Weight Lifting At A Young Age By : Kegan Irelan Senior capstone project

Is youth weight training safe? Strength training must always be approached with caution, general knowledge, and safety in mind. There are old wives’ tales used to suggest that strength training would “stunt your growth.” This could actually happen if there is a major accident that causes injures to the growth plate because it is the weakest area of the bone in adolescents. Youths attempting to do a max lifts before they are physically developed or have the right instruction on proper lifting may become injured.

Common injuries from improper weight training: Injuries have included herniated disks in the back, muscle strains and tears, bone fractures, growth plate injuries, and cartilage damage.

What are growth plates? The epiphyseal plates, or growth plates, are responsible for bone growth in children and adolescents. Located at the ends of bones, these cartilage plates divide and regenerate throughout a child's development, helping form new bone in the process. The process of regeneration eventually stops when you reach your full height, with the cartilage plates mineralizing and forming the ends of your mature bones.

Be careful! Moderate weight lifting won’t "stunt" the growth of teenagers. Lifting excessively heavy weights may speed-up the closing of growth plates before they had a chance to fully develop. Stopping the growth process prematurely, it could definitely stunt the pre-adolescents growth.

The Benefits Mild training with weights has been found to help increase strength in children and adolescents without any negative effects on bone growth or blood pressure.

How to do things right: The most important aspects when training as a child are supervision, proper training by educated weight trainer, exercise technique, light weights, and high repetitions in 20 rep. range. As a teenager, you can start to gradually progress to heavier weights with lower reps, around 10 per set with a safety spotter or other supervision.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkahSbrGwSE

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