Strength and Conditioning for Kids: A Personal Journey
A lot of myths exist when it comes to discussion about strength and conditioning for kids. One of the top comments being “lifting weights will stunt their growth”, “kids should get enough movements from their daily activities” and one of my favourite being “it will turn my kid into a muscle bound gorilla when they grow up”.
As a physiotherapist who is also a dad to an active almost 12-year-old boy, I had to go through this journey, rationalising in my mind whether it would be worthwhile doing “weight lifting” with my son.
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Defining “Lifting Weights” for kids
First of all let’s define “lifting weights”. Often people imagine it is in the form of lifting a barbell that is far too heavy for the child - which then causes some sort of injury - this injury may cause some damage to the child’s growth plates - which can then potentially stunt their growth.
Personally, I think a good starting point for a strength and conditioning program for a child should be about developing the kid’s fundamental ability to perform movements that require multiple joints to move at the same time like hinges/squat pattern/upper body push/pull variations. Adding appropriate weight over time occurs as the child becomes competent with the movement. How much weight you add will really be dependent on the child’s competency and ability. It is not so much how much they are lifting but rather how well they can move the weight.
There are plenty of resources online which will give you great insights on the benefit of strength and conditioning for kids but I just wanted to share my personal experience and things I have learned with training my own son.
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My Personal Experience: A Father’s Journey
With my son, It all started around Covid period. I have always had a garage gym but like most people, during the start of Covid, I started to really equip my home gym. I was working out there more than ever as we were constantly home. Solo sessions became family sessions where my wife and son would join in.
Introducing Strength and Conditioning
That’s when I thought it was a good time to kickstart my son’s strength and conditioning journey - he was 7 at the time.
We started very simple, just using a wooden stick which he placed behind his back securing it behind the head and the buttocks to learn how to hinge from the hips.
Then we worked on a goblet box squat where he held a mini 2.5kg weight in front of his chest and sat back towards a box. Throw in some push up, inverted row and some Pallof press and he just completed his first ever whole body strength and conditioning session.
The Ongoing Journey of Strength and Conditioning for my Child
Fast forward to now, my son is now nearly 12. He’s had intermittent strength and conditioning sessions over the years. Mostly when he is in low season for his team sport commitments. We have always kept it simple with training the whole body strategy using the pool of exercises in each different category (hinge/squat/upper body push/upper body pull/core) to keep it interesting for him. We have also always been a cycling family, so strength training for cyclists can be great to build capacity.
It never ceases to amaze me how much kids retain, even after a period of no strength training sessions due to a busier team sport season. It’s like planting a “motor pattern” seed into the field and then check back 4 months later and it has sowed.
Why strength and conditioning for kids matters
The goal now is to continue to build on his fluency of gym based movements and his muscular tolerence to stress through weighted exercises. This will result in better support for his developing joints as he moves faster and more powerfully in sport as he gets older.
When my son is ready to embark on strength and conditioning sessions with a coach affiliated to the school or outside coaches, his relative training age (years of development) will allow him to minimize the risk of injuries related to “ego lifting.” This is common in adolescent boys where raging hormones and peer pressure potentially leads to kids lifting far too heavy to outdo each other. There is a huge potential here to cause an injury due to poor technique or over estimation of what their body can tolerate.
This is the main thing I wanted for my son - to reduce the risk as he heads into that adolescent age group - a good fundamental understanding of technique and what he is able to lift safely.
Top 3 Things I Learned in the Strength and Conditioning Journey with My Son
Plant and Sow
- You don’t have to necessarily engage in strength and conditioning with your child all year round. There may be times where you have to priorise other commitments like team sports, music, studies or even just rest.
- You will be surprised how much they retain even after a period of time. They are like sponges and what you input sometimes will sit in the background and work itself out until you are ready to dial it in further.
Keep it fun and do it together as family time
- The goal is to foster a healthy active lifestyle long term. There is no stronger message when your child is partaking in a strength and conditioning session together with you, as you are modelling the long term active lifestyle.
- In this modern day, where we are battling screen times and decreased physical activity, it is nice to have something you can do together which will keep each party healthy.
Movements don’t have to be perfect and don’t be in a hurry to increase weight.
- Kids will learn at different speed, some pick up movement very quickly and some not so much. There are so many potential reasons as to why that is for e.g., long and lanky kids may struggle with compound movements due to having such long limbs which requires a lot of co-ordination, compared to shorter, muscular kids.
- As the goal for strength and conditioning for kids is to develop their movement competency, let them take their time and let their body figure it out. Kids don’t respond to lots of correction, so don’t be in a hurry to increase the weight they are lifting. Focus on competency of the movement, let them be “imperfect” and figure it out.
Hopefully this gives you some insight as to why I believe strength and conditioning for kids is highly beneficial.
There may be some performance gains but I believe the benefits are far more than that.
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Author
This blog was written by Eric Huang, one of our sports, strength & conditioning, and cycling physiotherapists. Eric is also highly experienced in the management of hip conditions. He has been providing high-quality services at PhysioTec for over a decade. You can read more about Eric here.
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