is resistance. weather it`s weights, or everyday life. wtf difference does it make if it`s done with a piece of metal in a bar form, or a toybox, or roughhouseing with friends. so pulling a 45lbs barbell fro the floor is somehow bad for the child, yet carrying a 45lbs box of toys around is a-ok. am I getting this correct.

This is the same rational I hear from women who insist that 5lbs is all a person needs to lift, yet do not see the hypocracy with picking up and playing with their 40lbs child...

there is nothing harmful about teaching resistance and form at any age. with my 4 year old he did his first deadlift a few weeks ago. I was a proud dad I have to say. and i will be more than happy to teach him proper technique for any lift he wants to do. should he want to play sports, his training from me will give him a huge edge over all other kids because he will be that much stronger and know how to use his body that much better.

Hi. I have a pre-teen son (he's in the 5th grade) who is diabetic and wants to lift weights. It's all he talks about...I guess my success with lifting has peaked his interest. As far as his diabetes goes, he would have to check his blood sugar after a workout and have an extra snack.

But putting that fact aside for the moment, how young is too young to start lifting weights? I've heard a lot of different things about what age kids should start. He's going to see his doctor in 3 weeks so I plan to ask him but I wondered if anyone here had pre-teen or teenage kids that lifted weights. For reference, he's ~ 4'9" and 80 lbs. He's kind of clumsy, all arms and legs so I would think that the weight lifting would help with that and his overall self-confidence too. TIA.