Is 10 year old too young to exercise?

My 10 year old is a swimmer, she swims 2x a week for 2 hours.

I started Focus T25 3 weeks ago and she's started doing it with me. She only does it 2x a week, and she does the regular workout, not the modified like I do.

Is 10 too young to work out? She's happy doing it, and she wants to build muscle for competitions, I just don't want her to over work herself.

Thanks!
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Replies

  • dinsfamily
    dinsfamily Posts: 84 Member
    I don't think so. My kids are bundles of energy so working out is just organized movement for them. They're going to move anyway. I don't know anything about T25, though. My boys (ages 4-11) play A LOT of sports and do Crossfit kids (which is a lot of body weight functional exercises and games). The only things I watch out for is that they get enough calories to compensate for the added activity. My kids are SKINNY so calorie intake is very important for them. So far they've stayed the course on their growth charts, but I do watch it.
  • mamasmaltz3
    mamasmaltz3 Posts: 1,111 Member
    edited August 2015
    As long as she is getting enough calories and sleep to fuel her, she should be fine.

    Edited for typo
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,262 Member
    Not at all. Exercise is just purposely doing physical activity in order to get in shape or stay in shape, rather than having that activity built into your normal everyday activities. Kids usually get enough activity (or at least should) by their normal running around and playing so they don't generally exercise for the sake of exercising. But if she wants to do it, there's nothing wrong with it. My daughter is 8 and sometimes likes to lift weights with me. I just give her a light bar or dumbbell and she does a modified version of what I'm doing.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 612 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Not at all. Exercise is just purposely doing physical activity in order to get in shape or stay in shape, rather than having that activity built into your normal everyday activities. Kids usually get enough activity (or at least should) by their normal running around and playing so they don't generally exercise for the sake of exercising. But if she wants to do it, there's nothing wrong with it. My daughter is 8 and sometimes likes to lift weights with me. I just give her a light bar or dumbbell and she does a modified version of what I'm doing.

    Thanks, I was trying to figure out a way to say that without sounding condescending
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    I exercised young. Weight training is ok too, just be careful. I started weight training ~15 and we did exercise DVD's much younger as part of school (home schooled).

    http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/is-weight-training-safe-for-kids
  • ashdawg8790
    ashdawg8790 Posts: 819 Member
    I wish my mom had done fun workouts for me to be involved in when I was 10 - I definitely wouldn't be trying to learn how to work out now if that had been the case!! :)
  • dinsfamily
    dinsfamily Posts: 84 Member
    I wish my mom had done fun workouts for me to be involved in when I was 10 - I definitely wouldn't be trying to learn how to work out now if that had been the case!! :)

    This is exactly why we encourage our kids to do it. We are hoping to build healthy habits that will last to adulthood.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    rosey808 wrote: »
    My 10 year old is a swimmer, she swims 2x a week for 2 hours.

    I started Focus T25 3 weeks ago and she's started doing it with me. She only does it 2x a week, and she does the regular workout, not the modified like I do.

    Is 10 too young to work out? She's happy doing it, and she wants to build muscle for competitions, I just don't want her to over work herself.

    Thanks!

    if she's swimming, she's already working out...so I don't see what the problem would be.
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,662 Member
    its definitely not too young, especially if its something the child wants to do all of their own volition.

    Weight training under the ate of 13 isn't supposed to be good though.

    I got to think most if pro athletes and pretty much all Olympic athletes started training in their sport before they were 10.

    I used to be on an age group swim team with kids as young as 5 and they did not go easy on them.
  • icck
    icck Posts: 197 Member
    My 4 year old regularly joins me in exercising - I think it's a very healthy thing to teach children. :) If you have grown up with exercising being the norm, then it's hopefully something that you will keep up into later life.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    When I was 10 I ran around all day but didn't think of it as exercise. Of course I didn't have cable TV with over 100 channels, computers, smart phones or video games. I had a bike and a ball and friends houses I could run to. I also walked to and from school too, but no exercise.
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
    We used to call it "playing outside" Did it often, almost continously
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,662 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    When I was 10 I ran around all day but didn't think of it as exercise. Of course I didn't have cable TV with over 100 channels, computers, smart phones or video games. I had a bike and a ball and friends houses I could run to. I also walked to and from school too, but no exercise.

    Of course I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but everything you mentioned is exercise even though it was in the form of play and enjoyable.

    I guess that's my point when I said as long as the child chooses to do it themselves, what's the problem?
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    When I was 10 I ran around all day but didn't think of it as exercise. Of course I didn't have cable TV with over 100 channels, computers, smart phones or video games. I had a bike and a ball and friends houses I could run to. I also walked to and from school too, but no exercise.

    you forgot the stick and tin can


    op: no I don't think it's too early. if she is swimming then she is working out. exercise can take many forms, and her doing the video with you is good bonding time and teaching her healthy habits for the future
  • Therealobi1
    Therealobi1 Posts: 3,261 Member
    pondee629 wrote: »
    We used to call it "playing outside" Did it often, almost continously
    i remember that, play in the front garden, back garden or the park. things have changed alot now.

    my daughter is 7 and comes to my bootcamp class in the park. She tries to do as much of it as she can but mostly she is messing around. i wont force her to to do it though.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    I agree that there is nothing wrong with it. Most play is exercise anyway, be it running, biking, playing sports, swimming, etc. I do wonder about the "building muscle for competitions". IIRC, weight training to build muscle shouldn't start until they hit puberty and they have the hormones flowing. I could be wrong and welcome correction or clarification.
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,662 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    I agree that there is nothing wrong with it. Most play is exercise anyway, be it running, biking, playing sports, swimming, etc. I do wonder about the "building muscle for competitions". IIRC, weight training to build muscle shouldn't start until they hit puberty and they have the hormones flowing. I could be wrong and welcome correction or clarification.

    this is always what I've heard although I'm not 100% sure of the physiological reasons. I had always heard it was because bones had not fully matured and were prone to damage. Not necessarily breaking bones but it would somehow be bad for them.
  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
    My peers and I all grew up on farms....we called it work or chores, but it was in addition to playing or sports. Also used to drag feed bags around, buckets of corn, picking rock, and moving armfuls of syphon tubes around. <-sounds a bit like weight lifting.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,262 Member
    I think that a certain amount of weight lifting at an early age is fine. When I say a light bar for my daughter, I mean a really light bar. The one in the picture below is one from a beginner's weight set and when I use it I don't count it as any weight. When she uses dumbbells, she's using 5-7.5 pounds most of the time. But I know plenty of kids, especially farm kids, who are hauling around more weight than that while doing their daily chores. I'm not loading up a bar and expecting her to bench 55# (her bodyweight) but reasonable weights are fine for her right now.

    mlw_zps7rn8mmk0.jpg
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    I agree that there is nothing wrong with it. Most play is exercise anyway, be it running, biking, playing sports, swimming, etc. I do wonder about the "building muscle for competitions". IIRC, weight training to build muscle shouldn't start until they hit puberty and they have the hormones flowing. I could be wrong and welcome correction or clarification.

    this is always what I've heard although I'm not 100% sure of the physiological reasons. I had always heard it was because bones had not fully matured and were prone to damage. Not necessarily breaking bones but it would somehow be bad for them.

    I know Little League baseball won't let pitchers throw any kind of curveball, etc. because of the potential damage that the unusual movement can do to the arm bones and ligaments.