Weight Lifting and the Youth Athlete: How Old is Old Enough? Part 1
This particular athlete started training at the age 7 at SSP. She is approximately 10 years old in this photo, and is learning the basics of snatching.
In my career, I have had several parents approach me interested in training for their kid(s). One of the most common questions that arises is “how old do they need to be before they can start training”. This is a complex question and in order to answer it, several factors need to be taken into account. Are they physically ready? Can they handle the mental demands of training? Do they have the drive needed to train when things become monotonous and training loses its initial luster? This will be a two part blog post, one investigating physical readiness and the other psychological readiness. In this blog post, I will be discussing the former.
Before we dive into the objectives to safely train kids, let’s first investigate if a child is physically ready to begin a structured exercise program. There are two ways to classify age - chronological and biological. Chronological is simply the length of time from birth, while biological age is the age of your cells and how fast they develop to maturity. For example, two individuals may enter puberty (biological) at different ages (chronological). To learn more about the differences between the two, you can read this article by Northwestern Medicine. Most of the research is done in accordance to chronological age. According to The System: Soviet Periodization Adapted for the American Strength Coach (Parker et al, 2018), Adolescents can enter puberty as early as 12 years old and will continue until they reach their early 20’s. It can take 10 years of consistent training for an athlete to reach his or her potential, with peak athleticism being reached in the mid to upper 20’s. With this in mind, if an athlete begins training at the age of 10, they will not reach their potential development until they are 20 years old. However, this is done under the most ideal of training and environmental situations. Many athletes training in today’s world have a busy schedule - school, multiple sports, social and family activities, etc. In the Soviet Union, an athlete would be screened as early as 6 years old by essentially having the child complete a 10 second timed calf raise to screen for genetic potential (Parker et al, 2018). A faster time would indicate that the child would have more elasticity and nervous system capabilities at the cellular level. These properties are the least trainable qualities and almost exclusively determined by genetics. Athletes that could perform a given number of repetitions would be chosen to represent the national team and sent away for a life devoted to training and representing the Soviet Union and the “superiority” of communism through athletics. That athlete would have mostly likely had the same coach implementing a structured, rigorous, and intense training program. Many times, these athletes and coaches trained together for over a decade. Obviously we don’t do this in America (thankfully), but we can gain insight for what has been done successfully in the past.
Same athlete, now 13 years old, completing a power snatch for power development.
The most important objective of youth training is learning proper body kinematics (movement). Kids need to learn how to control movement in their own body; as they age and develop, the brain has to constantly adjust to changing body lengths and sizes. Early in a child’s life, the brain is a sponge and will quickly learn new abilities and develop neural pathways to make these movements easier and more efficient to perform. It’s one of the biggest arguments for kids playing multiple sports: different movement skill requirements for each sport help develop efficient motor control. Essentially, the brain and muscle system develop a larger “toolbox” of movement skills and abilities they can use in different situations. Developing an athlete that can control his or her body while moving is the first objective of a structured exercise program.
The second objective of youth training is teaching the proper technique of exercises with bodyweight or light objects. As long as exercise technique is correct, it will transfer to sport. You have probably heard the old saying “it takes 10,000 reps to become a master.” While I doubt it’s exactly 10,000 reps, the point is it takes a lot of time and volume executing a skill for it to become efficient and learned. Notice how I didn’t say proper or improper repetitions, the brain will learn what is inputted into it. If an athlete has physically matured with bad habits and faulty mechanics on intricate motor controls, they are extremely difficult - if not impossible - to correct. For example, NFL Coaches in the past would try to completely change the “throwing motion” of newly drafted quarterbacks with “bad” mechanics. The quarterbacks were able to perform the new techniques they learned in practice; but when games were played at full speed and forced to make reactionary decisions, they almost always reverted back to their previously learned throwing mechanic. Adjustments to a given motor control pattern can be corrected and learned, but it takes a very, very long time. Therefore it is critical to learn correct mechanics from the start while the brain is developing.
High School athlete, having trained with me for 6 years, completing a Yoke Squat with proper technique at 206kg (453lbs). Over that time we maintained proper technique and progressively loaded weight as he was ready to accept it.
