When Should Kids Start Strength Training?

As a strength and conditioning coach that works with young athletes I get asked this a lot.  And as a strength and conditioning coach that works with young athletes I’m sometimes put into the position to tell parents who want their kids to start training that they are just too young to begin a structured training regimen.  If you are a parent or a young athlete looking into various training options here are some things to consider before you go out and hire a coach.

THERE HAS TO BE A “WANT TO”. 

This is first on the list for a reason.  If the athlete doesn’t want to be there no amount of encouragement from the coach is going to make a difference.  Strength coaches and personal trainers are not cheap and if the athlete doesn’t want to put in the work to get better it is a waste of time and money.  There always has to be a meeting halfway regarding effort.  I could put together the perfect plan (maybe even years long) for your son or daughter but they still have to do the work.  If not it’s just a piece of paper and I’m just some guy that mom and dad hired to babysit for a few hours every week.  So make sure there is a strong desire from your young athlete to put in the work to get better.

HAS THE ATHLETE GONE THROUGH PUBERTY YET?

While puberty is NOT a limiting factor to begin a strength and conditioning program it is definitely a consideration.  If your child has not yet hit puberty there are some things that must be taken into account.  The first is that they are not hormonally equipped to make big gains in muscular strength and size.  They may have the car but they don’t have the gas to make it run.  Before a child hits puberty most of the strength gains made will be from improving mobility and neural efficiency.  And if your child has not yet hit puberty those two things should be the primary concern of your hired strength coach.

While I’m on the subject improving and maintaining mobility while your child is going through puberty is extremely important.  Bones will grow faster than the muscles and tendons can keep up.  Keeping up lots of soft tissue work (rolling out and stretching) will be a big help once the growth spurt stops.  If it is not kept up you run the risk of having to start over with mobility work and efficiency of movement.  The moral of the story: Rolling out and stretching should be daily activities done throughout everyone’s lifetime.

The second thing to consider if your child is currently in or has not yet gone through puberty is that training, even well thought out and properly coached exercises, can exacerbate the pain that sometimes accompanies growth spurts, namely Osgood-Schlatter disease which is an irritation of the patellar tendon at the tibial tuberosity.  This is brought on by the bones growing faster than the muscles and tendons can keep up.  Again, mobility and soft tissue work should be extremely important components to your child’s training regimen and two things that are done every day.

HOW STRONG IS YOUR CHILD WITH HIS OR HER OWN BODY WEIGHT?

Every time I’m at a commercial gym I cringe when I see young kids lay on a bench and struggle to bench press the bar or a weight that isn’t much heavier.  I also cringe when I see a kid squat half way down with knees diving in, back rounded, and way up on their toes.  I cringe because I know those same kids would probably struggle doing a push up or body weight squat, let alone a similar weighted exercise.

A lot of that comes down to the fact that those kids have horrible mobility.  It also comes down to the fact that they have in their possession the best free weight on earth and have no idea how to use it.  People have gotten fast, strong, and ripped using their own body weight for centuries.  It makes absolutely no sense in my mind to use external loads such as barbells or dumbbells if the athlete can’t reproduce the movement in an unloaded (e.g. bodyweight) situation.

If an athlete can’t do twenty perfect pushups they have no business putting their back on a bench.  And that goes for athletes who CAN bench a lot of weight!  Same thing goes with squatting.  If an athlete can’t hold a bottom bodyweight squat posture and fire out into a jump, there is no way they are going to be able to do the same thing with a bar across their shoulders.

And don’t get me started on movement/sprint training.  If posture can’t be held in a static (standing still) environment forget about it in a dynamic (moving) one.  I could give the same coaching cue a million times until I’m blue in the face but if the athlete isn’t strong enough with their own body weight to actually do it then it’s just a going to lead to a lot of frustration, wasted air, and possibly injury.  And on the other side of that coin, if an athlete isn’t strong enough to consistently apply enough force into the ground to efficiently overcome their own bodyweight they will not be able to run fast or jump high no matter how good of mobility they have.

DOES YOUR CHILD HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN?

This is going to be a case-by-case determinant that needs to be honestly addressed by the coach.  I’ve trained gymnasts as young as seven who could pay attention, make changes based on coaching cues I gave, and reproduce movement patterns based on the examples I showed them.  And then I’ve also trained teenagers and grown adults who could do none of those. 

Ultimately the coach knows what the minimum cognitive requirements are to begin and be successful in his/or program.  And sometimes a kid is just too young to be able to handle the mental load of the strength and conditioning program.  If your kid is the one picking dandelions in the outfield instead of paying attention to the game you may want to wait a year or two to have them start training.

That does not mean your child will never be able to handle strength and conditioning.  It just means that a year or two more of mental maturity is required.  If that’s the case then in the meantime let your kid be a kid and run around and play.  And if you can trick them into doing some pushups and pulls ups that wouldn’t hurt either.

WHAT ARE YOUR, THE PARENT’S, EXPECTATIONS AND LIMITATIONS?

Before you even consider taking your kid to a prospective strength and conditioning coach you as the parent need to take a hard look in the mirror and ask yourself what you are truly deep-down inside you expecting out of the deal?  Is even the most talented strength coach going to take your 12 year-old son and have him playing varsity basketball in 6 months?  Of course not! 

You the parent need to be extremely realistic about what can be accomplished.  It takes years of consistency and smart training to bring out a kid’s full potential.  It’s not going to happen six weeks out from the beginning of the season. 

That’s the boat that a lot of parents miss.  A lot of progress can be made in a few months in the instant gratification world we live in you, as parents, need to understand that there are no shortcuts and it takes time and a lot of effort to produce great results.  Twelve weeks is the blink of an eye when held up against an athlete’s entire career.  Give us consistent effort from the time they start to the time they finish high school and we’ll get somewhere.  Expect us to deliver a college scholarship in twelve weeks when they are fourteen and it isn’t going to happen.

On the same side of the parent coin here are some things that all trainers will expect from you:

• Bring your kid on time, every time for every scheduled session!  There is no bigger pet peeve than tardiness, especially if your son or daughter works out in small groups and everyone else got there on time.
• Consistency.  This is number one if you want your son or daughter to be successful in the weight room.  Consistently missing or cancelling appointments is a sure-fire way for you to waste your time and money.  All things done well need consistency.  If you can’t commit to bringing them in 2-4 times per week on a consistent basis then save yourself the trouble and wait until you can.
• If there are things that we want your son or daughter to do at home to help them in the weight room, make sure they do it!  It’s just like homework.  If it isn’t done we’ll know about it and we won’t be happy.  More often than not it will just be simple mobility drills and/or bodyweight exercises that will only take a few minutes to complete.

Those are the big things to consider when deciding whether or not your child should begin a strength and conditioning program.  If the “want to” isn’t there then save your time and money.  Strength coaches aren’t cheerleaders.  They will motivate but only the ones who want to be motivated will benefit.  If the kid doesn't want to be there then nothing the coach says or does will change that.

If there is that “want to” then as a parent it is up to you to find and hire a coach that will take the other two factors into account.  Some coaches will have cookie cutter programs that get kids in and out of the door without a real concern for results.  Make sure that the coach is going to factor any special considerations into your young athlete’s program.

And parents I can’t stress this enough, if you can’t get them to their appointments on time and on a consistent basis save your time and money.  Your best bet would be to ask the same strength coach if they would be willing to write up an at-home bodyweight program for your child and then pay the coach to teach them the movements.  I’ve done this a few times and while it isn’t a perfect situation it is better than starting and stopping over and over again.

In the second part I’ll discuss what a training program for youth athletes should look like once the decision has been made for them to begin training.