Safe Strength & Conditioning Training For Young Athletes!

Parents often have many questions about strength and conditioning for their children, which mainly stem around their concerns about whether it is safe for their child to undergo this type of training. Some common questions are:

  1. Is it safe for my child to resistance / strength train?
  2. My child won’t be lifting heavy weights, will they?
  3. I’ve heard resistance training can stunt my child’s growth, is this true?

Here at SST Burlington we like to educate our parents on the misconceptions surrounding strength training for youth and point them in the direction of resources that address their concerns. The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) has recently released a position statement on resistance training for youth. This position states 7 Key elements regarding resistance training for youth:

1. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program is relatively safe for youth.

2. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can enhance the muscular strength and power of youth.

3. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can improve the cardiovascular risk profile of youth.

4. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can improve motor skill performance and may contribute to enhanced sports performance of youth.

5. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can increase a young athlete’s resistance to sports related injuries.

6. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can help improve the psychosocial well-being of youth.

7. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can help promote and develop exercise habits during childhood and adolescence.

While the key element in all of the benefits that youth can gain in resistance training are accompanied with a properly designed and supervised resistance training program by a trained professional, the NSCA largely dispels a lot of our parents concerns around resistance training for youth and states a lot of the associated benefits that can come from resistance training.

Programming for youth athletes should be done by a qualified professional, who understands pediatric exercise physiology, and the program needs to be tailored to the individual youth athletes needs, based on an assessment of their movement competencies. Focus should also be on movement and proper lifting technique, where proper and age appropriate progressions are followed.  

If you are still wondering after the NSCA’s position statements (along with 7 other worldwide associations who have published position statements advocating for the benefits and safety of resistance training for youth) if it will stunt your child’s growth, the answer is no, as long as the above criteria are met.

A properly designed and appropriate program will help to build bone density and structure, along with building the neuromuscular system. In development, youth is actually a great time to build bone density and structure, and the fears that resistance training would injure growth plates of youth is not supported by any scientific papers or clinical observations. Furthermore, when discussing injuries, resistance training is a lot safer (in terms of injury rates) than the sports are youth participate in and is a great way to help prevent injuries that occur in sport, by learning movement and gaining strength.

Let’s go over some of our common questions and concerns again:

  1. Is it safe for my child to resistance / strength train?

YES! Provided they are following a supervised, age-appropriate program, designed by a professional with experience training youth.

  • My child won’t be lifting heavy weights, will they?

POSSIBLY! If it is age appropriate for the youth, and they have followed proper progressions and have technically sound form… remember bodyweight is a key form of resistance that all our youth athlete learn how to handle before we add any external resistance. Resistance does also not always mean heavy barbells and weights. Resistance can be medicine balls, pulling sleds, appropriately sized machine weights etc.


  • I’ve heard resistance training can stunt my child’s growth, is this true?
    NO! There is no evidence to support this claim, provided again the program is designed by a professional with understanding of pediatric exercise physiology. This is actually a great time to help our youth build strong bones and get other benefits of resistance training including preventing injuries and improving sport performance.

If you still have concerns regarding resistance training for youth I urge you to checkout and educate yourself by reading the NSCA’s position statement on resistance training for youth or likewise come into our SST Burlington location to talk to one of our qualified coaches you can ease your concerns and talk to you more about the benefits of resistance training for youth.

Click Here to request a complimentary demo session and see how we prepare our young athletes for peak sports performance.

References:

  1. Faigenbaum, A. D., Kraemer, W. J., Blimkie, C. J., Jeffreys, I., Micheli, L. J., Nitka, M., & Rowland, T. W. (2009). Youth resistance training: updated position statement paper from the national strength and conditioning association. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 23, S60-S79.

Acceptance of a problem – Are you coachable?

I personally think that any athlete can come into the gym, pick up some weights and lift. That is truly not hard to do, if you are the least bit dedicated to your craft. Where I find the difference lies in traning an athlete is there ability to be coached and listen to the advice that they are given. There is a reason professional athletes have a training staff, because they not only need direction but they want to be told how to get better! There is one trait I can see in every great athlete…. the desire to be coached! Below you will find my key point on being coachable!

  1. Acceptance of a Problem – The only way to truly fix something, is to first admit that it is broken. You as an athlete are training because you are trying to get better. Don’t act like you have everything accomplished already!
  2. Reaction to Criticism – When your being coached, there is nothing worse than arguing when your doing something wrong! If you don’t agree with something, that is fine but there is a certain way to ask the question of why is this or that being done.
  3. Changing of Mindset – The biggest tool any athlete has is their brain! If it is used in the right way. You need to allow coaching to happen, take the criticism and ask yourself questions! This is the true definition of an athlete, someone that can process information about their body, good or bad! Having a clear mindset of always understand why your doing something and how to do it is so undervalued!
  4. Performance – The reason why you are being coached is so that you get better at your craft. One of key points of being coachable is using the tools that we have given you to become a better athlete. Most importantly not going back to your ‘old ways’ before you made changes.
  5. Desire – Training at a high level is not easy. Especially if you are constantly trying to get better, it is an uphill battle that never stop! If you are an elite competitor you will never hit the peak of your game, because you will always want more. The only way this is possible is with high level coaching and letting people help you!