Lastly - and possibly the most concerning objective for parents, is progressing to external weight loading. Parents are concerned that adding external weight to their child will stunt their growth, damage growth plates, etc. However, almost all of these concerns have been shown with research to not be true when done in an educated and supervised environment. Young athletes first must learn to control the weight of their own body; coaches and trainers should only begin to load an athlete with external weight once the previous progression has become too easy or is no longer stimulating the body to adapt. For example, lets take a look at two kids: kid #1 cannot perform a proper pushups for a given number of repetitions, while kid #2 is able to perform all prescribed repetitions. Kid #2 has perfect technique and states they could have done more reps than prescribed. Putting external weight on the first kid will not make their push ups any better or more effective - in fact quite the contrary. However, not loading the second kid with external weight at this time will stall their progress because their body will have no need or stimulus required to adapt. If we continue to work with kid #1 and build strength through his own bodyweight while simultaneously adding small/progressive external load to kid #2, both kids can continue to improve their strength. As far as growth plate damage, this rarely happens in a certified and supervised exercise program. Certified coaches will not to add weight to an exercise if the athlete is not ready to accept it. A study done by Milone, et al. 2013, concluded that experts in the medical field agree that weight lifting does not cause acute damage to skeletal development before growth plates close. Furthermore, (Metcalf & Roberts, 1993) concluded that strength training is safe for growth plates and incorporating strength training in a youth exercise program can actually make the skeletal structure less prone to injury in the future. That being said, adding weight to a faulty movement will most likely impair performance and make them more prone to injury. Furthermore, younger athletes who know have learned the proper technique, will know how an exercise should feel as they begin to load the movement. Thus they will be able to adjust the weight accordingly to maintain proper technique throughout the lift. In my experience, an athlete who has been with me for an extended period of time has developed the intuition to correctly adjust and load any given exercise. They have learned from experience how much weight can be loaded while maintaining correct technique.
With all of this said, I have unfortunately seen coaches and trainers not follow these guidelines. We have all seen video clips of kids performing an exercise, with excessive amounts of weight with technique that makes you cringe. A coach having an athlete overhead press a near max weight while he or she can’t - with the same exercise - maintain proper technique with lighter weight, is asking for serious injury. Whether it’s for a PR (personal record), a record board in the high school weight room, or chasing that viral clip on Instagram, kids are inherently competitive and want to show how much weight they can lift. As a trainer, it is our job to educate the kid and parents on the training process and prepare them for long term success. “You have to take the time it takes, so that it takes less time” is a quote I once heard at a clinic and has stuck with me since. Rushing the process will lead to problems, and thus take much longer than if you did it right the first time. Taking the time to learn proper technique, before loading it, is critical for the athlete; they have to trust that the coach and this process will get them where they want to be as quickly as possible. In the private sector, it can be difficult to take this long term approach, as parents are paying for services and want to, understandably, see immediate results. I have lost and turned down potential clients because I do not compromise technique and long term development for immediate results. For parents, it is important that you ask questions and do research on the trainer. Ask for the trainer’s plan in developing your child’s athletic capabilities. Ask if you can observe a training session and evaluate how the coach works with kids. Does he or she reinforce technique and doing it things the right way, or are they in a rush to “do work” and get in a good sweat in to show they know how to make kids work hard. In the end, choosing the trainer is the most important decision you as a parent will make for your kids physical development. Physically, it is safe for a kid to begin a structured exercise program at a young age as long as the trainer adheres to these guidelines. In my opinion, athletes can begin training at around 6-7 years old focusing on learning exercises, technique, and improving movement quality. While most people age chronemically and biologically at the same rate - biological markers and training age will dictate when the athlete is ready for intensified training with weights etc. However, the question if a 6 or 7 year old is ready psychologically is a completely different matter.
Parker, J., Miller, A., Panariello, R., & Hall, J. (2018). The System: Soviet Periodization Adapted for the American Strength Coach. On Target Publications.
Milone MT, Bernstein J, Freedman KB, Tjoumakaris F. There is no need to avoid resistance training (weight lifting) until physeal closure. Phys Sportsmed. 2013 Nov;41(4):101-5. doi: 10.3810/psm.2013.11.2041. PMID: 24393806.
Metcalf JA, Roberts SO. Strength training and the immature athlete: an overview. Pediatr Nurs. 1993 Jul-Aug;19(4):325-32. PMID: 8414719.