Having a coach is just like having a mechanic you trust, you’re always going to listen to their advice even if it is something that you don’t want to hear! People who are afraid of criticism never make it to the top, because they think they are the best and they simply aren’t! Elite people get better at what people say they are deficient in and make that a strength! If you can take one thing from reading this blog; just listen to the people who are trying to help you! Even if you don’t agree, it will make you a better person and athlete!

If you want to be Coached by Coach Jamie, CLICK HERE to sign up for his upcoming Big man camp!

Are You Explosive Enough In Your Sport?

One of the most important aspects of training an athlete is plyometrics. It is crucial in making an athlete more explosive. Here is the key piece with Plyo’s with young kids. They are great but an athlete needs to be assessed before to correct all of their deficiencies. If an athlete is not strong it is very hard to make them explosive. It’s a very simple equation, you must be strong before you can be explosives. Here are my three favorite plyometric exercises!

Box Jump:

Everyone does this! It’s a great way to train jumping! Here is my biggest tips with regards to box jumps. The landing is the most important part. The landing needs to be soft and you shouldn’t hear it. If you can hear the landing make the box smaller and land soft. One way to spice up box jumps is too jump out of a seated position! My personal favorite way to take this drill to the nest level is to make the athlete jump on que, that’s the way sport is played; very rarely do you get to pick and choose when you want to react!

Depth Jump:

This is an awesome one for young athletes but also older athletes. This is so important on training not only plyometric strength and isometric strength. This exercise allows you not only to learn how to land which is so important, but it teaches your body how to take a load through the ground which is important. One cool way to do a depth jump is to add a box jump too it. Have a player jump off a box take the load thru the ground, then jump up into the air!

4 Dot Drill:

My personal favorite! This drill is basically 4 dots on a mat, and the athletes will jump in different directions from dot to dot. The best way to do this drill is in short bursts, 5-10 seconds. You can make this drill harder by changing the way the athletes faces during the drill, flipping his hips during the drill. My biggest tip for this drill is to make sure the athletes keeps his or her eyes up. You can make them focus on some sort of visual cue!

Plyo’s are so important to creating an all around great athlete. But like I previously stated, young athletes need to be “strong” before we worry about Plyo’s!

Email Bskinner@sstcanada.com to schedule a free demo session or to ask about out vertical jump program or our strength and conditioning programs.

Strength and Conditioning Chose me!

S&C Chose Me

Growing up in the country and being part of an active family, health and fitness has always been a significant part of my life. Whether I liked it or not, screen time was always limited, but we could never be outside for too long. I tried as hard as I could to be a lazy couch potato, eating ice cream and twinkies until there was nothing but wrappers left. As awesome as that sounds for some reason, I always found my way back to the diamond, rink or field competing for bragging rights and self made highlights. As I have grown up and watched my body change from an awkward unathletic tween, to a decently strong, somewhat coordinated, “elite” recreational athlete. This is all thanks to the wonderful journey that is strength training.

As a young boy I loved playing all kinds of sports, running around town with my buddies, making up games and being active was my thing. School and class on the other hand was a constant challenge. Not to say I was a bad student, but applying my knowledge was certainly not something I did well. My low attention span and never ending desire to go outside, usually prevented me from getting my homework done and excelling on the academic side of things. Once I hit high school, homework went from half-assed to non existent; I was mostly concerned about what my buddies were doing and where we were eating lunch. Somehow I battled through high school maintain an average in the mid 70’s. My lack of focus, had me concerned about my future, I was unsure of my interests and what I wanted to do with my life. After discussing my options with the guidance counselor, we decided I should apply to Fitness and Health Promotion.

This college course looked perfect for me. I didn’t want to do University because it was more academic and I know I don’t learn well in that environment, on the other hand, this College course sounded right up my alley. Of course there were lectures, but the information was presented in a way that I could relate to and it was a topic I was interested in researching so the homework and assignments did not feel so daunting. The other nice thing for me was that there were a lot of practical portions and placements where we got to apply our knowledge in real situations. This gave me great real life experience and confidence that this was what I wanted to do prior to getting into the field.

I did my college field placement at SST Burlington and have now been working in the Strength and Conditioning field for 5 years, where I have had the chance to work with ALL types of people from Elite Athlete’s, to the Elite Athlete’s Mom, Dad and younger sister. I enjoy working with a diverse client base, because it forces you to think about ALL aspects of fitness in different situations and what strategies/exercises would be most effective in each case. My approach is to make the most realistic and effective plan for each client based off their personality, skill level and limitations. I find this field to be extremely rewarding because no matter whom you work with and what they do, you can ALWAYS help someone improve in the gym, with their nutrition as well as their overall quality of life.

I cannot see myself doing any other job, it fits my personality, it is my hobby, it keeps me healthy, I have become more confident in myself and love watching other people succeed. Train smart (and hard occasionally), eat right, be consistent……You will not regret it!

John Blair